Former Tottenham Hotspur scout, David Pleat, has revealed that a young defender left the club, despite being promised by Jose Mourinho that he would get a chance in the first team.
Tottenham have had limited success in recent years at bringing academy players into their main squad, with even Harry Kane having to wait patiently and endure multiple loan spells before getting his first real chance.
Much excitement has been expressed by supporters over the likes of Mikey Moore and Will Lankshear recently making first-team appearances and this has likely been enhanced by the fact that in the last decade, products of Tottenham’s academy have rarely become successful in the club’s senior side.
And some of the players to leave Spurs before getting a proper opportunity will have no regrets including Noni Madueke, who has impressed for England during the international break, Marcus Edwards and Kyle Walker-Peters, and Troy Parrott, who has taken the Eredivisie by storm since joining AZ Alkmaar.
While some players have made the right choice to move forward with their careers by leaving Spurs, that decision has not worked out for everyone.
David Pleat has revealed, while speaking on The Joy of Football podcast, that former Spurs defender, Luis Binks, left the club, despite being promised by then manager, Jose Mourinho, that he would be given a chance to play for the first team.
He said: “Binks went from Tottenham, and I remember this clearly. Went to Montreal, to be managed by Thierry Henry.
“Now, Binks, I can tell you this. He was England’s left centre-half. Mourinho himself made a big point of saying there’s a pathway for him.
“Now, the boy said there wasn’t a pathway. Whether there was or wasn’t, he would have developed, maybe, into a first-team player. But he was enticed away to Montreal, who loaned him to Bologna, and then he’s come back to Coventry and he’s at Coventry now. That’s happening all the time because of financial sustainability.”
In this instance, it is Binks, rather than Spurs, who suffered as a result of becoming impatient and leaving the club, but this has not always been the case.
With many young talents now at the club, whether academy graduates like Moore, or players they have signed such as Archie Gray, Spurs must give them the opportunity they need before it is too late, because you never know when you may have the next Harry Kane in your ranks.
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