Jose Mourinho has often been criticised in the past for his lack of youth development, yet that could not be further from the truth at Tottenham.
This season, Mourinho has brought along Dennis Cirkin, Brandon Austin, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and Jamie Bowden along to competitive fixtures although they didn’t feature.
Despite them not playing, travelling with the first-team can prove to be a vital experience. The youngsters will be able to build off this as they grow connections with the first team.
On top of that, Mourinho has handed Japhet Tanganga, Dane Scarlett, and Troy Parrot their English Premier League debuts, with the former going on to make his first Premier League start with Mourinho too.
Malachi Fagan-Walcott, Alfie Whiteman, Harvey White, Jack Clarke, and Alfie Devine all also made their competitive Spurs debuts under Mourinho.
Whiteman, White, and Clarke all made their debuts in the Europa League this season, while Fagan-Walcott made his in the Champion’s League last season and Devine made his in the FA Cup this year.
After his cameo against RB Leipzig, Fagan-Walcott became the club’s youngest ever player in the UCL. In that same season, Ryan Sessegnon became Spurs’ youngest ever goalscorer in the Champion’s League when he netted against the future champions, Bayern Munich.
MORE SPURS STORIES
Other youth records that Mourinho has broken whilst at the club include the youngest ever Spurs player when he played Dane Scarlett against Ludogorets.
Alfie Devine then broke that same record when he played against Marine and the youngster’s goal in that fixture made him Spurs’ youngest ever goalscorer too.
Mourinho has also loaned a large number of our most talented youth players out for extra experience. This includes Ryan Sessegnon and Oliver Skipp who are enjoying wonderful spells as Hoffenheim and Norwich respectively.
Many Spurs fans will be hoping that Skipp and Sessegnon can return home and challenge for the first team next season.
Taking everything into consideration, it is safe to say that Mourinho has been successful at developing Spurs’ youth since taking over. With any luck, at least a couple of these players will develop into first-team regulars!
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
