A spell in the Championship at Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United could have been the making of England U17 World Cup winner Oakley-Boothe.
Most young players all across the globe would give an arm, or maybe a few fingers at least, to work with Marcelo Bielsa.
Ander Herrera, Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy and Nicolas Pepe all owe their careers to the trust placed in them by the bespectacled, bucket-perching Argentine while Kalvin Phillips, Ben White and Jack Clarke have made huge strides under his unique brand of management at Leeds United.
So you could forgive Tashan Oakley-Boothe for wondering what might have been if the transfer window hadn’t slammed shut before he could make a loan move to Elland Road.
According to the Mail, both Leeds and Derby County were interested in loaning a young Tottenham midfielder who, just two years ago, won the U17 World Cup alongside Phil Foden and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
Unlike his former England U17 team-mates, Oakley-Boothe still looks a million miles away from forcing his way into first-team reckoning. And even with Spurs undergoing a crisis never before seen in the Mauricio Pochettino era, the 19-year-old still hasn’t been included in a matchday squad this season, even in the Carabao Cup.
Instead, while Leeds are resting up over the international break, Oakley-Boothe was starting, and scoring, for Tottenham’s reserves in an EFL Trophy clash against Colchester United (yes, them again) in a sparsely populated JobServe Community Stadium on Tuesday night.
An impressive display will do Oakley-Boothe’s hopes of a first senior appearance in two years no harm at all but just imagination how much he could be learning under Bielsa at the top of the Championship.
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