Tottenham set to lose academy winger to Bundesliga club

We’ve had a fair amount of good news the past couple of days. Now here’s some news that might not be so great. According to Dan Kilpatrick in the Standard, Tottenham Hotspur look like they’re about to lose one of their more promising academy players to Germany. Keanan Bennetts, a 19-year old winger, is close to a move to Germany to play for Borussia Mönchengladbach as he looks for a path to first team football.

This is the latest in what has been a bit of a trend over the past year or so: German clubs hoovering up young English footballing talent in order to possibly get the new English stars of tomorrow onto their clubs today. Remember Jadon Sancho, the young Manchester City player that Spurs were close to signing last year? He ended up at Borussia Dortmund and has gotten not-insignificant first team minutes. Players like Ademola Lookman, Reece Oxford, and Kaylen Hinds all decided to play in the Bundesliga because they felt as though their path to the first team was blocked in the Premier League.

As far as losing Bennetts goes, that’s a bit of a bummer -- he only signed a new contract at Spurs last December, and is considered one of the brighter stars in Spurs’ academy. These are the kinds of things that Bennetts can do:

But you can understand the impulse — these are prime development years and you can understand why a young player might want to try to make it in the first team in Germany as opposed to U23 Premier League football or a season or three on loan.

Spurs will probably get a few million pounds for Bennetts and it’s unlikely that it will go to a tribunal since he’s already on a professional contract. Kilpatrick describes the club as “relaxed” about the transfer.

In better news, the same article by Kilpatrick says that Spurs have offered a professional contract to Bennetts’ teammate Reo Griffiths, a striker in Spurs’ U19s. Griffiths exploded this year, scoring 34 goals this season for the U18s and U19s and is rightfully getting some buzz, but has also been dragging his feet and considering his options as to whether to sign for Spurs or move on.