I am making my first contribution to 606 to make a point about Spurs that I am not sure has been made before; and I feel a compulsion to make it now when our lack of ability in the striking department has become nothing short of a crisis. My point is: have Spurs ever produced a successful home-grown striker? It is incredible that, for a club with such a distinguished history, the question could even be asked. Yet I think the answer may be 'no'. I have to reveal that I am old enough to remember Spurs being cheated out of a European Cup Final place by Benfica - and dodgy officials, of course. (Yes, the conspiracay against us goes back that far.) And in the fifty+ years I have been supporting Spurs I cannot remember a single striker of note that we have produced from our youth system. The nearest to it that I can think of is Mark Falco. Mark got his fair share of stick from Spurs fans and was not Jimmy Greaves. However, he knew where the goal was and was a pretty decent player who deserved more respect. Still, if he was the best we have managed, that tells you a lot. Have we even produced a striker who was a success, but only after leaving us? Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, Alan Gilzean, Martin Chivers, Steve Archibald, Teddy Sheringham, Jurgen Klinsmann, Gary Lineker, Dimitar Berbatov - all the products of other clubs. Maybe the Spurs youth system was fertile before the World War II. I don't know. But since then it seems to have been barren ground. Am I overlooking anyone? If not, isn't our lack of productivity in this area an absolute disgrace?
posted on 3/4/13
Goox article mate ...I cant think of any
Didnt crouchie come through our accadamy? Or did you mean decent strkers?
posted on 3/4/13
ohh dear a rival to Sandy
Welcome mate, good first article
im hoping in the next few yrs we can produce more home grown talent now that we have the facilitys in place
posted on 3/4/13
welcome aboard.....your missing paragraphs...and these........................
trust me...these guys love a few dots after each point........
posted on 3/4/13
Cant really think of any,maybe Frank Saul in the 60's and much later Nick Barmby, both I think came as youngsters.
posted on 3/4/13
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posted on 3/4/13
Jimmy Dimmock, netted the only goal of the 1921 cup final scored over 100 club goals for Spurs, local club lad, born in Edmonton. Les Bennett, member of our title winning side 1951, also scored 120 plus goals, born in Wood Green. Not conventional out and out strikers as we know, but nevertheless strikers all the same.
posted on 3/4/13
Mark Falco is the last decent Home grown Striker I can remember we have had a few pretenders since like Lee Barnard and we have Harry Kane & the lad Lancaster coming through however I think that the size of Harry Kane's nose is going to be a problem it is holding him back !!
posted on 3/4/13
Falco is the only decent striker to have come thru the ranks that I can recall.
He was part of the last batch of players I've seen who came thru the ranks together to become well-used squad players.
posted on 3/4/13
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posted on 3/4/13
"Why are we so unable to produce a decent striker?!"
If you look over the past 30 yrs, IMHO you will find very few top flight English clubs who developed their own striker, or bought a young talent from another club and then nurtured them into the finished article.
Owen is the most obvious example.
Lineker, Teddy, Shearer, Ferdinand etc are the opposite.