Ange Postecoglou saluted his four teenage starters after they helped Tottenham to a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Ferencvaros in the Europa League, but is not ready to dub them ‘Ange’s Angels’ yet.
Four players aged 19 or under were named in the Spurs line-up in Budapest with full debuts handed to academy graduates Mikey Moore and Will Lankshear, but the duo brushed off their inexperience to combine to set up Pape Sarr’s 23rd-minute opener.
Sarr scored amid a ferocious white-hot atmosphere at Groupama Arena and while Ferencvaros pushed the visitors, Tottenham substitute Brennan Johnson wrapped up the points with a smart finish in the 86th-minute to score for a fifth consecutive game.
Barnabas Varga reduced the deficit at the start of stoppage-time, but Postecoglou’s side, which had an average age of 23 after teenage pair Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall also started, held on.
Asked if his youngsters could be called Ange’s Angels in reference to the Busby Babes and Fergie’s Fledglings, Postecoglou laughed: “Nah, nah, nah, nah, you’ve got to do better than that. No, no chance.
“The first thing is that they’re part of our first team squad, not because I want some young players, it’s because they’ve earned that spot.
“Then it’s about how to help them develop and the moments we need to put them in there, the moments we need to hold off. And we can’t discount the fact that Archie is 18, Lucas is 18.
“I thought Archie was brilliant. We asked him to play in two different positions and it’s incredible how he just adjusts and he’s able to bring his game to wherever he put him.
“Lucas worked hard and Will was unlucky with a couple of moments when we could have got a goal.
“These guys are there because they’ve earned their spot but they’re an important part of our development.
“Whilst we want to be a team that has an impact this year, it’s like I said before, it’s important we’re developing players along the way so that whatever sort of period of potential for success or opportunity for success exists, it’s elongated because of the young players you got through.”
Moore has been a name on the lips of Tottenham fans for more than 12 months and in May become the club’s youngest player to appear in the Premier League when introduced late on against Manchester City.
The recently-turned 17-year-old has kicked on since with a strong pre-season followed by this first start, where his driving run helped create Sarr’s opener and the Spurs academy graduate produced a number of other decisive passes, including to set up Timo Werner for a golden second-half chance.
“I thought Mikey was outstanding. It’s brilliant for a 17-year-old to play 90-plus minutes in a European away tie,” Postecoglou reflected.
“He just handled it superbly, I kind of knew he would and I think it’ll help his growth as a footballer once you get through an experience like that.
“I think he’ll grow and evolve and I didn’t feel like I needed to take him off. He still looked strong at the end and was still contributing.
“If you look at the Premier League, how many 17-year-olds are actually contributing and Mikey is already, which shows that he’s got something special but we’ve just got to be really careful about how we develop that.”
While Pedro Porro and Johnson hit the post with the game at 1-0, the hosts’ did have the ball in the net after 16 minutes with the contest goalless but Varga was ruled to be offside from Eldar Civic’s cross, which left Ferencvaros boss Pascal Jansen unhappy.
“If I look at the game itself, I think we created enough moments and possibilities to score more goals against a very strong side,” Jansen said.
“Looking at the first goal which was disallowed, I am still guessing why but somehow they found a line which showed it was offside.”
