Tottenham Hotspur may not have hit the ground running in the transfer market, but they’re certainly working hard to get their new coaching team in place.
Tottenham agreed terms with Thomas Frank following the departure of Ange Postecoglou and contacted Brentford earlier this week to hold talks regarding compensation and staff.
Now, Spurs are set to bring in Justin Cochrane, Chris Haslam and Joe Newton to work alongside Frank as part of the backroom staff at Tottenham.
In doing so, Tottenham have made a £10million decision which could be extremely beneficial to the likes of Mikey Moore and other young players at Spurs.
Cochrane is the most high-profile of the three coaches set to join Frank at Tottenham, as he is also part of Thomas Tuchel’s England coaching staff.
The 43-year-old is very highly rated, with The Athletic deeming him “among the most promising in the English game”.
And Fabrizio Romano has reported that Tottenham will pay Brentford a compensation fee of £10million for Cochrane.
Cochrane will be a great fit for a Tottenham team that boasts numerous young first-team stars and plenty of top academy talents.
Cochrane has considerable experience working with young players – he was previously an academy coach at Tottenham and has also managed England at various youth levels.
While at Spurs, he helped oversee the development of the likes of Noni Madueke, Kyle Walker-Peters, Japhet Tanganga, Oliver Skipp and Josh Onomah.
In the England setup, he helped nurture the likes of Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento among many others.
Meanwhile, his time at Manchester United saw the club win FA Youth Cup for the first time since 2011, and the side in the final included Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo.
And experience aside, Cochrane is more than just a coach – he’s a great man-manager and a great teacher.
As a result, the likes of Mikey Moore, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and many others will surely thrive under the new setup.
What has been said about Justin Cochrane
Former Spurs coach Chris Ramsey sung Cochrane’s praises in an interview with The Athletic in 2022.
“He had a massive passion for the game,” said Ramsey. “He ended up working with the young players and showed his skill and ability to teach. That is what he is – an absolutely fantastic teacher and coach.
“He wasn’t one of those people who came in and thought, ‘I’ve played the game, so I know everything’. He was respectful, but he picked it up very quickly.
“He went back to university (Cochrane graduated in 2017 from The Open University with a degree in business, leadership and management). He wanted to learn different things and he’s also an innovator.”
Meanwhile, Luke Amos – who played under Cochrane in the Spurs setup – said: “He is so good to work with and you can always approach him. Everyone connected with him easily.
“He is not going to be the same with me when I was 14 and when I’m 20 – he adapts.
“When I was going through a few things, Justin would help out – like my mentality and not getting too frustrated – because that is something I definitely struggled with when I was younger.”
And Cochrane himself previously said: “I had a passion for helping young people achieve their full potential.”