Spurs elected to withdraw from the inaugural competition after a row over ineligible players. But having thumped eventual winners Inter Milan early on, could they have won the tournament?
Reviewing Tottenham Hotspur’s NextGen campaign
For those who are not so familiar with it, the NextGen series was launched back at the beginning of this season, as a version of the Champions League aimed at young academy under-19 teams. It was won by Inter Milan over the weekend, but how did Tottenham Hotspur – one the 16 entrants- get on?
Where did they finish?
We know where Tottenham parted ways with the NextGen series, but where they would have finished is a different matter. After coming through a difficult group, Tottenham were drawn with fellow English club Liverpool in the quarter-finals. Tottenham, coached by former player Tim Sherwood, won the match 1-0 through a goal from Shaquile Coulthirst. After the match, Liverpool lodged a complaint against Spurs who they claimed had fielded two ineligible players.
Tottenham, to their credit, decided not to create a protracted a row, admitted a disappointing error, and elected to sportingly withdraw from the competition. Liverpool were therefore allowed back into the semi-finals through the backdoor, where they were thrashed 6-0 by Ajax. The Reds won the third-place play-off on Saturday 2-0 against Marseille. How Tottenham would have got on against Ajax they will never know, although they would have fancied their chances of faring better than Liverpool. In the final if they had got there they would have faced Inter Milan, who they beat 7-1 in the group stages.
Who else did they beat?
As we just mentioned, Tottenham’s standout performance of the whole competition was a 7-1 win over eventual winners Inter Milan back in August. While it was a superb performance, from an Inter point of view, they decided to make big changes after this match and take the tournament far more seriously than they previously had, sending a stronger team for the remainder of the competition. Inter only started three players in the final win over Ajax who started the heavy loss to Tottenham. Spurs also beat Dutch side PSV 2-1 and 4-1, and beat FC Basel 1-0 and drew 2-2, drawing 1-1 with Inter Milan in the return match in the group stages three months later. This meant they finished top of Group 4, three points clear of Inter. They then beat Liverpool 1-0 in the first knock-out stage before being forced to withdraw.
Who were the standout players?
Essex-born attacking midfielder Alex Pritchard was Spurs tournament top scorer with four goals, which impressed enough to make the bench of the first team squad for their trip to Aris Salonika in this year’s Europa League. He scored the first and the last in the 7-1 win over Inter. Scorer of a hat-trick in that game was 17-year-old Croatian striker Tomislav Gomelt, while highly rated Souleymane Couliably also bagged three in the tournament. Coulibaly is a 17-year-old striker from the Ivory Coast who has the tag ‘The New Didier Drogba’ to live up to, and who Spurs have high hopes for. Centre-back Milos Veljkovic also scored twice, including the winner over Basel.
Where do they go from here?
Tottenham proved in this year’s competition they have a good a youth squad as any of Europe’s top teams. Quite how good, they never got the chance to finish putting to the test, so they will have extra motivation to go and get it right next year. With new competitions like this, with stringent age rules, it is no surprise there was a team to fall foul of the technicalities in its first year, it just so happened it was Spurs, so next year there will be no danger of that happening as all paperwork will be triple-checked. Tim Sherwood and his management team will be a year wiser, and Spurs will have to be considered among the early favourites for next year’s tournament. Seeing Inter Milan lift the trophy over the weekend will have given them extra motivation to go and win the tournament next year.
Watch Tottenham’s youngster demolish Inter Milan 7-1
image: © wonker
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