SlowerThanPlatt
Well-Known Member
Tony Mowbray is meeting with Tottenham to see if he can lay the foundations to take a couple of the Premier League outfit’s up and coming stars on loan.
The Coventry City boss would love to get Grant Ward back on a season-long agreement after the midfielder impressed at the back end of last term but may face stiff competition for his services from Championship clubs.
However, Mowbray already has a good relationship with John McDermot, who looks after Spurs’ development squad and was pleased with the way Ward was looked after during his time at the Ricoh Arena, and hopes that will pave the way for further links between the two clubs who he feels share similar footballing philosophies.
Coventry City's Grant Ward takes a shot
“Premier League clubs have got huge Under-21 development squads and that’s why I am going to have a meeting with the people at Tottenham to see if I can build some sort of relationship with them and look to potentially blood one or two of their young players if we can and if it suits us,” said the manager.
“It’s a football club with a pedigree that demands it’s players play a certain way. They have to be able to handle the ball and play and not be embarrassed by the football, and I think that’s a good match with us because I like footballers like that as well.
“If we can do something, great.”
Mowbray insists it has to be a two-way street and not simply a case of the loaning club benefiting from their young players getting valuable match time to aid their development. They have to be good enough to make an impact and help the Sky Blues achieve their ambitions next season.
“John McDermot understands and they, as a club, understand that it’s got to benefit us as well as them by giving a couple of their young players game time,” he said.
For fans desperate for news on new signings and fearing he will rely heavily on loans this season, Mowbray said: “I can’t just sit here and wait to get players on loan. I think we have to try to sign some of our own players and then if, somewhere down the line, the loan players come and we feel they can get in front of the ones we sign then so be it, but we can’t try to build our team on the back of hope.
“Generally the better loan players go away with their squads on pre-season, go on tour and see how they fit in. What happens in pre-season is that managers don’t want to play their first team players for 90 minutes in the first two or three games. They want them to play 45 minutes so they take young players to supplement the second half of the games, which means they take at least 24 or 25 players on tour with them.
“Invariably they are young players and the ones we would be trying to sign on loan.
“It’s not frustration but it’s a case of these things take time and you keep talking to the clubs because the managers reach a stage where they say they are not going to play the kids because the first team players are ready to start playing 90 minutes.
“And then they might make the decision that whoever it is can go on loan now, but that might be four weeks into their pre-season so we might have to go on our own pre-season before we get any loan players in.”
The Coventry City boss would love to get Grant Ward back on a season-long agreement after the midfielder impressed at the back end of last term but may face stiff competition for his services from Championship clubs.
However, Mowbray already has a good relationship with John McDermot, who looks after Spurs’ development squad and was pleased with the way Ward was looked after during his time at the Ricoh Arena, and hopes that will pave the way for further links between the two clubs who he feels share similar footballing philosophies.
Coventry City's Grant Ward takes a shot
“Premier League clubs have got huge Under-21 development squads and that’s why I am going to have a meeting with the people at Tottenham to see if I can build some sort of relationship with them and look to potentially blood one or two of their young players if we can and if it suits us,” said the manager.
“It’s a football club with a pedigree that demands it’s players play a certain way. They have to be able to handle the ball and play and not be embarrassed by the football, and I think that’s a good match with us because I like footballers like that as well.
“If we can do something, great.”
Mowbray insists it has to be a two-way street and not simply a case of the loaning club benefiting from their young players getting valuable match time to aid their development. They have to be good enough to make an impact and help the Sky Blues achieve their ambitions next season.
“John McDermot understands and they, as a club, understand that it’s got to benefit us as well as them by giving a couple of their young players game time,” he said.
For fans desperate for news on new signings and fearing he will rely heavily on loans this season, Mowbray said: “I can’t just sit here and wait to get players on loan. I think we have to try to sign some of our own players and then if, somewhere down the line, the loan players come and we feel they can get in front of the ones we sign then so be it, but we can’t try to build our team on the back of hope.
“Generally the better loan players go away with their squads on pre-season, go on tour and see how they fit in. What happens in pre-season is that managers don’t want to play their first team players for 90 minutes in the first two or three games. They want them to play 45 minutes so they take young players to supplement the second half of the games, which means they take at least 24 or 25 players on tour with them.
“Invariably they are young players and the ones we would be trying to sign on loan.
“It’s not frustration but it’s a case of these things take time and you keep talking to the clubs because the managers reach a stage where they say they are not going to play the kids because the first team players are ready to start playing 90 minutes.
“And then they might make the decision that whoever it is can go on loan now, but that might be four weeks into their pre-season so we might have to go on our own pre-season before we get any loan players in.”