An article by ESPN has described how Mauricio Pochettino believes Tottenham’s young players are too pampered, and says he has sanctioned loan moves away from the club to teach youngsters to “suffer and fight.”
Pochettino in the past was reluctant to loan out Spurs’ young stars, keeping the likes of Harry Winks and Josh Onomah in his first-team squad despite numerous approaches from the Football League.
However Onomah (Aston Villa), Marcus Edwards (Norwich), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Sheffield United and Ipswich) and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou (Burnley) have all left the club on loan this season, and the Spurs boss says he hopes the moves can toughen them up.
Pochettino was asked about 22-year-old Frenchman N’Koudou, who joined Spurs from Marseille in summer 2016, Pochettino said: “The most important thing is the player lives a different experience [at Burnley].Tottenham is such a beautiful place for younger players. Not every place is like this! Different clubs don’t provide you with the same things that Tottenham provide. But I hope he can play more and can prove that he can compete in the Premier League, and then get the experience that it’s difficult to provide for him here”
Pochettino goes on to say: “The facilities here make your life easier. And the luxuries! In football, sometimes you need to feel to try to achieve your dream, because the human being is easy to be comfortable and not take risks.Sometimes you need to realise that life is not like we provide here,”
He added. “Sometimes it’s tough to achieve your dreams because you need to suffer, you need to fight to achieve.That’s why, if you arrive from France like GK [Nkoudou] and Tottenham provide everything and you are so comfortable and so happy, you can be confused. You are not mature, you are so young and that is football, in the Premier League, that is easy, no? OK, go and fight and fight for your place.
Pochettino went on to say:”Always they can step up in a different environment and it is true that some players start to lose their confidence and self-belief and when you send them on loan they start to recover it and can after achieve a better level.”
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The article goes on to say Pochettino described how tthe Spanish system, where the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid can field a “B” team in the lower leagues, helps young players to mature in a competitive environment more quickly.
“It’s a big debate about how we can help our younger players to be more competitive from an early age,”:he said. “Here it’s different to Spain. They are so young in Spain and feel the competition at every stage. It’s true here that when you compare how a player feels, it’s not the same.
He added; “I remember when I was young at the start of my career, I would prepare myself to be a coach. Every Tuesday I would write an article on football. One day I wrote that it’s not the same to play football than compete. It’s completely different things. To feel the competition is completely different.”
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