Ex-Tottenham winger Noni Madueke thriving at PSV, Premier League interest building

As a club that has become quite renowned for giving younger players a chance, Tottenham have invested heavily in their academy. One player who has moved on from Spurs, though, was Noni Madueke. The England U21 winger was making his debut for the Spurs U18 side at the age of 15, and was seen as a major talent for the future. However, he rejected a contract offer from Spurs and instead moved to Holland, playing for PSV Eindhoven. There, his arrival in 2018 has seen him slowly but surely make his way into the first-team picture.

A regular for the U21 English national side and one of the most exciting talents in the Dutch game, Madueke is bringing a lot of interest. Clubs as varied as Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Leeds United, and Crystal Palace are being linked with moves for the winger. He has become a key part of the PSV XI, and while it looks likely they won’t win the league there has been enough on show from Madueke to ensure he has a chance at earning a big move on the back of his stellar performances.

Why did Madueke leave Tottenham?

With big interest in a former academy side, Spurs might be keen to try and re-sign him for academy number purposes and for their first-team wing solution. However, former Spurs academy prospect Andros Townsend was covering the England U21 loss to Portugal, and mentioned how Madueke had made the clear decision to move on from Spurs to kickstart his career.

Asked about the player and his past, Townsend was quoted as saying: “When you are young as well, I think he’s 19, there’s no fear, no nerves and just excitement.

“He was at Spurs academy. He wasn’t happy with his role and wanted to go and play first-team football. And went out to Holland.

“I think he will be pleased (with his debut). I think we struggled to get him on the ball as much as we would have liked to.

“I think when he did get the ball. When he did isolate the fullback one v one, which is rare in today’s game, but when he did isolate, he predominately got the beating of the guy.”

That’s a pretty clear explanation – the player simply wanted to have a role that would allow him to develop. Given the sheer number of ‘wonderkids’ in the English game, getting the chance to make that crucial breakthrough is always important. A fine example would be Harvey Elliott, the precocious youngster who signed for Liverpool. On loan at Blackburn Rovers, he has shone and stood out as a major talent at this level of the game.

Madueke had taken the chance to move to a new country, culture, and language – and it looks to have paid huge dividends as the youngster moves ever higher up the rankings and the reputational stakes. Expect major interest to exist in a young English forward with the potential to do a little bit of everything.