Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has praised Manchester United, who have continued with the trend of nurturing young English talent into their first-team. Pochettino has already earned the reputation of doing the same with the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Harry Winks at Spurs but the Argentine is impressed with the policy being followed by other teams in the Premier League.

Speaking to reporters, Pochettino said that the identity of any country is through their younger players and he happened to praise the recent squad selection from Manchester United where the likes of Tahith Chong and Mason Greenwood were offered their European debuts, he said: “It’s a massive thing. The identity of your country and football is through your young players.

“It was fantastic to see yesterday Manchester United in the last 10, 15 minutes, players from the academy come on for their debuts. One made their debut the week before in the Premier League. It is amazing. That is the identity of English football. I am working in England. I have double nationality, Spanish and Argentino, but my responsibility as a manager here is to provide the best thing to the country for English football to build players and provide talent to the country or national team.”

“Tottenham have recently lost ground in the Premier League with three winless games“ and this has brought them into a top-four race. Still, they should be motivated for the weekend’s clash at Southampton following a resolute defensive performance in the Champions League where they secured a 1-0 triumph over Borussia “Dortmund on the road“.

Meanwhile, United have a league trip to north London to face Arsenal this weekend and the game could be crucial to the top four ambitions of both sides. The Red Devils are currently occupying the final Champions League spot but they have the Gunners and Chelsea breathing down their necks with a one and two-point deficit respectively. Maurizio Sarri’s team have the additional advantage of a game in hand.