Three Tottenham players named to U21 EURO group stage squad

There aren’t a whole lot of positive things to point to after a dispiriting 2-1 loss in the North London Derby, but if you’re looking for something that you can hang your hat on, here’s one — the future looks bright.

Today, England named the full roster for the U21 EURO group stage, and there are three Tottenham Hotspur players on that list — Ryan Sessegnon, Oliver Skipp, and Japhet Tanganga.

This year’s tournament kicks off starting March 24 and matches will be jointly held in Slovenia and Hungary. I presume that the matches will all take place behind closed doors due to COVID-19 regulations.

England are one of 16 teams to participate in the U21 EUROs, and they were drawn into a group with Portugal, Croatia, and Switzerland. I don’t have a very solid grasp of European U21 football, but it looks like a decent group — Portugal and Switzerland didn’t qualify for the EUROs in 2019, and Croatia finished bottom of their group the last time around. Seems good?

Both Sessegnon and Skipp are out on loan at the moment — Sess in Germany with Hoffenheim and Skippy in the Championship with Norwich — and both are doing quite well respectively. Tanganga’s on the fringes of the Tottenham first team, so getting some international minutes is probably good for his development. That’s assuming any of them get minutes at all.

Normally I’m on the “ban international football” train but in this case I’m willing to make an exception. These three players are all very likely part of the future of Tottenham Hotspur, and it’d be good for them to get as much experience as they can in order to push forward and establish themselves at Spurs.

The Young Lions’ first match is March 25 against Switzerland in Koper, Slovenia.