The significance of Dele Alli

Dele Alli has perhaps been the most significant signing Tottenham have made in 2015, probably the most significant signing for many years.

He has been helped by the emergence of Eric Dier in the holding midfield role at the tender age of just 21 and the other youth in the side only serve to back up the statement of Alli.

Hugo Lloris was the elder statesman on Saturday at 28, then we had Walker 25, Alderweireld 26, Vertonghen 28, Davies 22, Dier, 21, Alli 19, Lamela 23, Eriksen 23, Son Heung-min 23, Kane 22, of the substitutes we saw come on Njie is 22, Carroll 23 and Chadli 26.

A team of youth, but youth with experience, developed abroad playing first team football, Alli however, the youngest of them all and having come from two divisions below in League One, stands out as a message to others. If you are good enough at whatever age Tottenham will pick you.

That is a powerful message to young players around the world, many have been put off coming to the Premier League simply because they didn't feel they would get picked, English teams don't pick youth, they favour experience, history is the proof.

As ever when you write suggestions promoting youth and building a team around youth to grow into a force to challenge the top clubs having learnt a system inside out together you get the defeatists suggesting a team won't stay together, as soon as a player improves he will leave. They take no account of the club improving and thus being more able to keep players, they take no account of a new stadium being built, of a bigger income to financially be able to compete.

As a club you can't just wait for a stadium to arrive, then wait for the income to arrive, then set about building a team, you have to have a strategy for the build up time and for the difficult years paying off the debts built up to pay for the stadium. The crazy notion that you destroy your credit worthiness but splashing the cash and sending your wage bill rocketing is, well plain daft, these people actually want to put the stadium at risk, they want to put our future at risk.

Tottenham have devised the sensible strategy I had hoped we would see and the success of Dele Alli will mean youngsters sit up and take notice. If you are a youngster and you want to join the Premier League, do you join Chelsea and not play, perhaps get loaned out abroad or do you look at Tottenham and say, they play youngsters, I have more of a chance of playing premier League football with them sooner.

Youngsters want to play, Tottenham now have positioned themselves as a potential go-to club for any talented youngster, only today we have the Daily Mail reporting on another youngster we are negotiating for, this time a 17-year-old to join our academy. 

Brøndby are in financial difficulties, they have been for years and are borrowing money off their owner. Tottenham scouts have identified Asian wonderkid Armend Aslani as a player to bring into the academy. It is not just the next generation that will eye Spurs now, with the success of Alli, Dier and the other youngsters, Tottenham stands alone in the Premier League as the focal point for young players to make a mark.

Further Tottenham Reading
Lamela in an upward spiral
VIDEO: Full Erik Lamela Performance vs Man City
VIDEO: Full Eric Dier Performance vs Man City
VIDEO: DeAndre Yedlin vs Man City ( includes an assist for a Sunderland goal)
French want Lloris to move, again

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