John McDermott has commented on why Brandon Austin, Jonathan De Bie and Dylan Duncan trained with England.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Head of Player Development John McDermott has told the club’s official website that Brandon Austin, Jonathan De Bie and Dylan Duncan were chosen carefully to train with England.
The Three Lions have been in action twice over the last week, first beating Scotland 3-0 at Wembley Stadium before drawing with Spain on Tuesday evening – despite being 2-0 up heading into the 89th minute.
England’s Dylan Duncan during training
A number of Tottenham players featured in the two games, including Kyle Walker, Danny Rose and Eric Dier, and whilst both Dele Alli and Harry Kane missed out as they recover from injuries, two more Spurs players were in training with England.
Over the weekend, goalkeepers Brandon Austin and Jonathan De Bie were both called in to train with the England senior side, working alongside players like Joe Hart, Tom Heaton and Jordan Pickford.
Austin, 17, and 16-year-old Belgian De Bie were later joined by midfielder Dylan Duncan, who was surprisingly sent to train with the England side as Gareth Southgate gave three Spurs teenagers the chance to learn from the country’s best.
England’s Dylan Duncan and Marcus Rashford during training
Duncan, who turns 18 in January, was previously on the books at Southend United before joining Spurs in 2015, and he has been tipped for a bright future having been given the chance to train with England.
Now, Spurs’ Head of Player Development John McDermott has spoken about the situation, telling the club’s official website that a similar situation arose last year when Spurs allowed Shayon Harrison and Harry Winks to train with England, as Tottenham are pleased to help the England side wherever possible.
McDermott added that there were three key reasons why Spurs picked Austin, De Bie and Duncan to train with England; their availability, their technical ability, and their desire to become professional footballers even after the hype of training with England.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino with head of coaching and development John McDermott during training
“Something similar happened last year with Shayon Harrison and Harry Winks – whenever Gareth Southgate and his team ask for extra players, it’s an absolute privilege to be able to provide them with that and it’s also great that they will trust our players to be able to deal with the high demands of an England training session,” said McDermott. “One of the reasons that we selected these boys is they know that being able to cope in a training session, which they’re also able to do here with Mauricio Pochettino, doesn’t indicate in any way that they’re anywhere near that level. Dylan, Brandon and Jonathan are bright enough to realise that and there’s still an incredible amount of work ahead to be able to do that day in, day out and play in front of tens of thousands of people.”
“I’m very confident that, with those three boys who have just had this opportunity, it won’t go to their heads and they won’t suddenly think they’re something that they’re not. Part of selecting these boys was their availability, their ability to deal technically with Gareth’s demands and whether they are still going to retain a desperation to become a professional footballer after all the hype of being involved in supporting the England squad. All these factors went into the equation as to which lads to choose, once Gareth asked for support in bolstering his training groups,” he added.
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