Dutch Club confirm partnership with Tottenham Hotspur

Recently promoted Dutch club Roda JC Kerkrade have confirmed that they will be partnering with Tottenham Hotspur, thanks to the involvement of Roda's new technical director Ton Caanen. Details on what the partnership entails are sketchy at the moment, but it appears to be a similar setup to what Chelsea currently have going on with Vitesse Arnhem.

Of course, any mention of the phrase "club partnership" to a Tottenham Hotspur fan well be met with a look of derision quickly followed by the phrase "[expletive] Real Madrid." Those words will probably be followed by some derisory comments about the Tottenham ownership and the club's chairman. This, however, does not appear to be a partnership which will see Tottenham receiving large sums of cash for their best players every year.

'De samenwerking met Roda gaat nu van start', vervolgt Caanen. 'Eerst op technisch vlak, maar in de toekomst liggen er ook interessante mogelijkheden op gebied van bijvoorbeeld jeugdopleiding. Aan mij de taak het proces bewaken, regelmatig naar Engeland te gaan om de contacten te onderhouden en mogelijke versterkingen voor Roda in kaart te brengen. Het zou goed kunnen dat in januari al een eerste speler hierheen komt. Alles natuurlijk wel in samenspraak met onze scouts en technische mensen.'

Essentially, Caanen, who is a pretty well traveled, if rather unsuccessful manager, will be the contact person between Roda and Spurs. He states that there will be a number of interesting possibilities for the partnership, particularly in the area of youth development. He continues, however, to say that he does not think any players will join Roda before January and when they do it will be based on the coaches' and scouts' analysis. The plan seems to be for this partnership to go for three years, at which points both sides will re-evaluate.

One of the more interesting lines from the articles is this:

'Ik heb in Engeland duidelijk gemaakt dat Roda nu een geheel nieuwe leiding heeft die dit wél serieus wil oppakken', zegt Caanen. 'De afgelopen maanden hebben we volop contact gehad, waarbij Tottenham wel aangaf dat het belangrijk is dat ik een rol zou krijgen in een partnership. Dat is nu een feit. Tottenham leent vaak spelers uit aan clubs uit de lagere Engelse divisies, maar ze willen ook een gestructureerde lijn hebben naar het continent.'

Roda are, apparently, under new ownership and are now intent on being competitive in the Dutch Top flight. Caanen goes on to say that while Tottenham often loan players to clubs in the lower divisions of England, Spurs also want to have a structure line to the continent.

All in all, this partnership seems like a big step in the right direction for Spurs. The ability to send young players to play top-flight football in the Netherlands could be a big advantage for the Spurs academy. A quick look at the Vitesse squad shows 5 Chelsea youngsters on loan there, including promising English players Isaiah Brown and Dominic Solanke, who are 18 and 17 respectively. If Roda can help Tottenham churn out the next wave of good academy prospects or showcase the marginal players enough to allow Spurs to turn a profit on them, then this seems like a great move.