Paul Merson has said that Jose Mourinho will have little choice but to put his faith in youth because of the financial impact of Covid-19.
As per The Telegraph, the Portuguese will be limited to swaps and free transfers in his first summer as Tottenham manager as Daniel Levy looks to safeguard the club’s future amidst Coronavirus losses and stadium debts.
Clutching a positive from this type of market, Merson told Sky Sports that it will give young players an opportunity they might not otherwise have had, and challenged Mourinho, in particular, to “show how good a coach he is” by not relying on big-name signings and making stars of his own at Spurs.
“The good coaches will come to the fore, and those that aren’t will struggle. Some will blossom, some will not,” Merson wrote in his Sky Sports column.
“I think this situation really helps youth players, because you’re going to have to give them a chance. There are some brilliant kids out there who don’t get chances because clubs can go out and buy a £50m player in the blink of an eye.
“Managers like Jose Mourinho will have to start making youth team players better. He’ll have to start concentrating on bringing players through, and showing how good a coach he is. Tottenham has some brilliant kids, don’t worry about that.”
Mourinho has developed a reputation for stifling young players’ development and does have some black marks on his record with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, and Mohamed Salah.
So far at Spurs, he has given Japhet Tanganga a platform to shine but has been more conservative with the likes of Ryan Sessegnon and Troy Parrott.
With a shoe-string budget, we’ll need to find solutions from within the squad, so I’m intrigued to see what Mourinho does with the likes of Sessegnon, Parrott, Skipp and Dennis Cirkin who’ve all been around the first-team squad.
Although it is more with hope than expectation that I expect him to bring these guys through.
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He doesn’t need to play the kids,because he has a full squad at his disposal as do the other PL teams.That may well change with the time allowed to get to fitness for the restart,but again it will be the same for the other teams.
It’s funny Merson doesn’t name any of the “brilliant” youngsters.If they were that good they would have been promoted already.They just have world class training facilities that’s all.