Earning their Spurs: Tottenham youth give Postecoglou reason to be hopeful

Tottenham has its first taste of silverware in the Ange Postecoglou era, with Spurs fans hoping youngsters success a foretaste of things to come.

It might only have been the Premier League 2 title but Tottenham Hotspur U21s defeat of an impressive Sunderland in the final of the competition will not just have warmed the cockles of Spurs’ supporters hearts.

The 3-1 victory will have given the team's Australian boss Ange Postecoglou plenty of confidence that the London club's production line of young talent will be generating at least a handful of players who conceivably could figure in his plans for next season, his second in the job.

For success starved Spurs fans, who have not seen the senior team lift any sort of trophy since the 2008 League Cup, the joy was palpable on a drizzly day at White Hart Lane, as the sun shone in brilliant bursts only to be drowned out by the occasional heavy thunderstorm.

It was something of a metaphor for a game in which Sunderland, for long periods, looked threatening only to be outshone in the end by Spurs more polished and clinical finishing. Will Lankshear, who also collected the competition's player of the season award, netting twice and George Abbott once before the visitors notched a late consolation in stoppage time.

More pertinently for Postecoglou, several of the young players he had brought to Melbourne and who had figured in the friendly against Newcastle at the MCG, played prominent roles in this victory.

That game against the Magpies took place Thursday morning London time, so for the likes of Abbott, Tyrese Hall, Yago Santiago and Jamie Donley to be involved at the MCG and then fly back to London and back up less than 48 hours later for the biggest game of their season speaks volumes about their fitness and their mental strength.

Abbott weighed in with the cherry on the sundae with the third goal but the player who perhaps impressed the most was Tyreese Hall, who had played some 19 minutes off the bench at the MCG.

The midfielder's close control and technique stood out, and his ability to carry the ball from deep and thread his way past defenders augurs well for his future.

Sure, the leap from being a championship winning player at youth and under age level to senior football is enormous. The sad reality is that for many of the 22 starters (plus those who came off the bench), last Sunday’s final will be a career highpoint.

But for a few others it will be the starting point for long tenure at the highest level.

Hall has already tasted the thrill of Premier League involvement, as has Donley. The latter has made a handful of appearances off the bench this season for the first team, while Postecoglou showed his faith in Hall by including him in the first team squad for the first time this season when Spurs faced Manchester City in that pivotal Premiership deciding match at White Hart Lane earlier in May.

As well as the aforementioned youngsters, Postecoglou can also look to the likes of Ashley Phillips and Alfie Devine, a centre back and midfielder respectively, who both spent the second half of the season gaining invaluable first team experience in the battleground of The Championship with Plymouth Argyle, whom they helped to avoid relegation.

Given that Spurs have now qualified for the Europa League (one of England’s two representatives in that tournament, along with Manchester United) the need for squad depth will only intensify. There will be many more matches for Postecoglou's side to navigate, especially if they can go further than they did in both domestic Cup competitions last season — when they lost at the first hurdle to Fulham in the League Cup and then to Manchester City in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

But the Premier League will be the priority, and with many senior expected to leave and also arrive at White Hart Lane during the close season, there may not be too many opportunities for this talented group of youngsters to experience first team action in that competition.

However, Postecoglou has show in the past that he will use young players if and when he thinks they are ready, so the backbone of the Under 21 title winning side may well get a chance to shine in some of the European matches or domestic Cup ties. That's what they will be hoping for anyway.

All are likely to get further chances to impress their boss when Tottenham embark on their pre season friendlies after the European Championships and the Copa America, when several first teamers involved in international duty can expect to have time off.