Spurs may decide to keep Alfie Devine at the club this season and register him with the first-team squad for the Champions League to satisfy the homegrown quota, according to Alasdair Gold.
Devine is said to be keen to play regular first-team football this season, having seen the likes of Troy Parrott and Dane Scarlett both head out to Preston and Portsmouth respectively.
The talented youngster featured along with Scarlett in playing a key role in the England Under-19 side that won the European Championship earlier this summer.
Dane Scarlett has been loaned out for the season to Portsmouth for the season but the Athletic claim that Conte is a huge fan of Devine and believes that the youngster has ‘ something special ‘.
The talented teenager continues training with Antonio Conte’s first team and could see himself remaining in N17 due to the current circumstances with the club having previously turned down loan approaches.
“It was interesting, someone said to me the other day at the club that maybe they will have to keep Alfie Devine around purely to be able to register him in European stuff,” Gold said on his YouTube channel.
“I don’t think that would go down very well, I think Alfie is very keen to play football now.
“I know they turned down a loan move to Leyton Orient last summer and he really wanted to go and play football.”
Our View
Devine is one of the best young talents in the country and playing Under-21 football is not going to help improve his development compared to a loan spell in the tiers below the Premier League, it is understandable how he would be frustrated not to be allowed to head out to get regular minutes.
It could be a case where Devine must wait until January to get his loan move considering the current situation the club find themselves in.
