It is easy to get very frustrated with the Tottenham first team having lost 4 matches on the bounce, but we have to bear in mind the fixtures they were and that this is the early stages of the Postecoglou process, we are hopefully nowhere near the completion stages, and we lost Kane last summer and are still on track to have a better season overall while playing better football in the most part.
That aside, this article is going to focus on the mentality the youth teams have shown over the past weeks. Tottenham U21’s were 3-0 down in the cup semi-final after 36 minutes on Thursday 2nd May after a lethargic performance against a Nottingham Forest team worse on paper. It would have been easy for Tottenham to feel sorry for themselves going in 3-0 down at half time, but the U21’s side showed an impressive level of maturity to fight back in a thrilling second half. Dante Cassanova pulled one back in the 59th minute before Will Lankshear pulled another back from the penalty spot minutes later, and with the scoreline being 3-2 Nottingham Forest in the 90th minute, it looked like the fightback would be to no avail. However Oyidamola Ajayi levelled in the 91st minute before Yago Santiago dramatically scored a winner in the 96th minute to send us through to the PL Cup final, which will be away at Fulham at Craven Cottage on Thursday 16th May.
Days later, the U21 side showed further maturity and grit in the round of 16 of the PL2 play-offs as they came from a goal down against Villa to level and then go ahead through Yago Santiago and Will Lankshear, and then got pegged back again as Villa U21’s made it 2-2. Rio Kyerematen scored a composed finish in the 91st minute, but Villa scored again moments after to force extra time. Tottenham were once again on the right side of a 7 goal thriller, as Lankshear netted again in extra time to send Tottenham through to the quarter final where they will host Liverpool U21’s.
Away from the U21’s, the U18’s had a good fight in the North London Derby against Arsenal. Callum Olusesi gave us the perfect start, finishing clinically inside 22 seconds to make it 1-0. The scoreline stayed 1-0 for a while, with huge credit to Tottenham keeper Sam Archer who saved an arsenal penalty as well during this period. Arsenal were gifted another penalty by the referee, in which Obi scored and Rosiak scored 2 minutes after to put the visitors ahead. Ajayi, the same player who levelled for the U21’s against Forest, levelled for the U18’s in the 87th minute before Han Willhoft-King scored a clinical winner for our U18’s late on leaving Arsenal with little time to reply.
The youth teams at Tottenham have been showing real fight to get back into matches and get ahead and hopefully their continuous fighting and good work can reward some players with first team opportunities in the near future.