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Tottenham Hotspur have signed some of the best players in the world during their 141-year history, with the likes of Gareth Bale and Gary Lineker coming to London to play for the Lilywhites.
However, through their youth academy, the north London outfit have also developed some of the Premier League’s finest talents themselves.
Football FanCast looks at some of the best graduates to come out of Tottenham’s youth setup.
English midfielder Jake Livermore joined the Spurs U18 side in 2007 and went on to spend seven years with Tottenham before permanently moving to Hull City for £8m in 2014.
During his time at White Hart Lane, Livermore was never able to fully break into the first team and went on loan to six different clubs, after only making a total of 36 league appearances (25 of which were as a substitute) for Spurs.
However, the Tottenham academy graduate was still able to have a successful Premier League career. In total, he made 196 Premier League appearances, while playing for Spurs, Hull and West Brom, as well as gaining seven caps for England.
Currently, the 33-year-old is plying his trade for Watford in the Championship after signing for them this summer.
Steven Caulker has certainly had an interesting career, playing for 14 clubs in three different countries.
Despite this, the defender was one of the most exciting young players in England, as at just 15, Caulker was training with the Spurs reserve team, and by 18, he was rewarded with his first professional contract. In 2012, the now-31-year-old marked his England debut by scoring in the Three Lions’ friendly defeat to Sweden.
His rise from the youth ranks led to former Tottenham coach Anton McElhone to describe him as “an absolute standout” to the Daily Mail in 2019. Unfortunately, after a promising youth career and 29 first-team appearances for Tottenham, the current Sierra Leone international struggled to find form and had failed moves to Liverpool, Southampton and QPR.
Although Caulker did show some of his potential while playing for Alanyaspor in Turkey, he is currently without a club after being released from Wigan Athletic in the summer.
Unlike the previous two entries on the list, Andros Townsend has somewhat lived up to the potential he showed while at Spurs.
Townsend first joined the north London club in 2000 when he was just eight years old, and after four different loans, the winger scored on his debut for his boyhood club against Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup third round.
The 32-year-old would go on to make 87 appearances in all competitions for the Lilywhites before his 15-year stint with Tottenham came to an end following an argument with the club’s fitness coach in November 2015.
Since leaving London, the 13-cap England international has been a regular starter for Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Everton. He even scored the 2018/19 Premier League goal of the season and was nominated for the Puskas Award following his spectacular outside-of-the-box volley against Manchester City.
After leaving Everton in the summer, Townsend trained with Burnley, but was not offered a permanent contract and has since signed for newly promoted Luton Town.
Harry Winks has been one of the best youth products to come out of the Tottenham academy in the last decade.
In total, he played 128 times for Spurs in the league and netted two goals, while he also became an England international, appearing ten times for his national side.
After making his Champions League debut for his boyhood club in 2017 against Real Madrid, the midfielder was showered with praise by former Tottenham player and manager Glenn Hoddle.
While speaking on BT Sport (now TNT Sports), he said: “He’s done very well. He’s done very well on the ball, he’s got back in defence. He’s playing in the pivot position, there’s a lot of work in there. He’s done excellent.”
After a loan spell to Sampdoria, the 27-year-old left the club this summer, moving to Championship side Leicester City.
Kyle Walker-Peters struggled for game time in north London after graduating from Spurs’ academy, but since moving to Southampton, the defender has proven himself as one of England’s best full-backs.
The right-back initially joined the Lilywhites as an under-11 and worked his way up to the first team, where he won a Man of the Match award on his Premier League debut in 2017. However, he only played 24 times for Spurs before leaving to the south coast in 2020 for £12m.
Since moving to the Saints and becoming a consistent starter, the 26-year-old has shown Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy that it was a mistake to let him go.
This has been highlighted so far this season, as despite Southampton being relegated to the Championship, Walker-Peters has continued to impress and currently ranks as the Saints’ second-best player this season, per Sofascore – only behind James Ward-Prowse, who only played one match before leaving.
Since retiring in 2019, Peter Crouch has become something of a social media sensation, as he has launched two podcasts and is part of the TNT Sports punditry team, where he often provides instantly iconic viral clips.
Before this, Crouch started his footballing career as part of Spurs’ youth setup, but after loan spells to Dulwich Hamlet and IFK Hassleholm, the striker was signed by Queens Park Rangers in 2000.
However, the former England international’s time in N17 wasn’t over, as nearly a decade after leaving, he made his triumphant return.
In his first season back with the club, Crouch wrote his name into Tottenham folklore by scoring the winning goal against Manchester City that secured Spurs’ first-ever Champions League qualification.
Similarly to Peter Crouch, Jamie Redknapp moved into punditry after retiring and often appears as part of Sky Sports’ punditry team, however, he did also have a successful playing career.
After initially joining the Tottenham academy, the midfielder rejected a contract offer and left for Bournemouth, where his father Harry Redknapp was manager.
However, just like Crouch again, the England international would return to north London after an impressive 11-year stint with Liverpool.
Unfortunately, throughout his career, Redknapp was plagued with injuries, and after re-joining his father at Southampton in 2005 from Spurs, he was forced to retire at just 31.
Speaking to Sky Sports in 2020, the 50-year-old outlined the difficulties he went through. He said: “It’s a painful part of the game, and it’s certainly something I had to deal with.
“I remember Dr Steadman coming into the room – it was that morning that Liverpool won the Champions League. The mixed emotions I had from the team I supported winning the Champions League, to being told I would never play football again.
“I can’t lie, I cried my eyes out, because it was heartbreaking.”
Ledley King was a one-club man, as he made 323 appearances for his boyhood club, however, his career was plagued by injuries that ruled him out for an astonishing 507 days and 105 games, as per Transfermarkt.
Eventually, these injuries became too much for King, as his chronic knee problems led to his retirement in 2012 at just 31.
Despite this, he still had an incredible playing career, with one of his high points coming in 2000 when the defender scored the first goal in the Premier League under 10 seconds, breaking the record for the fastest Premier League goal in the process (a record that wasn’t broken until 2019).
It is not commonly known that David Beckham was once on the books of the Lilywhites, but during his youth career, the international superstar was part of the Spurs youth setup for five years before moving to Manchester United’s prestigious academy.
The Tottenham faithful will certainly regret the lifelong United fan leaving their club, as after departing north London, he went on to win six Premier League titles, one Champions League, one La Liga title, one Ligue 1 title and two MLS titles (making him the only player in history to win the league in four different countries), as well as UEFA’s Footballer of the Year following United’s treble campaign of 1999.
As well as this, Beckham also became England’s captain for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, and currently holds the record for most goals scored from free kicks in the Premier League.
The second-most-capped outfield England international nearly re-joined Spurs in 2011 on loan during the MLS off-season, and even trained with the club, although a deal did not materialise.
Harry Kane had broken every record possible (other than the overall Premier League goalscoring record, which still belongs to Alan Shearer) before leaving Tottenham this summer in favour of a move to Bayern Munich.
Initially, Kane joined the Arsenal youth academy but was released at eight years old because of his height. However, in 2004, when he was 11, the current England captain joined their bitter local rivals, where he rose through the youth setup before reaching the first team.
During his 19-year spell in London, the striker played 435 times for the Lilywhites, scoring 280 goals, making him the club’s top goalscorer of all time and a club legend.
After leaving his boyhood club this summer, Kane expressed his gratitude towards the club and its fans.
In a video posted on social media, the 30-year-old said: “There’s been so many great moments and special memories, memories that I will cherish forever.
“So, this is a thank you to all my teammates over the years, all the coaches, managers, every single staff member to do with the club, from the kit man to the chefs, everyone involved.
“I’ve built special relationships with a lot of people, and most importantly, a thank-you to the Tottenham fans; from the moment I’ve been playing I’ve been one of your own.”
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