Yaya Toure has picked out Mikey Moore and Callum Olusesi as two young teenage stars to watch at Tottenham in the years ahead.
Former Manchester City star Toure left his job as Spurs' U16s coach in order to become assistant manager at Belgian side Standard de Liege last month. He had earned plaudits for his work within Tottenham's academy and left a talented group behind ready to make the next step up.
The 40-year-old namechecked both Moore, 15, and Olusesi, 16, as ones to keep an eye on when asked this week whether he was leaving a strong group of youngsters who could eventually reach Ange Postecoglou's first team. The gifted duo, who starred as Spurs won the U18 and U17 Premier League Cups, have both been tied down in recent weeks to new scholarship deals by the club despite interest from across the Premier League and Europe.
"Yeah, definitely. Mikey Moore and Callum Olusesi are top grade U16s, they are really good and most of the time they were playing with the 18s," Toure said in an interview with PA Sport. "A few weeks before I left I heard they signed with Tottenham again and that is brilliant news.
"Keep the talent at home and make sure they develop again under the right coaches. I think coaches like Stuart [Lewis], Brad [Allen] and Chris Ramsay they know what those kids need to develop more. In a few years I think Tottenham can be back with the academy in the same way Arsenal did with Saka and Smith-Rowe. That is the plan and the vision."
On his own move to Belgium to begin his senior coaching career, Toure was indebted to the way Tottenham handled the situation.
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"Tottenham did not stand in my way and they let me go and I think that was brilliant," he said. "I would love to carry on in Tottenham [one day] because my belief and development was to try to work with the grown men.
"If the opportunity to go back was there then why not, because what Tottenham did for me was incredible, they allowed me to work there and develop as a coach and for what they did for me I will never be able to thank them enough.
"They opened the door for me and allowed me to express myself in the right manner and do the things I wanted to do. That is a real positive for me. Of course at the end of the day I move on but Tottenham is always going to be a great club and one that will always mean something to me."
