‘Learning from Yves Bissouma’: Journalist lauds Tottenham youngster who’s a ‘really good talker’

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Alasdair Gold has spoken highly about Tottenham Hotspur teenager Alfie Devine and how he presents himself to the media very well, as he ‘learns’ from the likes of James Maddison and Yves Bissouma.

The 18-year-old is on Tottenham’s pre-season tour of Australia, Thailand and Singapore, with Football London journalist Gold sitting down one-on-one with the midfielder and talking to him.

Gold shared that, given his age, he spoke ‘really well’ and his current situation under Ange Postecoglou is ‘really interesting’, as he told his own YouTube channel.

Alfie Devine even shared that he was once ‘booed’ by his own players because, for his initiation song, he decided to sing ’Take That’, but he didn’t have to go through that during this summer’s pre-season tour. 

Back in 2021, the highly-rated midfielder scored on his Spurs debut against Marine in the FA Cup, before he was handed more minutes against Portsmouth.

Will he add to that tally ahead of the forthcoming campaign? Gold shared the people that are helping him behind-the-scenes, including Yves Bissouma and new boy, James Maddison.

“I went and spoke to Alfie Devine,” said Gold. “He is a very good talker. For an 18-year-old, he really spoke well and it was really interesting.

“We spoke about the way Postecoglou has dealt with him and the things he has asked him to do. Talked about working with Maddison and Bissouma and learning from them. Ryan Mason and Mile Jedinak as midfield coaches for him.

“Whether he had to do an initiation song. He didn’t this time. Previously, he had to do it and they booed him singing a Take That song.”

Tottenham’s midfield needs more life

Near-on everything went backwards last season, including their midfield, which was a two-man midfield deployed by Antonio Conte.

But Postecoglou is set to revert to having three in the middle of the park, which does increase Devine’s chances of earning more minutes.

The only issue with him is that Spurs aren’t in Europe, so there isn’t an extra competition or workload for his teammates, which would have opened the door for him to increase his minutes.