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Tottenham’s academy has been left behind while Arsenal’s gives Mikel Arteta rocket fuel

Arsenal supporters might like to remind Harry Kane of the image of him posing in the club’s shirt as a youngster, but it only really serves to highlight how the club let England’s greatest-ever striker slip through their fingers to their north London rivals.

Kane has broken goalscoring records for Tottenham Hotspur and England, and remains the highest-scorer in north London derbies, having netted 14 goals against Arsenal – the club that released him as a youngster.

Spurs fans can summon fond memories of their home-grown hero, but it is Arsenal supporters who have been singing “he’s one of our own” since Kane’s departure to Bayern Munich.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal revolution has been super-charged by Hale End products such as Bukayo Saka, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri - all of whom have made 30 League appearances or more - and most recently 15-year-old Max Dowman. By contrast, Tottenham have seen three academy graduates make 30 League appearances or more since 2012, the year Kane and Andros Townsend made their League debuts.

Ryan Mason made his League debut in 2014 and played 53 times. Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp, both now at Leicester City in the Championship, made a combined total of 205 League appearances for Tottenham. Japhet Tanganga made 27 League appearances, Kyle Walker-Peters 12 and Marcus Edwards, once likened to a young Lionel Messi, by former manager Mauricio Pochettino, never played for Tottenham in the League.

Arsenal's Max Dowman (left) and Ethan Nwaneri

Hale End graduates Max Dowman (left) and Ethan Nwaneri continue to be embedded into Arsenal’s first team - Arsenal FC via Getty Images/Stuart MacFarlane

While Hale End and Cobham have become famous production lines for Arsenal and Chelsea, Hotspur Way, built for £45m and opened in 2012, is yet to become synonymous with its own star alumni.

According to data from the CIES Football Observatory, Tottenham had the fifth-lowest percentage of minutes given to home-grown players (1.3) in the Premier League last season. Along with Burnley, Brentford and Everton, Spurs went into this weekend as one of four clubs yet to give a single minute of League action to a home-grown product this term.

The CIES define a home-grown – or club-trained – player as one for whom the club is their first and where they have played for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21.

Arsenal, who entertain Tottenham in Sunday’s north London derby, were sixth for handing out home-grown minutes in the Premier League last term – the same position they occupy for the metric this season.

It was said to be a bugbear of former Spurs chairman Daniel Levy that the state-of-the-art training facility he effectively built himself was not producing market-leading talents.

The issue became a source of irritation for some of those who worked with Levy, with recent history proving that the League title winners often have high academy output. The highest percentage of minutes given to home-grown players last season was at champions Liverpool.

One source said: “Daniel talked a good game about the academy, but he seemed to think he could build Hotspur Way and the players would just magically appear. The scouting and recruitment was behind Tottenham’s rivals and the investment just wasn’t there in terms of wages that young players could get elsewhere.

“The appointments of José Mourinho, Nuno [Espírito Santo] and Antonio Conte set the club back years in terms of the academy. José and Antonio were given the brief of winning as quickly as possible, so it was understandable they weren’t really focussed on the future or the academy.

“José was asked to show he could give a pathway to young players and he picked out Dane Scarlett, but there was a feeling it was to show people he was trying.”

Since making his Premier League debut, aged 16, under Mourinho in 2021, Scarlett has made only a further eight League appearances for Spurs, although he did feature as a late substitute in the Champions League victory over Copenhagen this season.

Asked whether or not Scarlett’s Champions League performance, in which he won a late penalty, could lead to more opportunities, head coach Thomas Frank was not entirely encouraging.

Dane Scarlett in action for Tottenham

Dane Scarlett, 21, featured as a late substitute in Tottenham’s Champions League victory over Copenhagen earlier this month - Getty Images/Nigel French

“He needs to play minutes and games,” said Frank. “That’s the biggest thing and right now the competition is tough here. And to be able to give him, let’s say, three, four, five games in a row is probably a little bit difficult. It’s never impossible, but it’s a little bit difficult.”

Scarlett has seen four Tottenham managers come and go, together with big lurches between styles of play, since breaking through to the first team. A lack of joined-up thinking has been evident since the Pochettino era, when former academy manager John McDermott was heavily involved.

“Mauricio would involve John in everything,” one source told Telegraph Sport. “John would be in every meeting, so Mauricio would know exactly who was coming through the academy and John could suggest pathways for players. Daniel would find out about a young player if he happened to be in one of the meetings and Mauricio and John were talking about him.

“That dynamic changed after Mauricio was sacked and then John left to join the FA, which was a big blow for the academy and took them a long time to start recovering from.”

Pochettino once predicted that Troy Parrott would become a “very important player for Tottenham”, but the striker made only two League appearances for the club – both under Mourinho. Following a series of loans, he joined AZ Alkmaar permanently in July last year and kept Republic of Ireland’s World Cup dreams alive with a hat-trick in the comeback win over Hungary.

Troy Parrott celebrates after scoring for Ireland

Troy Parrott, who has kept Ireland’s World Cup hopes alive, was a Tottenham player before joining AZ Alkmaar permanently last year - Reuters/Bernadett Szabo

Speaking to the BBC on his journey to become an Irish hero, Parrott, now aged 23, said: “I feel the tough road I have had definitely played a part. Moving to the Netherlands gave me a sense of being wanted, I felt appreciated and sometimes for a player that’s all they need. I know playing in England didn’t go so well and believe me I really beat myself up about it at the time.”

Noni Madueke, who joined Arsenal from Chelsea this summer and is currently out injured, is another player who moved to the Netherlands. He played for Tottenham’s Under-18s when he was 15. But a year later, in 2018, he left the club to join PSV Eindhoven.

Under former Manchester United youth prospect Simon Davies, who was appointed academy director in 2023 and is rated highly inside and outside Tottenham, there are said to be signs that the situation could improve soon enough for Frank to potentially feel some of the benefit – if Spurs can avoid another swift change of head coach.

“The success or failure of any academy comes from the top down,” said one expert. “If you haven’t got a head coach who wants to develop and play young players, or if a club keeps changing the coach and the style, then it will be extremely difficult for the academy to succeed. Chelsea might look like an exception to that rule now, but they went for a long time without a home-grown player after John Terry.

“That’s where Arsenal have benefited with Mikel Arteta. He is clearly very engaged with the academy and playing young players, and he has the job security to be able to do so. Frank has only been in the Spurs job for two minutes and his team keeps being booed off by the fans. It’s no wonder he hasn’t thrown an academy player into that environment in the League yet.”

Mikey Moore, on loan at Rangers, is among those at the front of the queue of academy graduates who might step off the production line to make a real impact at Tottenham.

The 18-year-old made 10 league appearances for Spurs last season and scored his first goal for the club in a Europa League success over Elfsborg. James Maddison joked that Moore reminded him of Neymar in a Europa League victory over AZ Alkmaar.

His agent, Marlon Fleischmann, who is managing director at Unique Sports, also represented Kane and Townsend through their graduations from youth players to first-team stars.

Moore scored his first goal for Rangers before the international break just gone and Fleischmann said: “Mikey is at the stage of his career where he needs minutes and he needs to play.

Mikey Moore applauds Rangers fans

Mikey Moore, who made 10 league appearances for Spurs last season, is currently on loan at Rangers - Getty Images/Ian MacNicol

“It was the same with Andros and Harry when they went on loan. They both had the characters to cope with going on loan and playing in demanding environments such as Millwall. Mikey is very similar in that respect. Tottenham were understanding. Johan Lange (Tottenham’s co-sporting director) and Andy Scoulding (performance manager) have both been excellent.”

Kane and Townsend went to a number of clubs on loan before cementing regular places in the Tottenham first team. “It is far too early to say what will happen next season, but Mikey has to keep playing now,” said Fleischmann. “Just as Andros and Harry did.”

Fleischmann also has a foot in the other camp, as another player he works with is Nwaneri, who, aged 18, has already made 33 League appearances for Arsenal.

“Arsenal’s strength has been their stability and collective vision,” said Fleischmann. “Mikel Arteta has been given the time and trust to use the club’s young players, and it’s a really good environment for them.”

Aside from Moore, another teenager tipped for big things at Spurs is 17-year-old Lucá Williams-Barnett, who signed his first professional contract with the club last month and made his senior debut this season as a late substitute in the Carabao Cup victory over Doncaster Rovers.

Williams-Barnett, who likes to play as a No 10, has already drawn comparisons to Paul Gascoigne and Glenn Hoddle. He was top scorer for Tottenham’s Under-18s last season while still at school, netting more than once from the halfway line, and is currently the top scorer for the Under-21s.

On Williams-Barnett, a source said: “Everybody in football has heard about this kid or knows about him. If he was at Arsenal, he’d have probably already played seven or eight times by now. It will be interesting to see what Tottenham’s plan for him is.”

Kane will always be one of their own, but Tottenham need a new home-grown hero to redress the balance with their north London rivals.

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