Mauricio Pochettino to engage with youth at Spurs

Mauricio Pochettino can find quality in the Spurs academy

Spurs get through managers at a faster rate than Alex Johnson does doughnuts, well nearly, still our intrepid news reporter thinks that the newest Spurs manager can find real quality in the youth set up at White Hart Lane.

Mauricio Pochettino was named Spurs manager in May and is now busy at work as many of the first-team has returned for pre-season.

The Argentine became the club's third manager in two seasons, after Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood both took charge in the last campaign. Indeed the Spurs hot-seat has become a bit of a poisoned chalice in recent years as the club strive for the top four, so what should the fans at White Hart Lane expect from life under Pochettino?

The former Argentina defender spent only 16 months at Southampton after four years in Spain as manager of Espanyol. It was a short yet fruitful period on the south coast as last season Pochettino led Southampton to a club record Premier League points tally and a superb eighth-place finish. Even though it was initially a surprise appointment, the Southampton fans will be disappointed to lose a manager who did a brilliant job of rallying the players and getting them to play an attractive fast-paced brand of football that troubled many of the Premier League big guns.

Pochettino's Espanyol and Southampton sides were renowned for a high tempo pressing game and being comfortable on the ball. There is nothing to suggest he will deviate from that plan at Spurs and it is an exciting prospect to see if Pochettino can get a squad of better players buying into that attacking philosophy and equalling, or surpassing, the entertainment served up by Southampton. There is talent within the Spurs squad that suggests the likes of Christian Eriksen, Andros Townsend and even Erik Lamela could flourish in Pochettino's favoured set up. Add in the fact the manager is likely to have a large budget to play with and that should be enough to get Spurs fans salivating at the prospect of the season ahead.

The main aspect which attracted Spurs to Pochettino was the progress shown by the younger generation of Saints stars during his stay on the South Coast. The likes of Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Jay Rodriguez, Calum Chambers and James Warde-Prowse really prospered under his regime. The statistics for last season showed that Southampton had the second youngest team in the Premier League, with an average age of just over 24 years old.

Pochettino also earned plaudits at Espanyol for successfully blooding players from the club's youth set-up in the first team, and the Spurs hierarchy will be hoping he can replicate what he has done so far in his managerial career at White Hart Lane. During Sherwood's ill-fated tenure in the hot seat he started the process of blooding younger faces in the first team at White Hart Lane - with varying degrees of success. Given the millions spent by Daniel Levy on the Spurs' youth academy in recent years, the time is now for a new generation to come through. The likes of Harry Kane and Nabil Bentaleb showed under Sherwood they are capable of playing at Premier League level, so the ambitions are that Pochettino can take them to the next step and also find some more undiscovered gems in the White Hart Lane youth set-up.

At Southampton Pochettino showed he was never afraid to give youth a chance and that should be a breath of fresh air at Spurs. In recent years a succession of managers at White Hart Lane have thrown money at new players in an attempt to get to the next level, and that has not always worked. The revolving door at the club has seen players coming and going at a rapid rate, with big money and large contracts being handed to players that ultimately under-performed. That method has failed to generate success and such a policy doesn't help create team unity and spirit -which is key for any team wanting a top four finish season after season.

Given the size and professional set up of the youth academy at Spurs there are certain to be gems to discover. Previously these youngsters wouldn't get a sniff of the first team, go out on loan to the lower leagues and end up getting released without donning a Spurs shirt. Under the Pochettino regime this next generation will hopefully get that opportunity to impress. Undoubtedly some will work out and some won't, but at least they will get their chance and only through trying them in the first team could Spurs find a top player that could come into the side and become a mainstay for the next decade.

Despite all the high hopes for the youth, that isn't going to be an overnight transformation. So that means Pochettino is likely to be handed a large war chest. Spurs are perennial big spenders - they spent over 100 million last summer - but many of those bought with the money made from the 85 million sale of Gareth Bale woefully under-performed. The likes of Roberto Soldado, Lamela and Etienne Capoue struggled last season and it is going to be a busy summer for Pochettino to analyse the squad to see who fits his tactics, to get rid of the deadwood, and bring in his own players.

A lingering question for Spurs fans to ponder is how good is Pochettino when it comes to spending big money? His success at Southampton was backed by home grown talent and players brought in during the Nigel Adkins era. Of the signings he made only Dejan Lovren could be classed a success. Victor Wanyama did OK but was inconsistent, while Dani Osvaldo was an undoubted flop. Pochettino spent 12.8 million on the forward and he played only 13 times before he was suspended for fighting a team-mate and then shipped out back to Italy on loan after six months at Southampton. While Pochettino has developed a reputation for bringing through youth, he is not proven at making high-quality big-money signings - that is something that must change at Spurs if he is to be a success.

If all the pieces of the puzzle come together then it could be an exciting time on the horizon at White Hart Lane. The risk is that if Spurs simply cannot play the Pochettino way, then there might not be a Plan B. If Pochettino ends up failing to meet the ambitions of Levy then he will simply become the latest manager to be shown the door at The Lane.