Report: Tashan Oakley-Boothe to Swansea on loan

Every summer we end up with a decent number of Tottenham Hotspur’s development squad players heading out on loan. This year is no exception. The latest rumor involves 19-year old central midfielder Tashan Oakley-Boothe, who is apparently strongly linked with a season long loan with Swansea City in the Championship. The news was broken by Twitter user @lilywhite_rose, and was also reported in the Daily Mail in an article that I’m not going to link to because it’s the Mail.

2018-19 was a pretty good year for Tottenham academy midfielders. Harry Winks, of course, was the darling of Spurs’ first team midfield until injuries kept him out for a long period of time. That same injury crisis led to some not-insignificant minutes for young Oliver Skipp, and even George Marsh got a Spurs first team debut last season.

Tashan looked to be a bright spot in Spurs’ preseason tour in USA, getting some pretty good minutes in the International Champions Cup. He looked like he might be the next Spurs academy midfielder to break through. Unfortunately he had some injuries that hampered his development some in the past couple of years, and ended up getting leapfrogged by Marsh and Skippy. He’s been doing well with the U23s, and the Spurs coaching staff still apparently thinks he could be a factor with Spurs going forward.

At Swansea, assuming the loan goes through, he’ll link up with another Spurs academy graduate — Tom Carroll. Defender Cameron Carter-Vickers also spent last season on loan at the Swans, so Spurs have a pretty good relationship with the club. It would be a loan that makes sense — with Spurs buying a cromulent midfield this summer, this is not the year for young academy players to break through into the first team. Plus, Tashan probably really needs the first team minutes and experience. This would be his first loan.

Not a done deal yet, but it would make a lot of sense. We’ll see if it happens.