Paul Merson has urged Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho to exploit the “brilliant” crop of young players that the North London club currently has in its academy.
With the Premier League set to restart on 17 June, all fans are eagerly waiting for English football to return.
Sky Sports pundit Merson has explained that he expects there to be much more reliance on the youth set-up at top-flight teams.
He claims that Spurs have an excellent structure in place and believes it’s up to Mourinho to tap into that.
“How do you sign players from abroad if travel is restricted? I quite like it because now coaches have got to be coaches, they’ve got to make these players better,” Merson told Sky Sports.
“I think this situation really helps youth players, because you’re going to have to give them a chance. Managers like Jose Mourinho will have to start making youth team players better.
“He’ll have to start concentrating on bringing players through, and showing how good a coach he is. Tottenham have some brilliant kids, don’t worry about that.”
There are a number of players in recent years that have made the step up at Spurs from the academy to the first-team, with England internationals Harry Kane and Harry Winks the standout pair.
Defender Japhet Tanganga is another that has been promoted from the academy to the senior crop at Spurs this season and he forced his way into Mourinho’s starting XI before football was halted.
Troy Parrott is a highly-rated centre-forward in the Spurs Under-23 side who has long been tipped for a senior breakthrough and the 18-year-old has played four first-team matches so far in his career.
Meanwhile, there’s also a crop of promising stars out on loan right now such as Kazaiah Sterling, Jack Roles and Timothy Eyoma that could have big futures ahead of them.
This unprecedented ending to the season may be the perfect time for some of those young players to take centre stage.
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