Their very own homegrown Tel: Spurs must unleash "fearless" teen phenom

It’s been a bruising season for Tottenham Hotspur this year.

Ange Postecoglou’s side have played some brilliant football here and there, but a torrent of injuries and general inconsistencies see them sitting 14th in the Premier League.

Fortunately, Daniel Levy and Co eventually took advantage of the transfer window and made a few signings to strengthen the squad.

The first player through the door was 21-year-old shot-stopper Antonín Kinský. A few weeks later came experienced centre-back Kevin Danso, who was then followed by the deadline-day arrival of the incredibly exciting Mathys Tel.

However, some might say the club already had their own version of the Frenchman.

Why Spurs signed Tel

After it was revealed that Tel had rejected Spurs’ initial offer late last week, it was a real surprise to find out that he’d changed his mind yesterday afternoon and was on his way to join the Lilywhites on a short-term loan deal with an option to buy at £45m.

Now, that is undoubtedly a lot of money to spend on a 19-year-old, but there are a likely a couple of reasons why Levy and Co opted to go through with it.

The first is that, when he was given a decent number of minutes by Bayern last season, he was utterly sublime, racking up a sensational tally of ten goals and six assists in 41 appearances, totalling just 1406 minutes.

That means the Sarcelles-born phenom maintained an average of a goal involvement every 2.56 games, or more accurately, every 87.87 minutes of action.

It’s this undeniable quality, plus the fact he is so young, that likely convinced the powers that be at Spurs to potentially commit so much money towards him, as under Postecoglou and alongside the team’s other young prospects like Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, Tel could develop into a world-beater.

With that said, there’s another of the Lilywhites’ young prospects who’s arguably the most exciting and was already their version of Tel prior to the Frenchman’s arrival.

Spurs’ own Mathys Tel

So, to get straight to the point, the youngster in question is, of course, Mikey Moore.

The English teenager has been spoken about as one of Tottenham’s next great academy graduates for some time now and was, in a way, the club’s own Tel before the Frenchman himself put pen to paper yesterday afternoon.

There are a couple of reasons why this comparison can be made, and the first is where they have both primarily played in their careers thus far.

For example, despite being able to play across the frontline, the Bayern loanee has just about made more appearances off the left of a front three, which is also the same for the young Englishman, despite him also possessing the ability to play in several positions in attack.

The second similarity is their ability in front of goal, although in this case, we have to judge the North Londoners’ academy star on his time in the youth set-up, as he’s started just six senior games in his career thus far.

With that said, in just 33 appearances across various youth sides, the “fearless” talent, as dubbed by teammate James Maddison, has scored 20 goals and provided 15 assists, which comes to a brilliant average of a goal involvement every 0.94 games.

Add to that the fact he scored ten goals and provided four assists in just 12 caps for England’s U17 side, and it’s crystal clear that the “outstanding” teenager, as dubbed by Postecoglou, is a future superstar.

Ultimately, Spurs have undoubtedly made their squad stronger with the signing of Tel, but it will be incredibly interesting to see who gets more minutes between him and Moore in the coming months, especially if Postecoglou opts to use them both as left-wingers.

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