The future is bright: two promising young Spurs sign contract extensions

Amidst the snow and the FA Cup and the VAR and everything else, I somehow managed to miss this little bit of transfer news, and it’s good news if you like promising youngsters coming through the Tottenham Hotspur academy.

The club tweeted yesterday that two of its academy graduates — midfielders Tashan Oakley-Boothe and Samuel Shashoua, both 18 — have signed contract extensions with the club. Oakley-Boothe’s new deal takes him through 2021, and Shashoua’s through 2020.

Apparently the deal for both midfielders has been complete since December, along with new contracts for Japhet Tanganga and Keanan Bennetts, so it’s curious as to why the club waited until now to make the announcement. It’s actually interesting that they announced it at all, as Spurs don’t always comment on the contract statuses of their youth players.

Both TOB and Shash are considered two of the brightest stars in their academy class. Shashoua is a trickly dribbly attacking midfielder who likes to cut inside from the wing. He’s been in and out of the U23s this season; he currently has three goals this year, but bagged 15 last year.

Oakley-Boothe is a central midfielder who has been training with Tottenham’s first team for most of the season. He made the bench in Spurs’ home draw vs. Burnley earlier in the season, and the first FA Cup match against Newport, and made this first team debut in the EFL Cup win over Barnsley. Tashan is well liked by the Tottenham coaching staff and has been compared to Mousa Dembele, owning a similar skill-set. While he’s still crazy young, he looks at this time to be the central midfielder in the reserves most likely to eventually make the leap to the first team, following Harry Winks.

Not all youth players pan out and there’s a lot that has to go right for either Shashoua or Oakley-Booth to become full-fledged members of Spurs’ first team, but getting a contract extension is certainly a sign that they’re doing things right.