New contract for young talent

Before I commence, this is to let you know that this is a news piece folks, not a thread for discussion – feel free to comment as always, but the principal discussion piece, for now, is the match preview looking ahead to the Champions League match against Marseille tomorrow, which can be found here.

Spurs have announced that 18-year-old midfielder Alfie Devine has put pen to paper on a new deal that commits him to the club until 2027.

This is terrific news for the club, as Devine’s contract was running into its last year and the prospect of losing such a talented individual for nothing was becoming an increasing reality. Indeed, talk at the club had been hitherto increasing that the gifted youngster was strongly contemplating running his contract down in order to secure a move away from the club so as to secure regular first-team football, as alluded to in a recent video by Football.London correspondent Alisdair Gold three weeks ago.

In the video, Gold discusses how the club opted against sending the youngster out on loan, preferring to keep him as part of the Champions League squad due to UEFA’s homegrown quota, which we had been struggling to meet. Gold is recorded as saying this on the matter:

“It was interesting, someone said to me the other day at the club that maybe they will have to keep Alfie Devine around purely to be able to register him in European stuff.

“I don’t think that would go down very well, I think Alfie is very keen to play football now.

“I know they turned down a loan move to Leyton Orient last summer and he really wanted to go and play football.”

Indeed, the search for the first-team football that had been evading Devine thus far at Spurs had many worrying that he would pack his bags and leave. Indeed, his sole appearance for the first team came in the 5-0 FA Cup victory over Marine in 2020/21. Devine made quite an impression in that game, becoming the club’s youngest ever goalscorer in a competitive fixture at the age of 16.

The fact that his immediate future has been resolved is great news as he is so highly rated at the club in general. Along with Dane Scarlett, Devine contributed to England’s victory in the Under-19 Championships over the summer, coming off the back of an impressive season with the Under-23s, in which he scored 9 goals and registered 3 assists…and he’s only just turned 18!

According to The Athletic, such form has led him to become a regular part of the first-team fold, where Antonio Conte and his staff have been keeping a close eye on him. As he has currently been nursing a hamstring injury, he has been unable to secure a loan move or a place in the matchday squad, but now that he has signed a long-term contract, it surely won’t be too long before we see either scenario play out…