Two Youngsters Who Could Have A Breakthrough Season
Tottenham Hotspur had another excellent campaign this past season as they finished 2nd in the Premier League, improving on their 3rd-placed finish in the 2015-16 campaign.
Under Mauricio Pochettino, the North Londoners are making all the right moves and hitting the right notes, as they look to establish themselves as a top club both in England and Europe. In the recent years, since the Argentine tactician took over, one feature of Tottenham’s policy that has been the most pleasing for the fans to see is the continued blooding of young starlets into the first team, helping them to grow into better footballers.
This system of backing the youth has seen quite a few success stories for the Lilywhites in the recent past – Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Tom Carroll (left for Swansea) and the latest in the list is last season’s breakthrough star, Harry Winks. Having reaped great amount of success from backing the youngsters, it is unlikely that Tottenham will look to change that policy ahead of the next campaign, and here are two youngsters who could turn out to be the next breakthrough stars in the coming season.
Kyle Walker-Peters
The 20-year old right-back bears a lot of resemblance in his style of play to current first-choice in the senior team, Kyle Walker, apart from the name. Walker-Peters possesses the blistering pace and is also known to possess the guile needed to excel on the big stages. A versatile customer, the England youth international can operate as a left-sided full-back too. Walker-Peters was a part of the England U-20 side that won the FIFA U-20 World Cup earlier this month in South Korea.
Amid serious doubts over the future of Kyle Walker in the first team, Pochettino could call upon the rookie fullback in the upcoming campaign as a backup for Kieran Trippier. The youngster may turn out to be a more than able deputy for the former Burnley man.
Marcus Edwards
The 18-year old versatile attacking midfielder has supreme dribbling abilities. Primarily left-footed, Edwards has shown a great turn of pace and can run with the ball like it is stuck to his laces. Small in stature, he more than makes up for it with his technical ability to beguile the opponents. The 18-year old was handed his senior debut in September last year in an EFL Cup tie against Gillingham.
There are slight concerns among the fans over his future as Edwards just has a year left on his current contract and there have been no negotiations over a new deal. The fact that Tottenham did not take him to Hong Kong for their post-season friendly against Kitchee SC when quite a few youngsters were taken along has caused some alarm. But, he is someone who the manager rates highly and may get his chances to shine on the big stage in the upcoming season.