Tottenham Hotspur U21

Hotspur Way sits in Enfield, north of the city, and it is a training ground first: pitches laid out for the first team's daily work, with the development side playing its home fixtures on the same grass.

The Under-21 set-up in its present form dates from 2012, when the Elite Player Performance Plan swept away the old reserve fixtures and put development squads into a structured league. Before that the side had won the FA Premier Reserve League (South) in 2005–06. In the first season under the new arrangement it took the Elite Group of the Barclays Under-21 Premiership League, then lost the final.

The title that mattered most came in 2023–24, when Tottenham won Premier League 2 — the same season the side went to the Premier League Cup final and lost it.

Harry Kane passed through these age groups on his way out, as did Ledley King and Aaron Lennon before him. The point of the squad is what happens after it: Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga both graduated into first-team football.

Holding a Premier League 2 title is the awkward part of the job. The squad turns over every summer by design, so defending anything is secondary to the actual task: getting the next Skipp or Moore across the corridor and into the first team.