Tottenham Lose Another Youngster After Highly Rated Reo Griffiths Quits the Club
Tottenham Hotspur youngster Reo Griffiths has become the latest young player to depart the club after cancelling his third-year scholarship deal that he signed last month.
Football.London report that Griffiths, 18, is currently without a club after cancelling his deal, with Ligue 1 outfit Lyon believed to be leading the chase for the young striker's signature.
The striker was unknown to majority of Spurs fans - that was, until he scored four goals against Arsenal for the Under-18's in a 9-0 victory last season. His goals during the derby capped off a campaign that brought the highly rated youngster 33 goals in domestic competitions, 27 of them coming in the league campaign.
There has been a surprise exodus of academy starlets leaving the club, which is strange considering Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has built a reputation for taking England's young talents and turning them into international stars.
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The loss of Griffiths follows the departures of Keanan Bennetts to Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach in a deal that could end up being worth £2m, highly-rated 16-year-old Noni Madueke turned down a new deal at the club to join PSV.
Finally there is Marcus Edwards, the 19-year-old midfielder was one of the big hopes for Pochettino, who compared the starlet to a young Lionel Messi. Edwards looked set to be one of the club's brightest youngsters, but is now eyeing the exit door with talks upcoming.
It is understood that older academy products, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josh Onomah and Kyle Walker-Peters could all leave the club on loan this summer in search of first-team football, despite Spurs giving academy graduates the second most amount of minutes in the Premier League last season.
"If you were seven out of 10 four years ago, you were going to have the possibility to play," said Pochettino of the club's academy players breaking into his squad. "But now we have said to them that they need to be an eight or an eight-and-a-half. That is more demanding for them.
"We have built a very strong squad and a very strong starting XI and it is difficult to get the possibility to play. Now the level is higher and higher every season. Now it is not only about quality. It is not only about showing something good.
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"You need to show quality, mental strength, physical condition and everything if you want to get the possibility to play in the first team. In the last two years we have been competing for the Premier League title, for the top four. Now the demands are higher than before."
