Spurs Blogsville

Opinion: Departing Tottenham duo prove that Pochettino may not be a genius

|

Mauricio Pochettino is often praised, and rightly so, for his dealings with young footballers.

The Argentine has massively improved the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Harry Winks and plenty of others, yet he doesn’t have a 100% success rate with the youngsters he’s worked with.

Two young Spurs academy players are set for exits this summer, despite both having plenty of promise, and one of the two, Josh Onomah, is said to be ‘stunned’ at Pochettino’s decision to demote him to the club’s under-23s as he now looks set for a summer exit to Germany (The Sun).

Onomah, obviously, is the first of the two youngsters to be leaving this summer, and the second is one who Pochettino once compared to Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. In summer 2016, with a 17-year-old Marcus Edwards making waves during Tottenham’s pre-season tour of Australia, Pochettino made the bold comparison (Sky Sports) and now Edwards is close to signing for Brentford (Football.London).

Whilst Onomah looks set for a move to Germany and Edwards to Brentford awaiting confirmation, it plays as a stark reminder that the Lilywhites’ inspirational and often incredible manager doesn’t always get things right.

There have been plenty of home-grown talents to benefit from the coaching and tuition that the Argentine has offered in his five seasons as the Tottenham boss, but equally not everyone has kicked on and starred in the way that their talent says they should have.

Between Onomah and Edwards, loan spells at Norwich City, Excelsior, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday haven’t been enough for to convince Pochettino of their credentials to play in his senior side and now the pair will leave the club as failed experiments from Tottenham’s youth machine.

They’re not the first to be set to make a quiet exit either, following in the footsteps of Alex Pritchard, DeAndre Yedin and Clinton N’Jie who were either signed or brought through at Spurs by Pochettino before being dumped later on after failing to develop under his management.

Share this article