Spurs now have the perfect place to send the young stars Postecoglou can’t use

The departure of Chris Davies to Birmingham City is a blow to Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou but it could end up having some benefits for their younger players.

The 39-year-old coach has been a man in demand for much of this year, turning down the managerial post at his old club Swansea in order to finish last season as Postecoglou’s assistant head coach at Spurs. However, when the lure of Birmingham came along last week, Davies made the jump to St Andrews for his first managerial post after the two clubs agreed a compensation figure and he signed a four-year deal with his new side.

The now League One club, co-owned by NFL legend Tom Brady, went through a trio of managers last season in the shape of John Eustace, Wayne Rooney and Tony Mowbray, not to mention caretaker bosses, before suffering relegation from the Championship. Now the Midlands club have secured the highly-rated Spurs coach after a process which saw close to 1,000 coaches being evaluated and more than 40 of them being spoken to directly or through their representatives.

Postecoglou said of Davies’ departure: “Chris is an outstanding individual, he’s done some fantastic work with us in the last season and as I’ve said before, that will attract attention, so it’s no surprise to me that a club of Birmingham City’s stature have shown an interest in him. I’d like to thank Chris for all his hard work, and we wish him all the best.”

football.london understands that Davies impressed plenty of people within the north London club during his season at Tottenham, both on and off the training pitches, and was a key link between the first team and the development squad and academy. Many of the young players worked with the assistant head coach and he took a keen interest in their development.

That could prove to be beneficial next season as Tottenham have a group of talented academy products coming through the system who are ready for senior football might struggle for first team minutes at Spurs, particularly after the longer group stages of the Europa League end.

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Davies will have worked with the likes of Jamie Donley, Alfie Dorrington and Yago Santiago from the academy as well as others such as Will Lankshear and George Abbott who trained with the first team but did not make it into matchday squads last season, so the new Birmingham boss will be well aware of their abilities.

Players like Mikey Moore and Tyrese Hall are expected to stick around the first team as Postecoglou takes a closer look at them this season, but decisions will also have to be made on more experienced youngsters now like Alfie Devine, Ashley Phillips and Matthew Craig.

Both of the former players finished last season in the Championship with Plymouth and while Birmingham are now a League One club, they are likely to still be playing front of 20,000 fans most weeks at St Andrews and challenging at the top of the table so the experience could still be an appealing one for many players. Craig starred in the midfield for Doncaster Rovers and they almost made it into League One following a late surge in League Two last season.

Tottenham and Andy Scoulding, their Heads of Loans and Pathways, will trust in Davies to help develop any Spurs player they send to Birmingham.

There will be pressure on Davies to succeed at Birmingham and get them straight back into the Championship which sometimes makes manager look for ready-made older players, but he will know that a number of young players at his old club could prove to be stars in the making in League One.

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