There have been many ideas and strategies that Mauricio Pochettino has implemented into the Tottenham team throughout the season, but there has been one aspect of the club that he has transformed since the start of August when he took over as boss.
Tim Sherwood can claim as much as he likes that he left a legacy at Tottenham, but without Mauricio Pochettino, the amount of young players playing in the first team would be nowhere near as high.
Pochettino sent out a signal of intent back at the beginning of August when he signed young Eric Dier from Portuguese outfit, Sporting Lisbon. Aged at just 20 years of age at the time, Pochettino showed us all exactly what he wanted to do at Spurs.
Then came the inclusion of Harry Kane. His cup goals helped us considerably outside of the Premier League, and despite a lot of media pressure, the Argentine coach continued to play Kane solely in cup competitions, keeping him away from the Premier League.
Rather than rushing him in at the deep end playing in the league every week, it wasn’t until November that Harry Kane started to earn an extended run in the Premier League, after scoring a free-kick in the dying seconds to win the game at Villa Park, Kane made his first league start of the season in the next game against Stoke. You know the rest, Kane has become the top scorer in the Premier League, and has earned himself a call-up to the England national squad under Roy Hodgson.
Next comes the success of Ryan Mason. Like Harry Kane, Mason made his breakthrough in the cup competitions, scoring a wonder goal against Nottingham Forest in the Capital One Cup, and what a week it was for the young midfielder, the next thing he knew, he was standing on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, playing in his first North London derby. Mason has gone from strength to strength this season, and has also earned his first England call-up this week.
These are just two of the youth successes that Tottenham have had under Mauricio Pochettino this season. Eric Dier has turned out to be a very calm and composed centre-back, and has earned himself and extended stay in the starting eleven ahead of Federico Fazio alongside Belgian Jan Vertonghen.
Nabil Bentaleb has grown a lot as a player this term, and has learned how to boss the midfield, and now pulls the strings for Spurs in that position. The improvement we have seen from Danny Rose has been exceptional, and you have to say that many Spurs fans have changed their opinion on the young left-back. You only have to look back at the reaction to Rose’s new contract to see evidence of this.
Kyle Walker and Andros Townsend have also earned a call-up to the England squad. Although not on current form, both of these players deserve a place in Roy Hodgson’s latest squad.
Why are we so surprised that this has happened? Pochettino did exactly the same thing at Southampton, and look where he took them with youth players.
The fact is that the future is looking very bright for Spurs in terms of the youth of the team. We have seen what Pochettino can do after just nine months in charge, but what can he do in three years? Five years? Only time will tell.
