“Made in Tottenham” was Ange Postecoglou’s verdict after seeing a trio of academy graduates brush aside Elfsborg in the Europa League last week.
The success of Spurs’ youngsters was a growing sub-plot in amidst the January gloom. This had been a season threatening to career out of Postecoglou’s control until Dane Scarlett, Damola Ajayi and Mikey Moore’s first goals for the club offered a vision of what a more hopeful future might look like.
Postecoglou, for his part, relished the opportunity to “show them a bit of love” in the first team. Elsewhere it is in the EFL where the spoils of the academy are bearing fruit – George Abbott at Notts County, Ashley Phillips at Stoke City and Jamie Donley and Josh Keeley at Leyton Orient.
Keeley (21) has kept 12 clean sheets in 18 games in League One, with the highest save percentage of any goalkeeper playing regular football turning Orient’s season around.
A man for the big moments, he even managed a goal of his own to equalise late on against Oldham Athletic in the FA Cup second round. In the third, he was the hero again in a shootout win over Derby County.
“He’s having a brilliant season, creating his own stories and headlines,” former Orient winger and coach Jobi McAnuff tells The i Paper.
“The FA Cup goal is something that will live in Leyton Orient fans’ minds forever, it was just one of those moments, just the confidence young players can take from getting out and playing what I call ‘real football’ and learning their trade.”
Donley (20), meanwhile, has contributed five goals and five assists to help Orient into the play-off places as they pause to host Manchester City in the FA Cup.
History aside, this is a club punching above its weight. If the League One table were organised by payroll, Orient would be 22nd – but in the one that really matters, they sit sixth.
That is a consequence partly of shrewd recruitment, and partly because of their decision to back Richie Wellens in the earlier part of the season when it looked as if they could be dragged into a relegation battle. It is a dark place Orient cannot afford to go back to – in 2017, this historic club was on its knees, dropping out of the Football League and almost driven into oblivion by the neglect of former owner Francesco Becchetti.
Their revival could not have been possible without current chair Nigel Travis, but the relationship with Spurs has helped along the way.
It began with former interim boss Ross Embleton, who had ties in north London, and an especially sharp sharp eye for academy players. Harry Kane then spent three seasons sponsoring their shirts to give back after his own loan spell.
Brisbane Road hosts the majority of Tottenham Hotspur Women’s home matches and every year, the two men’s clubs play one another in a tribute match to raise funds for the Justin Edinburgh Foundation as they remember the ex-Orient boss and Spurs left-back who passed away in 2019.
“In terms of recruitment in London in general, some of the big clubs around, there’s so many good opportunities to go and foster a relationship with a top team and get some of that good young talent which needs an outlet,” McAnuff says.
“I always say to any kid at a Premier League academy ‘Get out and play football as early as you can, at whatever level, whether that’s in the National League, League One, League Two, because it’s real. Academy football isn’t’.
“I’ve seen players come into league football too late and they can’t get it, they’re so used to the niceties of academy football. Jamie Donley has been absolutely fantastic, he’s been able to get used to the level of the league, which is a step up from where he’s been, now really able to impose himself on games, we’re seeing that quality.
“I’ve seen a load of players come into those environments where you see the quality in training but they can’t transfer it into games, that robustness, taking knocks, grinding out wins.”
For both Donley and Keeley, Wellens has been key to that transition. The stopper has made 18 league starts so far and Donley 17, with four substitute appearances – but the latter did not score until his 18th game, which he finished with a goal and two assists against Barnsley. He did the same again in the 6-2 win over Exeter City away from home in January.
The Spurs duo are both nominated at this month’s London Football Awards – where The i Paper will be among the partners at Wembley Stadium – with Keeley up for Goalkeeper of the Year and Donley for EFL Player of the Year. League One has been a step up in terms of physicality but it is a path well-trodden.
“You only have to look at top players, I’m talking England internationals, they’ve had EFL experience very early in their careers,” McAnuff points out.
“Jude Bellingham’s the prime example. I remember playing against Jack Grealish, he was out on loan at Notts County, Harry at Orient.
“Every player’s got a different pathway, it’s very rare you get a Bukayo Saka, or the two boys coming through now [at Arsenal] Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, that just look absolutely fearless.
“They have just taken to football at that level like a duck to water, but we’re talking about world-class here. What Richie and above do, they understand that you’ve got young players going into league clubs and they don’t hit the ground running and a decision’s made on them prematurely: ‘Oh he can’t handle it’, or ‘He’s not good enough’.
“What they really need is a little bit of time and a manager who doesn’t put too much pressure on them. That’s certainly been the case with Jamie Donley in particular.”
For further information and to purchase tickets to the London Football Awards 2025 at Wembley Stadium on 27 February, visit https://londonfootballawards.org/
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