I know it’s a big day for Tottenham Hotspur, what with the whole League Cup semi-final match at Anfield thing. So if you’re looking for a distraction from all that until the 3 pm ET / 8 pm UK kickoff, here’s something to watch to take your mind off of it all, at least temporarily.
We found out earlier this week that Spurs had signed a new kid for their academy — 17-year-old Irish striker Mason Melia. Melia joins Tottenham for a fee of £1.6m, which is a lot for a 17-year-old, and is the League of Ireland’s most expensive transfer sale ever. He’s a hugely exciting talent — recent reports said that he had turned down “over 60” transfers, but was convinced to join Spurs after a conversation with Ange Postecoglou — again, more evidence that Big Ange is the Rizzmaster.
The Irish Mirror posted some quotes from Melia’s former teammates, including St. Patrick’s Athletic captain Joe Redmond, who said Melia was super talented, but also a very humble kid.
“You could feel it (the transfer) coming from our point of view, being 17 and being so good. But he never mentioned it, he was as humble as anything.
“It’s great the way he approached it and handled it. He didn’t bring any attention to himself in the dressing room, he kept everything under wraps, which I think is the right thing to do.
“He is a handful. His power, his speed and his finishing is incredible. I think maybe we’ve only seen half of it. Like I said a few times, he is going to go up another level and it’s exciting to see.
“He has a bit of everything. He can hold it up, he can go in behind, he can finish, he has got good control, and his maturity and knowledge of the game is really good as well.”
Melia is quite obviously a signing for the future — nobody expects that he will hit the ground running at Tottenham and end up in the first team immediately. But he already has a Welcome to Tottenham YouTube compilation, which I’ve embedded in the header of this article, and you can absolutely see his skills in action.
The League of Ireland is not exactly full of outstanding talent, but he’s kinda bossing it at this level at age 17 which speaks to his talent and ability. Now the question is whether that ability can scale in the next couple of seasons. I would guess Melia will head out on loan for the next season or two and then, like Troy Parrott, Spurs will make an evaluation as to whether he’s in the managers’ first team plans or not.
But regardless, Melia’s the kind of high ceiling talent Spurs should be looking for and signing every year. Not all of them will hit, but the ones that do will be awesome.