A former Spurs wonderkid who was compared with Thibault Courtois as a teenager is now without a club - so just what happened to him?
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Shortly afterwards, that 14-year-old goalkeeper was on a plan to north London for a trial. Two years later, he signed his first contract with the club and was compared by his coach to Thibault Courtois. Everything seemed set fair for a glittering career to follow.
Now, at the age of 27 and in his theoretical prime, Thomas Glover is without a club after being released by Middlesbrough. He’s gone from a future star to a player in search for a new home via two continents and a full-blown riot. So what happened?
Why Thomas Glover was meant to be ‘the next Thibault Courtois’
Glover was a junior playing for Australian side Sutherland Sharks when their goalkeeping coach, former Arsenal player and England youth international Ron Tilsed, decided he was simply too good to be kept as a secret in New South Wales.
Tilsed got in touch with Jennings – and Glover impressed to the extent that Spurs moved quickly to make sure that they tied the towering young goalkeeper down to the club for the foreseeable future. He was earmarked for greatness, with Spurs’ goalkeeping coach at the time, Perry Suckling, apparently comparing him to Thibault Courtois due to his huge frame and commanding presence.
Already 6’4” as a teenager, Glover went through his youth career ticking all the relevant boxes – a run to the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup, a goalkeeper of the tournament award at an Under-19 level event in Europe. He was even called up to Spurs’ first-team squad on occasion as a back-up to Hugo Lloris and Michael Vorm.
As well as Tilsed, Suckling and the legendary Jennings, Mark Schwarzer, one of Australia’s greatest goalkeepers, was a fan and sought him out to offer coaching, and Glover played at both Under-20 and Under-23 level for his country.
For five years, Glover stayed at Spurs and waited for his chance. There were loan moves, a year at Australian side Central Coast Mariners and a brief stint with Swedish outfit Helsingborg, but they yielded just four senior appearances between them as Glover – an advert for the power of nominative determinism if ever there was one – found himself stuck behind more experienced stoppers time and again.
He never got his chance at Spurs. At the age of 21, he was released, without ever making his debut for the club that saw him as such a sparkling prospect. Glover’s career wasn’t done though, and neither has it been entirely uneventful.
A riot in Melbourne and struggles at Middlesbrough
Having left Spurs, Glover returned to Australia where he signed with Melbourne City, a member of Manchester City’s multi-club stable, making 109 appearances over the course of four seasons with the club as their first choice.
He even earned his first call-up to the senior national team in 2023, ahead of a friendly match against Mexico – but he didn’t get on the pitch, and still awaits his first cap. Still, everything was mostly going well, apart from the riot.
In December 2022, fans of local rivals Melbourne Victory entered the field of play during a derby game as part of a planned protest against a decision to sell the A-League Grand Final hosting rights to the government of New South Wales. What hadn’t been planned, at least officially, was the rapid descent into violence.
Objects were hurled at Glover, who responded by throwing a flare back towards the offending supporters. He stood still, staring them down as they attacked him, a couple attempting to grab him despite the best efforts of security before a large bin sailed through the air and smashed into his face.
Glover, who was not punished for throwing the flare, was left with a concussion while the referee, who also stood between Glover and the onrushing Victory fans, was also hurt. It was a chaotic scene to punctuate an otherwise steady career back in Australia.
Eight months later, Glover left Melbourne and found himself back in England – this time with Middlesbrough. Signed as a back-up, he ended up starting 17 league games over two seasons due to injuries – and perhaps demonstrated why he had never quite made the breakthrough that had been expected at Spurs.
Although a commanding presence in the box and excellent at dealing with high balls, his handling skills came under scrutiny and errors and misjudgements meant that by the end of the 2024/25 campaign, he was credited with having conceded three goals more than he ‘should’ have done according to expected goals in the space of those 17 matches.
Few Middlesbrough fans were kind about Glover when it was announced in early September that his contract had been terminated by mutual consent, with local reporting suggesting that the goalkeeper had been keen to move on for some time.
As it stands, Glover is without a club and waiting to work out what comes next in a career that has never quite taken off despite his physical attributes and the many experienced stoppers who believed he could become something special in his youth. At just 27, at least, he still has the time to find a way to prove them right.