Tottenham should avoid Williams-Barnett deal after what I saw happenwith ‘incredible’ forward
Luca Williams-Barnett has the potential to become a future great at Tottenham.
It is not every day that a football club produces a talent levels above his peers, but the Lilywhites have done it, and he is brilliant.
Williams-Barnett made his debut for Tottenham as a substitute in Spurs’ win over Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup third round and hasn’t looked back.
He is an exceptional talent and one that the Lilywhites must handle with the utmost care, unlike some of their past rising stars.
The rise of Dane Scarlett at Tottenham
Dane Scarlett was Jose Mourinho’s protege while he was head coach at Tottenham.
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He made his senior debut on 26 November 2020 for the Lilywhites as a substitute in their UEFA Europa League match against Ludogorets Razgrad.
Mourinho had nothing but praise for the young starlet while at Tottenham and was convinced he could become the next big thing in the Premier League.
In quotes provided by Soccer News on 25 February 2021, he said: “He is a diamond, a kid with incredible potential.
“He is going to be a fantastic player and I hope everything around him goes well. He is a striker, a number nine, I have been playing him from the sides similar to Marcus Rashford and he is very clever.”
I’ve never seen a striker head a ball so well at such a young age. Scarlett never used to cower from the pressure; he embraced it.
But five years later, the England international is playing the odd game with Tottenham’s Under-21s and spends the rest of his days warming Thomas Frank’s bench.
Dane Scarlett never reached superstardom thanks to Tottenham’s mismanagement
I’ll never forget the feeling of sheer and utter pride on 27 July 2022 when Tottenham announced Scarlett would be loaned to Portsmouth.
For the most part, it went well. He netted four league goals for the then League One side and provided one assist in over 2,000 minutes played.
Then Ipswich Town happened, where he made 12 substitute appearances for a Championship side who were hunting Premier League promotion.
Granting minutes to a wide-eyed youngster during such a monumental time in the club’s history was hardly at the top of their to-do list, and Spurs recalled him in December 2023, where he spent most of the season on the bench once again.
His loan to Oxford United during the 2024/25 season followed a similar pattern.
Scarlett made 22 appearances for the Championship side, scored four goals and was recalled by Tottenham halfway through the season, only to sit on the bench before he underwent groin surgery in early May 2025.
If you asked the Lilywhites what went wrong, they’d probably go into a spiel about loan clubs not holding up their end of the bargain. But was it also those teams that refused to play him once he returned?
No, Scarlett’s is a typical case of mismanagement at the highest level, where a player was loaned for a third time in the hope that doing something the exact same way will somehow, someway produce a different outcome.
It was rookie behaviour, make no doubt about it, and the same cannot happen with another, arguably more talented rising star.
Where does this leave Luca Williams-Barnett?
I’ve heard it all before: ‘Scarlett needs just one loan from Tottenham to kickstart his career’. And maybe he does, I just don’t want the club to take that chance with Williams-Barnett.
Frank has said the Lilywhites are in a rebuilding phase. Adding one block at a time, and right now, he’s in the defensive stage.
He wasn’t being untruthful; it’s clear as day in Spurs’ Premier League statistics this season, according to Sofascore.
The attack needs work. Spurs have netted 1.9 goals per game from 1.4 big chances, which is a 0.5 underperformance.
If you asked fans, they’d probably tell Frank to get a move on, and he would likely respond for them to trust the process. But if you asked me, I’d say the midfield is probably next, and that’s where Williams-Barnett comes in.
The 17-year-old recorded 32 goal contributions in 23 games for the Under-18s last season and 13 in 10 matches this season. He is as efficient in front of the goal as he is creating for his teammates and can weave out of tight spaces in the blink of an eye.
If Frank is in the process of squad building at Spurs, would it not make sense for him to have all of the parts?
And given the fact that Williams-Barnett recently signed his first professional contract at Tottenham, it’s safe to say that the Lilywhites hierarchy sees him as one of those parts.
Therefore, the time to integrate him into the first team is now, while Frank is still moulding his team. Not when the dust is settled and the squad is fixed to the point that not even the most talented of youngsters would earn their place.