When to buy: Juan Foyth
Foyth (21) has huge potential and is a player I really like but I’m not sure he’s been developed right by the club. I’ve just watched Norwich v Spurs and had the idea for this article at half time when Norwich were 1–0 up. Foyth was at fault for their first half goal and was subbed off at half time by Jose.
In the early hours of this morning, I wrote an article called When to Buy. It poses a scenario where you’re the head of recruitment for Spurs and asks you what you’d do. There a twitter poll, I set it for a week so if you’re reading this before the 4th of January you can still vote. But you need to read the article first.
In the scenario, you’re looking at a 20 year old modern centre half playing in Austria available for £12m. The 4 options were: buy and develop him in-house, buy and loan out, wait and maybe buy in a year or let them go to a stepping stone club before you decide you want to buy.
Spurs bought Foyth aged 19 for £12m with the aim of turning him into a modern centre half. So, two and a half years after Spurs bought him he’s a relevant case study. I didn’t model the scenario off of him though, it’s just convenient when I realised he cost £12m.
Spurs chose option 1. He was brought in after playing 6 games in the Argentinian Superliga. He wasn’t ready to be a starter and was behind Alderweireld and Vertonghen, one of the leagues strongest pairings, and a young Davinson Sanchez. Eric Dier may have even been considered 4th choice over Foyth. But, Spurs chose to keep him at the club, develop there and get some minutes. Here are the amount of starts he’s made in the 2.5 seasons:
- 2017/18: 5 FA Cup, 1 Champions League, 2 League Cup = 8
- 2018/19: 12 Premier League, 2 FA Cup, 1 Champions League, 1 League Cup = 14
- 2019/20: 1 Premier League, 2 Champions League = 3
I also tweeted today about how Sancho benefits from playing abroad by being away from English media and fans. Meanwhile, Hudson-Odoi is struggling with his form and the criticism he’s receiving. Young players playing for big clubs who are competing in the Champions League, want to win trophies and can’t afford to drop points, get a lot of criticism. When they play well they get a lot of praise, but an error will be taken very badly as it’s so costly.
Foyth is a risk-taking player. He is pretty inexperienced now and I’ve commented before on how he can seem erratic and he’s often called naive. When Spurs bought him, he was a deep lying playmaker in midfield who they wanted to convert into a centre half. A good idea but it takes time to learn a new position. But, he hasn’t gained enough experience to know the position well enough.
Now, he takes risks which sometime don’t pay off and can cost a chance or a goal. It makes fans lose confidence in his ability and damages his own confidence. Playing for a big club puts you under the microscope.
What I’m getting at is that Foyth is a great young player and was a good buy for Spurs in my opinion. He shows class on the ball and could be a very good modern defender. But, he needs time and minutes on the pitch to develop and learn the position further and improve his decision making.
Spurs bought early but from the outside it looks like he really should have been loaned out. Get experience, make the mistakes there and learn. Then come back and challenge Sanchez for first team minutes. Now, he’s in a weird position where loaning him out isn’t as easy a decision due to the make up of the squad.
