They might have had a few years of dire football under previous managers, but Tottenham Hotspur have always been a team that prides itself on playing football the ‘right way.’
Fans want to see exciting, attacking and invigorating football, and while it hasn’t always brought success, that’s what the North Londoners have usually endeavoured to play.
As a result, the club have seen a whole host of incredible attackers play for them over the years, especially on the wing.
Perhaps the most exciting of them all in modern history was the sublime Gareth Bale, and in good news, it looks like Hotspur Way may have just produced the next version of the Welsh legend.
Spurs' great wingers
Before getting to the player who could be Spurs’ next great winger, it’s worth looking at a couple of the club’s greats in that position in recent history, starting with someone who perhaps does not get the recognition he deserves from other fans: Aaron Lennon.
The former Lilywhites ace joined the club for just £1m from Leeds United in the summer of 2005 and remained in North London for almost a decade before he moved to Everton in February 2015.
During his long stint with the club, the Englishman amassed an incredible 364 appearances, in which he scored 30 goals, provided 76 assists and was a part of the last Lilywhites side to win a trophy when he started the 2008 League Cup final against London rivals Chelsea – he scored a couple against the red lot down the road as well.
A winger who looks set to cross the decade mark at the club this summer is Son Heung-min, who put pen to paper and moved to North London in a £22m deal from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2015.
Since then, he’s played 448 games, scored 173 goals, provided 95 assists, been handed the captain’s armband, and started in the club’s only Champions League final in June 2019.
Appearances
448
Minutes
31830′
Goals
173
Assists
95
Goal Involvements per Match
0.59
Minutes per Goal Involvement
118.76′
There can be no doubt over the South Korean’s status as a Spurs and Premier League icon for his incredible exploits over the years, but it would be fair to say that neither he nor Lennon could reach the levels Bale did during his peak at the club.
That peak was the 12/13 season, in which he scored 26 goals and provided ten assists in just 44 appearances, totalling 3891 minutes, which comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 1.22 games, or every 108.08 minutes.
It was a campaign that saw Real Madrid pay a world-record £85m fee for his services, and as things stand, it looks like Hotspur Way might have just produced a young talent who could one day be the club’s new Bale.
Spurs' new Bale
One of the few positives to come out of this season for Tottenham Hotspur has been the development of their youngsters, such as Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and academy star Mikey Moore.
Chalkboard
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The surface-level ones include the fact he’s a left-winger, he made his debut for the club as a teenager and is British, but the most significant is how well he has played in the academy and how those in the know are talking about him.
For example, in just 34 appearances for the Lilywhites’ various youth sides, the “future superstar,” as dubbed by respected analyst Ben Mattinson, has scored a staggering 21 goals and provided 15 assists.
Games
24
5
5
Goals
19
2
0
Assists
13
2
0
Goal Involvements per match
1.33
0.80
0.00
That means the teenage sensation is currently averaging 1.05 goal involvements every game in the academy, which is incredibly impressive.
That’s not all, though, as even though he is still just 17 and has battled to keep fit at points this season, the Southwark-born prospect has made quite the impression in the few appearances he’s made for the first team, and was just named in GOAL.com’s top 50 wonderkids.
GOAL.com's 10 best wonderkids in world football.
Most notably, in the Europa League game against AZ Alkmaar earlier in the campaign, he was unquestionably the star of the show.
Every time he had the ball at his feet, it felt as if he was going to make something happen, and it wasn’t just us who were left stunned, as teammate James Maddison described him as “fearless” and compared him to Neymar Jr of all people after the game. That certainly suggests he could be in the same bracket as a certain Bale as well.
Ultimately, there is a long way to go for Moore, and the pressure is only going to increase, but from what we have seen so far and with how people are talking about him, we would not be surprised to see him develop into a Bale-esque player for Spurs.
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