David Pleat has been speaking about the Tottenham academy players who failed to fulfil their potential, revealing that he once thought Spurs had the next Christian Eriksen on their hands.
Tottenham have not brought enough players through
Not enough players have come through the Tottenham academy to make a real mark on the first team over the last decade or so.
During that time, only Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Andros Towsend and Oliver Skipp have had any sort of consistent success at the top level.
However, that now appears to be changing, with many feeling that a golden generation of Tottenham youngsters is now on the cusp of breaking into the senior set-up.
David Pleat says many youngsters underachieved
Tottenham’s former recruitment consultant David Pleat has now admitted that many of the youngsters who came through the ranks at Spurs failed to fulfil their potential.
The 79-year-old admitted that he was particularly excited about Alex Pritchard, revealing that he thought the midfielder would become as good as Eriksen.
When asked about underachieving Spurs youngsters, Pleat said on The Spurs Show: “There are so many others. I remember (Nabil) Bentaleb the midfielder who played the odd game. (Adam) Smith at Bournemouth, they have all had good careers.
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“Pritchard. I thought at one point that Pritchard would be another Eriksen, he did very well in academy games. Of course, (Ryan) Mason who we sold to Hull played so well with Harry Kane, they played well together.”
Prtichard’s career a cautionary tale
When Pritchard was coming through the ranks at Tottenham, many at the club considered him to be the best talent in his age group.
He and Tom Carroll were the real stand-out players in that group but the likes of Harry Kane, Andros Townsend, Steven Caulker, and Adam Smith have all gone on to have better careers.