Tottenham have decided what comes next for one of their talented new January transfer window arrivals at the club
Tottenham have decided not to loan out Mason Melia on transfer deadline day with the hope that the young Irish striker will soon start getting involved around first team training, football.london understands.
Spurs saw off competition from top clubs across the Premier League and Europe to snap up one of the biggest young talents in Irish football in the 18-year-old. His January move had been long in the offing with the club securing a deal with St Patrick's Athletic back in February last year, worth an initial £1.6million - a record transfer for the League of Ireland - with the potential for add-ons to double that figure.
However, Melia did arrive with a very minor back complaint, which he played with during his final months in Ireland, and the decision was made to deal with it straight away at Tottenham to ensure he could hit the ground running at 100 per cent with the north London club.
The forward has already played 98 senior matches for St Pat's, including Europa League games, despite his age and been directly involved in 33 goals, scoring 25 and recording eight assists.
When football.london asked Frank about the youngster and what the club would do with him just before Melia's arrival he said: "There are a lot of moving parts and then when we know all the moving parts, we’ll take the final decision on what we’re doing."
Now the decision appears to be made by the Dane and the coaching staff that Melia will remain at Tottenham rather than be loaned out on transfer deadline day and he will begin working around the first team once he is given the all clear from his back issue.
Spurs have let Dane Scarlett go out on loan to Scottish side Hibernian and Melia can take his place in the Premier League U21 squad list but cannot be registered for the Champions League unless a first team player were to drop out for him.
Former Tottenham goalkeeper Josh Keeley told football.london last summer after joining Luton Town to expect big things from the teenager once he settles into life at the Premier League club.
"I mean he is a young lad, who has played a lot of senior games at the minute and he is playing constantly for St Pats. I think him coming over, signing for Spurs and getting to know all the boys is only going to help him progress," said the keeper. "He is going to do very, very well."