View: Tottenham push to future continues as Matthew Craig commits future to Spurs
Midfielder Matthew Craig is the latest in a flurry of Tottenham academy stars to sign new deals with the North London club.
Alasdair Gold last week tweeted (20 June) that Craig was set to commit his future to Spurs after his standout season for the Under-21’s, despite the team’s overall struggles.
And this has now been made official, as Tottenham announced on the club’s website (1 July) that Craig has put pen to paper on a new contract which will run until 2026.
The Scotland Under-21 started every Premier League 2 game last season and featured four times in the Under-19 UEFA Youth League as captain. Now that he has turned 20 and committed his future to the club, new Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou will surely be keen to take a closer look.
Craig was handed his Premier League debut on the final day of last season’s Premier League by Ryan Mason as he came on for the last 13 minutes of the club’s 4-1 win away at Elland Road.
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).
He will be keen to follow in the footsteps of teammates Oliver Skipp and Harry Winks, both examples of young English midfielders who broke through the academy and into the first team.
An even greater example of the academy’s success is Harry Kane, a role model who every young Spurs player will look up to and try to replicate, as difficult as that might be to do.
It has been a couple of years now since a consistent stream of prospects were flowing through from the academy into the first team and Postecoglou’s appointment has clearly struck a chord.
He seems to have gotten young players believing in their chances of success at the club again and it is so important that other talent is tied down such as the likes of Craig, Nile John, Mikey Moore and Alfie Dorrington already have been.
In other Tottenham news, incredible footage has emerged from a Spurs Under-16 training session.