OPINION
Tottenham have a multitude of young prospects breaking out of their academy system at the moment, and given Mauricio Pochettino’s propensity for prioritising youth, it’s not unreasonable to expect a lot of them to get their chance with the first team.
Players like Oliver Skipp and Kyle Walker-Peters have made real strides towards becoming regular first team players this season, while Kazaiah Sterling has been sent out on loan to Sunderland to boost his experience of senior football.
Another example of a Spurs youngster who has the opportunity to make the breakthrough into the first team in the near future you assume is Jack Roles, but the situation surrounding the midfielder is seemingly quite a complex one.
The 19-year-old has hit six goals and laid on six assists so far this season for Spurs’ U23s side from central midfield, but for whatever reason has failed to capture the attention of Pochettino.
The Cypriot youth international is approaching the end of his current contract, and despite his impressive efforts in the academy could leave at the end of the season, with talks of a renewal seemingly non-existent.
During a Q&A for Football.London, Spurs correspondent Alisdair Gold said: “There doesn’t seem to be any progress with Jack unfortunately, with four months to go on his current contract nothing has been agreed with him or seemingly offered, which is surprising, even to simply protect the value of a club asset.”
It would be atypical of Spurs to willingly let a young player, especially one of Roles’ talent, to leave the club so freely and surely something must be done to tie him down to a long term contract.
Even if that means fronting up for a deal and then allowing the player to go out on loan, it would surely be a better idea than simply letting him walk away.
Roles is a huge talent, and Spurs would be foolish to let him go for nothing.
Many Spurs fans will surely be gutted to see that the starlet might not have much of a future in North London.