Academy talent 'in the club's DNA' - Mauricio

Mauricio Pochettino once again praised our Academy after the latest trainee graduated to the first team this week.

Josh Onomah became the second Academy player this season to be handed a debut with an appearance off the bench in the 4-2 FA Cup win against Burnley after Harry Winks featured against Partizan Belgrade in November.

The pair join the likes of Milos Veljkovic, Alex Pritchard, Ryan Fredericks, Shaq Coulthirst and Nabil Bentaleb to have made debuts in the last couple of seasons.

Turn the clock back a little further and you can include Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, Andros Townsend and Danny Rose - all made the step from Academy to first team, and all four started alongside Nabil in our memorable 5-3 victory againsty Chelsea on New Year's Day.

"Josh is another young talent to have come from our Academy," said Mauricio.

"It’s only my decision to pick him tonight (against Burnley) but the people in the Academy, John McDermott (Academy Manager) and all the coaching staff, they deserve this moment.

"I’m happy because we’ve showed that the club have a lot of young talent in the Academy.

"In the last two, three months Harry Winks, Josh, Dominic Ball, Eman Sonupe, Luke McGee and other players have all had the opportunity to train with us and this is important.

"It’s a natural process and for us it’s in the DNA of our club."