One year ago, Tottenham Hotspur managed to pry Archie Gray out of Leeds United, snaffling up a player who was considered basically Leeds royalty. According to the Athletic, they’re about to snap up another talented Leeds academy player.
Spurs are reportedly set to sign 16-year old Leeds United striker Oliver Boast to add to their development squad. Boast is considered one of the jewels of Leeds’ academy, much like Gray and his little brother Harry, also a Tottenham target. Boast apparently has not yet signed a professional contract with Leeds, so compensation is an issue — according to The Athletic, Spurs can either work directly with Leeds to find an equitable transfer fee, or a football tribunal will intervene and set the fee. But either way, it sounds certain that Boast will be joining Spurs this summer.
What kind of a player is Oliver Boast? Here’s one paragraph from The Athletic’s article that describes his style of play.
Those who have coached Boast at Thorp Arch describe him as a modern No 9, who can lead the line and can play as a lone striker. Boast’s speed has been described as one of his best attributes, as he runs off the shoulder of the last man and gets in behind opposition defences.
It’s important not to put the cart in front of the horse when it comes to young players. Football is littered with talented 16 year old footballers who don’t develop in the way they hope, or plateau at a level below that of the Premier League. That shouldn’t be considered a failure per se; developing a player and selling him to a League Two club is still a definite win for Tottenham’s academy, and players can have perfectly solid professional football careers even if they don’t crack Spurs’ first team. Look at someone like Troy Parrott, once one of the more exciting 16 year olds in Tottenham’s academy — he’s doing fantastic in the Eredivisie even if he never quite got to the point where he was an option for Spurs.
Anyway, this is a continuation of Tottenham’s focus on finding, signing, and developing young talent. Spurs should be making a couple of these signings every window, as far as I’m concerned. And if we’re lucky, in a few years we’ll all be able to brag about Boast.