Tottenham Hotspur announced today on their website and social media today that they have signed a trio of talented 18-year old youth academy players to new contracts. Goalkeeper Tom Glover, fullback Kyle Walker-Peters, and forward Shayon Harrison have new deals that will keep them wearing Lilywhite through 2018.
We are pleased to announce @tglover93, @ShayonHarrison & @KyleLPeters have signed new contracts until 2018. #COYS pic.twitter.com/12N8owxjUy
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 24, 2015
This is pretty exciting news! All three of these players are well known to Spurs fans who follow the youth ranks, and all three are also very highly regarded by the Tottenham coaching staff.
Tom Glover is an Australian keeper who has been a mainstay with Spurs' U21 squad. He also turns 18 today, which makes a new contract a great birthday present. He's made a couple of traveling Europa League squad this season, but has yet to make his Spurs first team debut. He's a fantastic prospect – we ranked him at #15 in our summer prospect rankings, and we probably severely under-ranked him – who has been compared to Socceroos legend Mark Schwarzer.
Right back Kyle Walker-Peters (no relation to right back Kyle Walker) has been getting significant minutes in the U21 ranks this season, and even got some first team minutes in Spurs' preseason friendlies this summer. The consensus is that he's got the potential to eventually challenge for a spot in the first team, and members of the Carty-Free writing team have openly advocated for playing him in various Europa League fixtures this fall. Hasn't happened yet, but here's hoping. We ranked him #10 in our prospect listings.
So we totally goofed on Shayon Harrison's summer prospect rankings, ranking him in the Honorable Mentions category at #20, but he's obviously much better than that. He's scored four goals in nine matches for the U21s this season and made the traveling squad when Spurs went to Qarabag last month.
All three are gems in the academy and continue the Spurs coaching staff's recent string of contract extensions for academy players that included players like Harry Winks, Cameron Carter-Vickers, and Josh Onomah. Spurs are obviously heavily invested in developing players from their youth academy, and by the looks of things these three players have the tools to eventually break through into the starting 11.