Loanee Update – August 2015

Pre-season is over, the scouting has been done and loan moves are starting to happen now. This week we’ve gone from having one player out on loan to having five:

Grant Ward – Rotherham United (Championship) – January
Nathan Oduwa – Rangers (Scottish Championship) – season
Dominic Ball – Rangers (Scottish Championship) – season
Shaq Coulthirst – Wigan (League One) – October
Connor Ogilvie – Stevenage (League Two) – 14th September

Grant Ward – Rotherham United (Championship)

Ward has joined Rotherham United and has already made a couple of appearances. He was withdrawn from a central midfield role at half-time on his debut against MK Dons, as Rotherham struggled in general. The Star wrote that Ward had ‘struggled to impose himself’. He then came on to play 17 minutes at on the right against Cambridge United in the League Cup.

Having done so well in League One with Coventry City last season, Ward will be looking to be a mainstay of the Rotherham team in the Championship. Should he do so, he’ll have essentially done what Alex Pritchard did last season, but a year sooner in his development.

Nathan Oduwa & Dominic Ball – Rangers (Scottish Championship)

Mark Warburton has used his relationship with Spurs to acquire two youngsters who are ready to make the next step. As a Spurs fan and co-founder of the NextGen Series (which Spurs participated in) Warburton has a real appreciation of Spurs’ academy, and worked wonders with Pritchard last season.

Oduwa and Ball both played League Two football last year and – whilst the quality of the Scottish Championship might not be substantially better – the experience of playing in front of 51,000 fans every other week will benefit them enormously.

Nathan Oduwa will get Rangers fans off their seats. He is a very tricky customer, possessing terrific close control and dribbling ability. He sometimes appears to not be in full control of the ball, but will then somehow emerge from the tightest of spaces with it still at his feet. His finishing certainly needs some honing, but there are not many 19-year olds that are complete players. Oduwa mostly plays on the left wing, but could do a job as a number 10 or even a number 9 if called upon.

Dominic Ball is a robust centre-back who is competent in possession. He undoubtedly has ability and reads the game well for a 20-year old. My concern is that he can be a little rash when defending – sometimes committing himself too early in an effort to be proactive. He will come across some wily players and if he can play a full season, it’ll do him the world of good.

It’s easy to turn your nose up at our players going to the Scottish Championship, but you must remember that matches are only one part of a loan move – players are training all week, and so the coaches that they are with must be of sufficient quality to have an impact. Mark Warburton is a fantastic coach for our young players to learn from (as we saw with Pritchard last year) and the Spurs hierarchy clearly have enormous faith in him.

Ball revealed in this interview that he trained with Warburton when he played for Watford between the ages of 11 and 15, and that will certainly make the transition easier for him.

Shaq Coulthirst – Wigan (League One)

Coulthirst has clocked up 39 appearances League Two appearances across four clubs, scoring eight goals. He now has an opportunity to progress to League One.

His first loan was actually in League One (for Leyton Orient) and he scored on his debut (having come off the bench). But he was sent back to Spurs at the end of that one-month loan having played just seven minutes. 18 months on, it’s an opportunity for him to test himself again and see whether he now has the physicality and the ability to make an impression.

Coulthirst is a whole-hearted player – a trier, if you will – and if he fails to cut it, it certainly won’t be down to his attitude. He seems to want to make it as a central striker, but I feel that wide left is his best option – I am not sure that his finishing and hold up play are good enough to justify him playing up top.

Connor Ogilvie – Stevenage (League Two)

19-year old Connor Ogilvie has made his first loan move, and will be working under former Spurs great, Teddy Sheringham.

Ogilvie was a real favourite of mine at Under-18 level. He played at both left-back and centre-back, but was most impressive on the left, where he had the opportunity to overlap; he was a genuine creative influence from there. His eye-catching performances in 2013/14 saw him drafted into the first team for Europa League trips to Tromso and Benfica, and he was obviously well liked by the England coaching set-up too – he won 15 caps at U16 and U17 level.

Since stepping up to the U21s, though, he seems to have stagnated a little. He made 16 appearances last season, but in the games that I saw he seemed a lot more reserved than I had become used to. Whether that was a lack of confidence, or a slight struggle against older, stronger players I am unsure. I was, however, very encouraged by Ogilvie’s showing in the Tottenham Hotspur XI’s 2-0 win over Stevenage at The Lamex Stadium, and he obviously caught Sheringham’s eye too.