Mauricio Pochettino had a question, before his meeting at White Hart Lane with Tim Sherwood, the serial promoter of young talent at Tottenham Hotspur. “Who gave Ryan Mason his Premier League debut against Arsenal? Who?” Pochettino asked. Tottenham’s current manager also had the answer. Pochettino jerked his thumb towards himself and smiled.
It was he who had thrust Mason in from the start at the Emirates Stadium last September and been rewarded with a fine performance in the 1-1 derby draw. “I remember when people said I was crazy for playing Mason against Arsenal,” Pochettino said. Mason is now an England international.
The interlude was coloured by levity. Yet there was also a serious point. Not every Tottenham academy player owes it all to Sherwood, the club’s previous manager, who returns to north London on Saturday afternoon with Aston Villa.
Pochettino, though, was in no mood to quibble over what Sherwood did do for the advancement of home-grown talent at Tottenham. He remembered how Sherwood had given a surprise debut to Nabil Bentaleb in his first league game in charge against Southampton in December 2013; Pochettino was the Southampton manager at the time.
And then there is Harry Kane, to whom Sherwood also gave a first run in the league team. Look at Kane now. The 21-year-old has surged to global prominence under Pochettino this season but the manager is not the type to seek the plaudits. He highlighted the role that the academy manager, John McDermott, and his staff had played in Kane’s development, plus that of Sherwood and his assistants. Above all, though, the player himself had to take the credit, Pochettino said.
Kane added yet another layer of achievement to his story last Sunday at Burnley, when he captained the club for the first time and, with Hugo Lloris still out with a knee injury and Jan Vertonghen still struggling to shake off a chest infection, Pochettino said that Kane stood to retain the armband against Villa. Vertonghen returned to training on Friday but he is touch-and-go to come back into the team.
Pochettino captained Argentina from under-16 to under-20 level and he was a youngish captain of Espanyol at the age of 24. His decision to give Kane the captaincy was an illustration of how he focuses on the character of the individual over the age and also of his motivational tricks. Pochettino knows how to get inside the heads of players.
“We have many players who can lead the team but we can select only one and Harry deserves it,” Pochettino said. “When you are mature and you are a leader, it is not about age, it’s about your personality and character.”
Kane has gone from being a promising squad player to Tottenham’s 29-goal talisman – who has also made an impact for England – in the space of five months. Pochettino, though, is not worried about his capacity to cope with the increased levels of attention.
“Harry always keeps his feet on the ground so there are no worries,” Pochettino said. “He is realistic and he knows why things are happening now and how he got to this point – because he worked hard. He knows the path he needs to follow to maintain his success.
“He is not the finished product. He can improve a lot. When you are 21, often you think you know it all. But you can improve. With experience, you learn that you can improve every day, no matter how old you are, provided that you are open to learning.”
Pochettino said that Kyle Walker would miss the Villa game because of the foot injury he suffered at Burnley and that DeAndre Yedlin, the 21-year-old American full-back, had the chance of coming into the squad.
“We hope that maybe next week Kyle will start to train on the grass but it’s hard to know the time-frame,” Pochettino said. “Lloris should restart next week with the group.”
