Bright Tottenham Academy star Matthew Craig set to commit his future to the club
Matthew Craig’s Tottenham deal expires this summer, however, he was not one of the names mentioned on the club’s recent list of released players.
Craig was one of the Under-21’s standout performers last season during a tricky year in which the youth side were relegated from Premier League 2.
Having joined the club at Under-12 level, Craig has continued to rise through the ranks and was handed his Premier League debut last season.
He began featuring on the bench in Premier League fixtures toward the backend of the 2021/22 season and was finally given some minutes by Ryan Mason as he came on for the final 13 minutes of the club’s last game of the campaign, a 4-1 win away at Elland Road.
Now, in a positive development for the North London side, Craig is reportedly set to commit his future to Spurs, according to reliable Tottenham journalist Alasdair Gold.
“Understand Matthew Craig is getting closer to agreeing on a new deal to stay with the club. The 20-year-old had a terrific season and was a real standout in a tough year for the U21s,” Gold tweeted (20 June).
The midfielder is extremely versatile and has at times operated as a right-back, centre-back and left-back, but predominantly features as a defensive-midfielder.
Last season he featured in every Premier League 2 match, completing the full 90 on all but one occasion.
He is clearly a talented prospect and now that he has reached the age of 20, Ange Postecoglou will most likely be keen to take a closer look at him in pre-season with the potential view to easing him into the first-team set-up more regularly.
Spurs have been crying out for a star to break through the academy following the emergence of Oliver Skipp, with few notable players coming through in the time since and after recently losing Romaine Mundle it is key to make sure they lock down Craig.
His versatility is clear and his impressive record of starting in every Premier League 2 match shows that he is reliable. Even his cameo performance at Leeds on the final day was impressive.
After coming onto the pitch, Craig won 100 per cent of his ground duels, made 11 touches, registered a successful passing accuracy of 83 per cent and made four tackles without being dribbled past once (SofaScore).
Not a bad league debut by any stretch of the imagination, even if it was on the final day of the season at a club on its way down.
Everything points to the fact that Craig is certainly a player who could make the leap from academy football to the first team and Spurs will want to have his contract situation wrapped up quickly.
In other Tottenham news, there are two academy stars Postecoglou wants to take a closer look at.