Spurs had a “wonderkid” who was the original Palmer - sportsnewsfoot

To put it bluntly, Sunday was not a good day for Tottenham Hotspur.

Ange Postecoglou’s side played host to fierce rivals Chelsea, and after just losing to Bournemouth, they were under immense pressure to come away with all three points.

Things started well enough, with Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski putting the North Londoners 2-0 up, but some braindead defending and brilliant play from the visitors saw the game end 4-3 in their favour.

Unsurprisingly, Cole Palmer was the star of the show once again, and while he looks destined to reach the very top, it was Spurs who had a potentially era-defining talent in their squad first.

Spurs’ exciting youngsters

Before we get to the player in question, it’s worth delving into some of the exciting talents within Postecoglou’s squad today, as while they aren’t getting as much attention as Palmer, some of them could end up being just as good.

For example, Mikey Moore is still only 17 years old but has caught the imagination of the fanbase with his impressive cameo appearances, including the one against AZ Alkmaar that saw James Maddison compare him to Neymar Jr and his sensational form at the youth level.

In just 33 appearances for the various junior teams, the England U19 star has scored 20 goals and provided 15 assists, which equates to a brilliant average of 1.06 goal involvements per game.

Moving back to the first team and to a player who’s been getting plenty of game time recently, Archie Gray looks set for an incredible career at the top level.

Described as a “future £100m cm” by analyst Ben Mattinson, the Durham-born gem has primarily played at right-back so far this season, making 15 first-team appearances, but the club believe that his future lies in the middle of the park.

Interestingly, that could see him form a partnership with another of the Lilywhites’ terribly exciting youngsters, Lucas Bergvall.

The Swedish phenom, whom Mattinson described as “uber-complete”, signed for the North Londoners in January despite interest from Barcelona.

While he hasn’t been able to make a significant impact yet this season, he seriously impressed in his home country last year, racking up a tally of six goals and five assists in 19 senior appearances for Djurgården.

However, while the three aforementioned prospects could develop into incredible players, they, and Palmer, for that matter, pale in comparison to Spurs’ original star boy.

Spurs’ original Palmer

So, to get straight to the point, the former youngster in question was, of course, Dele Alli.

The former England international was a sublime player for the Lilywhites and certainly the club’s own, arguably more impressive, version of Palmer.

The Milton Keynes-born gem joined the North Londoners in a £5m deal from MK Dons in February 2015 but remained with his hometown side until the following season, when he truly burst onto the scene.

In his first season with Mauricio Pochettino’s team, the midfield maestro, whom talent scout Jacek Kulig described as a “pure wonderkid,” scored ten goals and provided ten assists in 46 games.

However, as impressive as that was, the following season was on another level entirely, as in 50 appearances, the incredible talent scored 22 goals, provided 12 assists and thoroughly established himself as one of the best players in the Premier League.

This rich vein of form continued to some degree for a few years, but things eventually went wrong for the Englishman, and while he now finds himself without a club, his immense natural talent means he could still find his way back to the game in some form or another.

Ultimately, while Palmer is the toast of Chelsea at the moment, he’ll have to go up another gear in the coming seasons to match the utterly sensational form Dele was in for the first few years of his Spurs career.

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