How Tottenham's exciting first team, bench and manager could look in the year 2030
With the arrival of Archie Gray at Tottenham Hotspur the club's stock of talented young players has only increased as they build a team for the present and the future.
The 18-year-old arrived this week in a £40million package transfer from Leeds United, which included Joe Rodon heading in the opposite direction. The signing of the Championship Young Player of the Year got us thinking at football.london about what Spurs' team could look like by the year 2030.
To prevent us going completely wild with our predictions as we jump into our DeLorean, we're going to have to enforce a six-year transfer ban unfortunately to do so, or a longer version of the self-imposed one Spurs managed in the 2018/19 season, but the result is a very exciting team if many of the club's young starlets fulfil their potential in the years ahead and steer clear of long-term injuries.
Here's our Tottenham team to start the 2030/31 season - we've gone for a 3-5-2 formation - and named some of those who could make up the bench and named the manager as well as his assistant.
Guglielmo Vicario
Now 33 years old in our scenario, Vicario has emulated Hugo Lloris as the experienced long-serving man at the back and also occasionally wearing the armband for the team as one of the vice-captains. Either Josh Keeley or Lucas Gunter could well be in the mix here, but we went with the Italian still performing at the top level.
Radu Dragusin
The big, strong, technically-comfortable Romanian is a perfect fit for the Premier League and at 28 years old would be around his prime by the time the 2030/31 season rolls around. Cristian Romero could well have moved on by then in his 30s to Real Madrid after Dragusin became a mainstay in the team.
READ MORE: 'Archie Gray can be generational talent like Jude Bellingham' - Expert view on Tottenham signing
READ MORE: The very different Tottenham transfer styles of Johan Lange and Fabio Paratici
Luka Vuskovic
If you want to feel old, Luka Vuskovic will still only be 23 years old by the time 2030 comes around. There's plenty of excitement around the young towering Croatian centre-back and if he continues to develop as many expect then Spurs could have a real star on their hands.
Micky van de Ven
The Dutchman will have reached the grand old age of 29 by the time the 2030/31 campaign rolls around, but we reckon - if he can steer clear of further hamstring injuries - that he'll still have his pace like players like Kyle Walker do now. We're going with Van de Ven as the Tottenham captain at this point, with a couple of experienced team-mates as his vice-captains.
Destiny Udogie
At 27, the talented Italian will still be raiding up and down the left flank for Tottenham in our time-jump scenario and has become one of the best full-backs in the Premier League. In our system Udogie returns to being a natural wing-back as he was for Udinese all those years ago.
Lucas Bergvall
Some in Sweden have tipped the blonde midfielder to become the next David Beckham, with his boyband looks and talent, so we're not going to disagree with that here as at 24 Bergvall has become one of the most valuable superstars in our Tottenham team and linked every summer with a move to Real Madrid and Barcelona, as the latter look to make up for missing out on him when he was a teenager.
READ MORE: Every word Archie Gray said on signing for Tottenham and the major role Ange Postecoglou played
READ MORE: Tottenham announce lucrative new BetMGM sponsorship deal for training kit
Archie Gray
Gray is versatile and some around him believe he's going to develop into a midfielder able to operate as a number six and number eight, so that's where we're sticking him at the base of a very mobile, talented midfield trio that could boss the centre of the pitch for Tottenham for years to come.
Pape Matar Sarr
The old man of the midfield relatively at this stage as he'll be soon to turn 28 when the 2030/31 season begins. If you consider how good the Senegal international is now, just imagine what Sarr will be like by then as a marauding number eight as Premier League midfields and defences struggle to contain him.
Pedro Porro
The only other thirty-something in the team as the experienced Spaniard will be approaching 31 by this point in time and he will still be flying up and down the right as a wing-back with a lethal delivery from that wand of a right foot. Porro is the other vice-captain in our future Tottenham squad.
Mikey Moore
Playing in a floating role behind the striker, we reckon Moore will be a star for club and country by this point. Again, if you want to feel ancient, he might still be just 22 when the Premier League season starts if Tottenham's first game is on Saturday August 10 in 2030 - yes we really did look ahead.
Will Lankshear
There were a few options in this front man role but we went for Lankshear to hit a real development spurt in the years ahead and become the club's new Harry Kane-type up front with goals galore each season. He'll be 25 in the 2030/31 season so starting to really hit his stride as a striker.
READ MORE: 'Heartbroken' Leeds explain Archie Gray's £40m transfer to Tottenham and release clause
READ MORE: Ange Postecoglou set to make crucial decision on talented Tottenham wonderkid
The bench
So many of these players could actually be in the starting XI by the time 2030 rolls around, like the talented Tyrese Hall, Jamie Donley or Alfie Devine, or the versatile George Abbott or centre-backs Ashley Phillips or Alfie Dorrington. That's not to even mention current first teamers like Brennan Johnson, who will be 29 by then, or Dejan Kulusevski or Oliver Skipp if he gets the regular football he needs in the years ahead. Up front, Dane Scarlett and Alejo Veliz will be hoping to have broken through into the first team on a regular basis. There's likely to be another academy talent to have broken through as well, perhaps George Feeney as a star striker after goals galore in the youth set-up following his move from Glentoran in the summer of 2024.
The manager
Ange Postecoglou's career suggests he's unlikely to be at Tottenham in six years' time. He'll turn 65 in 2030 so may well have decided by that point to enjoy retirement on a sun lounger around a pool in Greece as he's previously hinted at.
So we're going for Matt Wells to have been groomed by the Australian to take over at Spurs after he departs. It would be entirely fitting to continue his family's legacy at the north London club with his grandfather being the legendary double-winning Welsh wing wizard Cliff Jones.
By this point we reckon Ryan Mason will have long taken his first managerial role at Hull City and established them as Premier League regulars so we've got Ben Davies as his assistant manager and a certain popular 38-year-old as the newest member of his coaching team after hanging up his boots - Son Heung-min.
Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham featuring lots of chat on Archie Gray by clicking here! In depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.
Want breaking and top Tottenham stories sent straight to you? Join our Spurs WhatsApp community by clicking this link. If you're curious you can check out our privacy policy here.