Didn’t play
Seventeen-year-old’s Ismail Azzaoui and Shayon Harrison ensured that the Mark Warburton revolution got off to a losing start as a youthful Spurs Development side defeated Sevco 3-2 at the Tottenham Training Centre yesterday.
After producing a video showing former city trader Warbo getting on the team bus followed by a feature highlighting matches between Rangers (IL) and Tottenham the official club website has fallen silent over the result of the glamour friendly.
With three goals lost to teenage opponents it looks like the new shored up defence will require further strengthening if promotion to the top tier is to become more than a pipe-dream.
Kid goals Azzaouri, a Belgian u-17 internationalist, is likely to become the latest starlet to be linked with a move to Ibrox as Warbo attempts to boost the numbers in his squad.
Looking forward to seeing his new look side in action for the first time the former Brentford gaffer told the club website: “We’ll play a coaching game where we’ll play three, 30 minute halves with three different elevens.
“It’s a magnificent facility down at Tottenham, and it’s a chance for the players to get away overnight and for us to check out our away game protocol – the pre-match meal and the timings etc, to make sure everything is right for us ahead of the new season. It’s a good trip for us and a good game for us.”
During the ‘three, 30 minute halves’ Shayon Harrison scored the other goal for the young Spurs side who are coached by Ugo Ehiogu.
Looking at his side’s workout he said: “It’s always important to put these game situations on because we’ve had a physical and technical build-up in recent days and now the players are being reintroduced to different types of movement and running by playing in training ground games.
“This morning’s game was a wonderful test and the format of it worked well, especially in the hot conditions. Six or seven players got 60 minutes under their belts, which was really pleasing.
“Ismail Azzaoui was very eye-catching with his movement – he threatened in behind and scored two goals. I’d say Cy Goddard can be very pleased with his performance, as can a lot of the Development Squad boys.
“There were some very solid performances, Christian Maghoma and Grant Hall were impressive at centre-half, and later in the game there was a great opportunity for some of our new First Year Scholars to get some exposure to senior football, so there was a lot of good stuff to improve on next time.”
Tellingly Ehiogu added: “Now we recover and go again. We’ll look to ramp up the tactical awareness and intensity each time we have a session like this and the aim is for players to be fit for the first league games in August.”
After being beaten by effectively an u-17 Spurs side it’s unlikely that the London side will be sending any players on loan to Ibrox to boost their development.
