Tottenham Hotspur have continued to bring in top young talents in recent transfer window and Ashley Phillips should not be forgotten about in North London.
Ange Postecoglou is at the head of a youth movement at Tottenham Hotspur.
That is somewhat ironic given reports that Tottenham had concerns about Postecoglou’s age before his appointment in 2023.
Tottenham went with the Australian in the end, ruling out those fears that Postecoglou may have been in a purple patch in his career.
Spurs have now surrounded Postecoglou with top young talents in an attempt to give him and the club a bright future.
All the talk is about new Tottenham signing Dominic Solanke right now but Spurs continue to add younger targets for the coming years.
Ledley King on Tottenham Hotspur’s Ashley Phillips
Look through Tottenham’s signings before Solanke and you will see a clear focus on the future.
Forward Timo Werner returned on loan but the deals around him have been teenagers.
Lucas Bergvall rejected Barcelona for a move to Tottenham in February and the teenager has started his Spurs career this summer.
Archie Gray then joined from Leeds United and immediately shared his love for boss Postecoglou before South Korean talent Yang Min-hyuk signed from Gangwon.
This approach was a feature last summer too as Tottenham brought in Ashley Phillips from Blackburn Rovers.
Tottenham’s move to sign Phillips had been a long time coming; Spurs tried to sign Phillips in 2022 but no deal materialised.
Spurs finally signed Phillips last summer and fan favourite Ledley King has now shared his thoughts on the defender.
King has told Football London that he has only been able to speak to Spurs youngsters in passing but wants to have a real sit down with defender Phillips.
King noted that he sees pace and technical ability in Phillips and he has ‘good traits’ which can be worked upon in the coming years.
King knows what it takes to become a top Tottenham defender and hopes to help Phillips improve at Spurs.
“Just in passing, you know, not sat down and had the real opportunity [to speak to them], but I’d like to go into the training centre throughout the season just to speak to some of the youngsters, especially defenders, you know, people like Ashley Phillips,” said King.
“I do like him. I think he’s got a lot of qualities. I spoke to him the other day and said we definitely need to sit down and speak about your game, and how we can progress it. That’s something that I definitely enjoy, especially with centre-backs.”
“There’s always going to be some traits, he’s tall, he’s quick, he’s good on the ball. There’s definitely some good traits, but, you know, when you’re young, it’s good when you just have a wiser head that can give you a few pointers, things just to make your game a little bit easier, because when you’re young, you play the game I suppose the hard way, you don’t know all the tricks.”
“I think that the earlier you know a few tricks and positionally, you’re putting yourself in the right positions, it really makes your game a lot easier. So we’ll sit down, we will go through his game and see how we can improve it,” he added.
Ashley Phillips praise
Phillips has not yet made a senior appearance for Tottenham but did spend the second half of last season on loan at Plymouth Argyle.
Pundit Alan McInally was certainly impressed with Phillips, hailing him as a future ‘superstar’ after impressing for the Pilgrims.
Dejan Kulusevski has also backed Phillips to be ready whenever called up on by Postecoglou.
Breaking into the side won’t be easy given that Tottenham have two top centre backs in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
Add in January signing Radu Dragusin and Tottenham have great competition for places at the back.
Phillips has the potential to become a real star at Tottenham but another loan move may well help him prepare for first-team action with Spurs.
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