Academy star Reo Griffiths will stay at Tottenham Hotspur

Yesterday, Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane signed a new six year contract worth £200m/week, committing his future to the club that developed him and turned him into a star. Today, another promising young Tottenham academy striker has also announced that he will be staying in north London.

According to football.london, 17-year old forward Reo Griffiths has decided to stay at Spurs for the third year of his three year academy scholarship. That’s good news for Tottenham — Reo exploded this season, scoring 33 goals for Spurs’ U18s this past season and looking like he might be the next great thing to come out of the academy.

However, Reo had reportedly been mulling a move overseas to get regular first team football, following in the steps of former teammate Keanan Bennetts, who signed with Bundesliga side Gladbach earlier in the summer.

Reo rightfully sees a giant larger-than-life Harry Kane in the way of his future first team prospects at Spurs, and that’s intimidating if you’re a young player trying to make it at the highest level of the game. But it’ll be a while before we see Griffiths anywhere near Spurs’ first team. Reo will probably be moved up to Spurs’ U23 side where he’ll have to impress at that level before he starts getting looks and minutes from Mauricio Pochettino.

Poch has noted in the past that as Spurs get better and better it’s becoming harder and harder for youth team prospects to break through into Spurs’ senior side. The realities of youth football means that a U18 star might not make it at the U23 level, and a U23 star could have a tough time cracking into the first team. Still, Reo is the kind of talent that you don’t want to lose too early until he gets a chance, and now it looks like he’ll have that chance. Hopefully he takes it — it’d be neat to one day have a former academy striker waiting to back up or even supplant another former academy striker.