Spurs let world-class £30m star leave as a kid, now he’s playing like Salah

From an injury crisis that seemingly never ends to diabolically poor domestic form, this has been a season to forget for Tottenham Hotspur fans.

However, while the present is rather grim, the future looks incredibly bright.

Ange Postecoglou’s young signings, like Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, have been brilliant, and Hotspur Way appears to be producing a host of incredible talents, like Mikey Moore, Luca Williams-Barnett, and Tyrese Hall.

Within a few years, the North Londoners could have a genuinely brilliant team filled to the brim with homegrown talents. However, it would be an even better squad had they kept hold of a former academy gem now playing in the Premier League who’s been compared to Mohamed Salah.

The Spurs talents who got away

With the aforementioned youngsters, it does feel as if Spurs are on the precipice of a brilliant generation of talents coming out of Hotspur Way. But it’s not the first, as there are a number of graduates playing for top-flight teams across Europe, with the most obvious being Harry Kane.

The England captain joined the North Londoners as a teenager and, after going out on several loan spells, truly established himself as an undroppable member of the first team in the 14/15 season, when he scored 31 goals and provided five assists

in 51 appearances.

The Walthamstow-born striker would continue to star for the North Londoners until the summer of 2023 when he joined Bayern Munich for around £86m, with a final tally of 280 goals and 61 assists in 435 appearances.

Since moving to Germany, the 31-year-old has become even more effective up top, amassing a tally of 77 goals and 24 assists in 83 appearances, and looks set to win the Bundesliga this season in what will be the first major honour of his career.

An academy graduate who hasn’t had quite as stellar a career as Kane but is nonetheless playing in the Premier League is Kyle Walker-Peters.

After coming up through the youth system in N17, the Edmonton-born full-back made 24 appearances for the Lilywhites, in which he scored one goal and provided five assists, but was sent out on loan to Southampton in January 2020, and signed by the Saints for around £12m that summer.

Finally, Celtic defender Cameron Carter-Vickers is also a graduate from Tottenham’s academy, and while he was never quite able to establish himself in North London, he’s thrived north of the border.

In fact, should the Hoops lift the title this year – which they almost certainly will – he will have won the title every year since moving to Glasgow, which is pretty good going.

However, while Spurs aren’t going to lose any sleep over a player who’s doing well in Scotland, they may still regret losing an academy gem who’s now playing in the Premier League and has even been compared to Salah.

The Hotspur Way gem compared to Salah

Now, there are plenty more Hotspur Way graduates who are playing in England, from Marcus Edwards at Burnley to Oliver Skipp and Harry Winks at Leicester City.

However, when it comes down to current quality and future potential, Noni Madueke is the standout graduate in the Premier League.

The Barnet-born winger was part of the club’s youth set-up until the summer of 2018 when he joined Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven. There, his tally of 20 goals and 14 assists was enough to secure a £30m move to Chelsea in January 2023.

However, before we get to how he’s been getting on this season, it’s worth examining this comparison to Salah and where it comes from.

It primarily stems from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions in the Premier League and then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one. In this instance, it has concluded that the Egyptian ace is the fourth most similar attacking midfielder or winger to the Englishman.

The best way to see where this comparison has come from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including, but not limited to, non-penalty expected goals, shots on target, successful take-ons, crosses into the penalty area and more, all per 90.

Away from his statistical similarities to potentially the best winger in world football, the Blues talent, whom journalist Simon Phillips once dubbed “world-class,” has been enjoying a relatively successful season from a personal point of view.

For example, in just 28 appearances, totalling 1653 minutes, he’s scored eight goals and provided four assists.

That means the 23-year-old dangerman is averaging a goal involvement every 2.33 appearances, or every 137.75 minutes, a level of output that will surely increase as he develops.

Ultimately, Spurs are already a brilliant team when it comes to scoring goals and have a sensational crop of youngsters on the way through their academy. Still, we can’t help but imagine how much more dangerous they could be if Postecoglou had Madueke on his bench or in his starting lineup.