Raised during the Gerry Francis era, these lads are now too old for any more 'character building'. Spurs blog with emphasis on the stars of tomorrow, today #COYS
With a week to go until the final squad announcement, Gareth Southgate has released a provisional Euro 2020 squad of 33 players which will be trimmed to 26. The current crop of talent at Southgate’s disposal is likely to excite England fans. However, with an abundance of attacking flair in the likes of Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, the question begs as to who the man in the waistcoat will choose to play alongside England captain Harry Kane. Or alternatively, who he decides to drop in order to accommodate the more reticent talents of Kalvin Phillips and James Ward-Prowse.
Danny Rose and Harry Kane celebrate Eric Dier’s decisive penalty against Columbia.
Tottenham fans will have noticed the scarcity of players picked from their club, with Kane being the sole representative of the Lilywhites. This is unlikely to shock those who have followed the performances of other England hopefuls currently playing in N17. This couldn’t be more contrasting to the 2018 World Cup Squad in which Southgate named Danny Rose, Dele Alli, Kieran Trippier and Eric Dier alongside Kane; making Spurs the most represented club in the squad.
With La Liga champion Kieran Trippier making the current squad, the obvious stagnation in the performances of Dele, Dier and Rose compared to the improvements in rival players is particularly noteworthy.
Danny Rose
A player who made five appearances for England in the World Cup finals just two years ago, Rose’s recent decline has seen him exiled to train with youth teams at Hotspur Way. After failing to gain the trust of Jose Mourinho, the left-back has played just two Premier League 2 matches, as well as zero first-team appearances in over a year.
Rose in action for Tottenham Under 23s.
After scenes on Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ documentary showed Rose clashing with Mourinho concerning his lack of playing time, as well as wishfully asking Daniel Levy about interest from Italian giants AC Milan, it was clear that Rose would be phased out of the club.
Still only 30-years-old, Rose will no doubt attract a number of suitors at the lower end of the Premier League as his contract ends this summer. Having once been widely considered an elite European left-back, Rose’s fall off can be closely correlated with that of Spurs themselves.
Eric Dier
Dier has always given his all for Spurs.
Right-back, centre-back, central midfielder: Eric Dier has plied his trade in each position, whilst seemingly mastering none. Dier’s form in the latter stages of the Premier League campaign has left a lot to be desired. With countless calamitous errors and a lack of quality on the ball, it is a mystery how the 27-year-old has managed to cement himself into both Mourinho’s and Mason’s first choice teams.
Dier was a bit-part player at the 2018 World Cup, but did however provide one of the most memorable moments when he slotted the winning penalty in the Round of 16 versus Columbia. The man ended years of penalty shoot-out dread and now finds himself exiled from a Euro’s squad in just a two-year spell.
With Football.London reporting Spurs’ interest in numerous centre-back options this summer, Dier’s days in North London may well be coming to an abrupt end.
Dele Alli
In perhaps the most shocking decline of recent Premier League years, Dele is under threat of becoming a ‘streets won’t forget’ baller.
It is becoming increasingly easy to forget the player who won back-to-back Premier League Young Player of the Year awards in 2015/16 and 2016/17. The extravagance has is still apparent in Dele’s play, but poor ball retention and the tendency to let games drift him by seem to have become all too regular an occurrence.
Much like Rose, Dele’s relationship with previous boss Mourinho was somewhat fragmented. Is it time to cash in on the 25-year-old, or does he still hold an important future at Tottenham?
Will Dele be sold to make space for new attackers this summer?
Time to move on?
If Spurs are serious about being a Champions League level club that can challenge on all fronts, it is essential that the quality of the squad reflects these ambitions in the upcoming campaign. In my opinion, this would mean selling players who are no longer at an International level of quality, and clearly Winks, Dier and Rose fall into this category.
Over the coming months, we will be interviewing Tottenham fans and supporter groups from around the world asking them why they follow the club, what reputation Spurs have in their country and which young players we should be looking out for.
To kick us off, we spoke to Tommy Silver, a committee member of ‘Oz Spurs’, the Official Australian Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Club which was founded in 2001. As well as discussing his love for Spurs, we also cover the A-League, former Australian Premier League icons, and the Socceroos’ World Cup chances.
Here’s what Tommy had to say:
When and why did you first start supporting Spurs?
Like many, I had no say in the matter! My dad was a lifelong fan and he passed it along to all of his boys. In April 2000, he took me to my first match at White Hart Lane and I fell in love. I was 13 at the time, but I will never forget that rush coming up over the steps and seeing the green of the pitch for the first time. We won 2-0 (Darren Anderton and Chris Armstong) and my brother and I begged our dad to take us back to the next game, which ended in a 1-1 draw against 10-man Derby.
Tommy’s first match at White Hart Lane, April 2000
What encouraged you to join Oz Spurs? How many supporters clubs are there in the country? Games must be tricky to watch, right?!
After returning from that trip to London, I was totally obsessed. I became aware of my dad being on a email newsletter for Spurs fans in Australia, and suggested we go to one of their meets. It was very much a fledgling club, with big chapters in Perth and Sydney. It’s unfair to single out too many individuals, but Justin Long and Munsoor Khan were two of the driving forces in building the club out of nothing, two ex-pats desperate to keep their connection alive.
There were very, very few matches on TV, so in Sydney in those days we met on the last Saturday of every month to watch VHS highlights sent from the UK and read Spurs Monthly!
Very early days in Sydney, 2003
Around this time, I discovered a passion for computers and wanted to get into web design, so I offered to build a website for Justin and OzSpurs. It went live the week before the Worthington Cup Final and our club just grew from there. Our forum was hugely active, and in 2003 we had our first ever OzSpurs National – Spurs fans from all over Australia converging on one city for a weekend.
Oz Spurs, Worthington Cup Final, 2002
We’re quite unique in that we’re one of the only national supporters clubs made up of individual chapters – we have a chapters in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney, Tasmania and Wollongong.
We currently have around 400 paid members, however, there are thousands more Spurs fans here – we had 600 in Melbourne alone at 5am for the Champions League final. We have a wide variety of kick off times! Pre-COVID, on the east coast kick offs range from 9pm – 7am, and in Perth 3/4 hours earlier. A 12:30pm Saturday (UK time) kick off is as good as it gets for us, and we will often get hundreds out to the pub to watch. The match against Arsenal the other morning, however, was 3:30am Monday morning. Brutal. Despite this, in Melbourne we had 15 or so meet up at the pub.
Melbourne, Champions League Final, 2019
What sort of profile do Spurs now have in Australia?
It’s amazing how well known we are in general now. The Pochettino years obviously increased our profile, but it feels like for the first time (in my lifetime) we have genuinely iconic players – Kane, Bale, Son. Couple that with our tours in 2015 and 2016 and awareness has grown significantly.
Spurs in Sydney, 2015
As you mentioned there, Spurs have made a couple of big trips to Australia in 2015 and 2016. Do you think there is an appetite for more?
It’s no exaggeration to say Spurs’ trip to Sydney in 2015 was a dream come true for us – we had been hoping they would come out since our club took off in 2002. We put on an absolute show for the club when they arrived in Sydney – hundreds welcoming them at the airport, a golf day, a night with Ossie Ardiles and many other events. Spurs have told us how they were blown away by our club, and I think the proof is their return just 12 months later! That was a bit of a different trip, but just as big for us.
I would be surprised if we don’t see them back here in the next 5 years, though it’s hard to know how the world will look post-COVID.
Spurs legend Ledley King is cheered upon arrival by fans during a Tottenham Hotspur fan event at The Woolshed Pub, July 2016 in Melbourne, Australia.
In the 1990s and 2000s, there were a fair few Aussie players who were prominent Premier League players – Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Mark Schwarzer, Tim Cahill etc – but that seems to have dried up recently. Why do you think that is?
This is a complex one with many factors, but in my opinion we took our eyes off player development when the A-League was formed in 2004/5. Prior to the A-League, we had the NSL, which was made up of many community clubs whose main purpose was producing players – Viduka a perfect example of this. With the A-League, we (rightly) spent so much energy on getting the structure of the pro league right, but we neglected the academies and youth teams. We’re seeing the impact of that now, but Football Australia and clubs seem to have recognised it, so hopefully come 2030 we’ll have Aussies playing at the highest levels again.
The A-League is Australia’s premier competition – what kind of standard is it? Are the fears of a talent drain to rival leagues such as the Indian Super League well-founded?
There are many, many people who bag it, but I’m a staunch A-League defender – I’ve had a season ticket for Sydney FC since day one and travel around Australia to watch them. We are so spoilt with wall-to-wall coverage of the Premier League that many people turn on an A-League game expecting to see the same quality and intensity. It’s obviously not the same, however, on a good day our top teams would give the top Championship teams a game.
For me, the Indian league is just one more threat from a fast-growing Asia. It’s been like that since the A-League started in 2005, with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Saudi Arabia and UAE clubs paying a lot more than A-League clubs can. For me, that brings opportunity. Whilst Alessandro Del Piero and Emile Heskey coming to the A-League in 2012 was a thrill, they came and went and the crowds followed in both directions. The future of our sport is developing young players to further themselves overseas – be it Asia, Europe or elsewhere.
And how about the national team? There was an Asian Cup win in 2015, but the Socceroos have never been beyond the Round of 16 at a World Cup. How are they looking for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?
For us, making it to the Round of 16 is a huge success!!! It will be no different in Qatar, but hopefully we could look to make a quarter final one day. The Asian Cup win in 2015 was amazing – I will never forget that night. Asia is getting stronger every year, and it can only be a good thing for us.
Australia lifting the Asian Cup in 2015
Cricket, AFL and rugby are seen as the most popular sports in Australia, but do you think football can come close to rivalling it?
Football has the highest participation rates of any team sport in Australia, so we absolutely can get there. Unfortunately, the media landscape is a difficult one to overcome – in Melbourne, the AFL and the media may as well be one organisation. It’s hard for football to get any significant recognition, but it’s just about chipping away. Football’s strength is its global position, and there is no doubt the other sports in Australia are threatened by that.
Former Spurs youth goalkeeper Tom Glover made the move back down under last year – how is he getting on?
He had a good season with Melbourne City – they finished 2nd in the league and lost in the Grand Final. He likely would have played at the Olympics this year but obviously that didn’t happen.
Former Spurs Academy goalkeeper, Tom Glover, playing for Melbourne City
Are there any up and coming young Australian players who we could see appearing for Spurs in the future?
2nd to wishing for Spurs to visit Australia was our dream for an Aussie to break through at Spurs. We’ve had a few over the years; Glover, as you mention, Mass Luongo, Giancarlo Gallifuoco and Spase Dilevski – but none of them really ever broke through. It’s hard to see that changing in the near future sadly!
Tommy Silver heads up the website and communications for Oz Spurs. You can find them through the channels below:
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