Ange Postecoglou saluted his four teenage starters after they helped Tottenham to a hard-fought 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 lineup in Budapest, with full debuts handed to the academy graduates Mikey Moore and Will Lankshear, but the duo brushed off their inexperience to combine to set up Pape Sarr’s opener.
Sarr scored amid a ferocious atmosphere at the Groupama Arena and while Ferencvaros pushed the visitors, the Spurs substitute Brennan Johnson wrapped up the points with a smart finish four minutes from time to score for a fifth consecutive game.
Barnabas Varga reduced the deficit at the start of injury time, but Postecoglou’s side, with an average age of 23 after the teenagers 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, Postecoglou said laughing: “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 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. While we want to be a team that has an impact this year, it’s important we’re developing players along the way so that whatever sort of period of 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 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 he produced a number of other decisive passes, including to set up Timo Werner for a golden second-half chance.
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“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.
“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 the Ferencvaros head coach, Pascal Jansen, unhappy.
“We created enough moments 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.”