Mauricio Pochettino needs the Harry Winks effect to work with Tottenham’s new stadium to pay for

Happy Harry | Winks celebrates with Pochettino after scoring his first goal for Spurs
Getty Images
Tom Collomosse14 December 2016

With a £750million stadium project to pay for, no wonder Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham must find “creative” ways to improve their team.

Spurs hope to move into their new ground at the start of the 2018-19 campaign and in the years after they do, Pochettino believes they can become “one of the best clubs in the world”.

Before then, though, they will not be able to match the financial power of the Premier League’s richest clubs. In order to compete, Pochettino accepts Spurs must keep their best players, “take risks” in the transfer market and — here is the key — produce players of their own.

Pochettino has been praised for giving opportunities to players educated in the Spurs youth system. Yet Harry Kane is the only one who has established himself in the first team since Pochettino’s arrival in May 2014.

Now, though, the time looks right for another Harry to follow in Kane’s footsteps. Harry Winks, a 20-year-old midfielder, appears to have the technique, intelligence and maturity to break through. Of course, judgments should be made cautiously: Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and, to a lesser extent, Tom Carroll were given chances without becoming key men for Pochettino. Yet those who know Winks are convinced he has what is required.

Winks, who could feature against Hull tonight, told Standard Sport: “I’ve been in and around the first-team squad for the last two-and-a-half seasons. Since this manager arrived, he has integrated a few of us into the first-team squad but he has done so slowly.

“The most important thing — as he has told us — is not to give us too much, too soon. It is nice to get opportunities, as is happening at the moment.

“I’ve always had confidence. I like to dictate the tempo of a match. I like to get as many touches and make as many passes as I can. There’s no player on whom I model my game but there are many I admire — Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, Andres Iniesta, Xavi. You try to take bits from everyone.”

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Winks has ability but also the maturity Pochettino demands from players. He lives in his own flat in Hemel Hempstead, his home town, close to his parents’ home.

His parents were at White Hart Lane to see Winks’s finest moment to date — the equaliser on his full Premier League debut, the 3-2 win over West Ham on November 19 — and Winks’s immediate reaction was to identify them in the crowd as he celebrated the goal.

Winks’s progress is being monitored for possible elevation to the England senior squad if he continues to develop well at Spurs but the road to success is not easy for homegrown players at top Premier League clubs. Those fighting for Champions League football try not only to sign the best senior players in Europe but the best junior ones, too.

The chances for a lad from Hemel Hempstead are slimmer than they were once. Yet in Winks, Spurs seem to have a player with the self-confidence and personality to overcome those obstacles.

You can follow tonight's match between Tottenham and Hull City live on Standard Sport. Click here to find out how.

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