Young Spurs side defeated in semi-finals of Dallas Cup
Back row: Alex Pritchard (16), Massimo Luongo – trialist (17), Sam Cox (19), Jordan Archer (16), Jake Nicholson (17), Anton Blackwood (18), Calum Butcher (19), Oscar Jansson (19), Olumide Durojaiye (17).
In front of Butcher are Paul-Jose M’Poku (17) and Kudus Oyenuga (17).
Front row – Jack Barthram (16), Jesse Waller-Lassen (17), Nathan Byrne (17), Tom Carroll (17), Callum Tapping (16), Jack Munns (16), Zaine Francis-Angol (16).
It’s becoming tradition that Spurs’ U18s go and play in an overseas competition at this time of year, and this year we took a side to the Dallas Cup. In the group stages, we played the Dallas Texans U18 Academy, the Japanese National Team (players born in 91/92), Mexican side Tigres, followed by talented Brazilian team Cruzeiro Esporte Clube in the last four.
The club were keen to alert supporters to the fact that we were without key players for the tournament: Harry Kane has been on England Under-17 duty (scoring twice), and others have been kept behind due to involvement with our first team squad. Thes likes of Dean Parrett, Andros Townsend, Jake Livermore, Danny Rose, John Bostock and Ryan Mason are all competing to be on the bench for the first team at the moment – indeed, Livermore could even start against Sunderland.
Therefore our players were generally a year to eighteen months younger than their opponents, and we even included two U16 players in Jack Munns and Jack Barthram. It is even more impressive, then, that we made it through to the semi-finals, and I’m sure that the experience will have been a hugely beneficial one.
Academy Manager, John McDermott, on why these tournaments are so important.
Dallas Cup
Sun 28 Mar (at Pizza Hut Park Stadium in Frisco, Texas – home of MLS side FC Dallas) Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Dallas Texans U18 Academy
1pm Dallas time.
Scorers: Luongo, Blackwood (pen)
Blackwood (19) Durojaiye (17) Butcher (18) Cox (19)
Nicholson (17)
Byrne (17) Luongo (17) Carroll (17) M’Poku (17)
Oyenuga (16)
Subs:
Pritchard (16) for Luongo, 55 min.
Waller-Lassen (17) for Oyenuga, 75 min.
Barthram (16) for Cox, 80 min.
Dallas Cup
Mon 29 Mar (at Pizza Hut Park Stadium) Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Japanese National Team (91/92)
12pm Dallas time.
Scorer: Waller-Lassen
Blackwood (18) Durojaiye (17) Butcher (19) Francis-Angol (16)
Carroll (17) Nicholson (17) Cox (19)
Waller-Lassen (17) Byrne (17)
M’Poku (17)
Subs:
Barthram (16) for Blackwood, 20.
Pritchard (16) for Francis-Angol, 60.
Oyenuga (16) for Waller-Lassen, 70.
Lads impress in Japan draw
Spurs Od report.
Dallas Cup
Wed 31 Mar (at Pizza Hut Park Stadium) Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Tigres
12pm Dallas time.
Scorers: Oyenuga, Byrne
Nicholson (17) Butcher (19) Durojaiye (17) Francis-Angol (16)
Cox (19)
Carroll (17) Byrne (17) Pritchard (16) M’Poku (17)
Oyenuga (16)
Subs:
Tapping (16) for Francis-Angol, 46.
Munns (16) for Butcher, 55.
Luonga (17) for Pritchard, 75.
Lads make semis in Dallas.
Spurs Od report.
Dallas Cup
Fri 02 Apr (at Pizza Hut Park Stadium) Cruzeiro Esporte Clube vs Tottenham Hotspur
6pm Dallas time.
Nicholson (17) Butcher (19) Durojaiye (17) Francis-Angol (16)
Cox (19)
Carroll (17) Luongo (17) Byrne (17) M’Poku (17)
Oyenuga (16)
Barthram (16) forFrancis-Angol, 64.
Pritchard (16) for Luongo, 71.
Tapping (16) for Oyenuga, 81.
Join the conversation
Redknapp has went out of his way not to use youth players wherever possible. When Lennon and Bentley were both out, he prefered to keep Kranjar at RM there for the full 90 mins - even though the games were crying out for the width and pace that someone like Rose could bring- even just against tiring legs for the last fifteen mins. How Harry got his youth-friendly rep, I'll never know.
The RB situation is beyond ridiculous, Walker only played there because we needed to use the god-awful Kaboul elsewhere.
If at the start of the season, you told me that we had
a first choice RB - Corluka
a solid back-up rb - Hutton
a fairly experienced youngster - Naughton
a less experienced youngster - Walker
then who knew the absolute shambles that would result in
- Hutton being used in early cup games and Naughton barely getting six mins of pitch time
- Then to loan them both out, so at a crucial stage in the season we have the least experienced RB to deputise in critical matches, who is also cup-tied. Utter madness.
End result - two demoralised youth players, Charlie being played through injury in the cup, and possibly throwing away forth because of lack of a solid deputy at RB for Sunderland away.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Ironically, it seems your comment was somewhat ill-timed: "I'm sorry .Windy but your sentence about the youth players getting first team action was a big belly laugh".
Redknapp may not have given as many young players a chance as you would have liked, but he has certainly had them in the matchday squad, which is undoubtedly a big part of the learning process. Rose's contribution on Wednesday was important and impressive, and Walker had previously been involved.
Redknapp got his reputation for bringing through young players at West Ham, and very few would deny that he did so.
I agree with some of your frustrations but, with a squad the size of ours, it's difficult to get the youngsters involved unless they are exceptional in training. There are so many players ahead of them. I would fully expect to see young players involved more next year if we are in Europe, particularly in the early rounds.