Morecambe’s Jon Obika: ‘I would have loved some opportunity to showcase my talent’

Morecambe striker still has a point to prove on his FA Cup reunion with Tottenham, the club he joined aged 10

It was around the end of the 2000s that keen-eyed Tottenham fans began to realise something special was happening at Spurs Lodge. While the senior team were beginning to revive their fortunes under Harry Redknapp, behind the scenes Spurs were quietly nurturing one of the most promising generations of academy footballers the club had seen in many years.

When you talked to the sort of people who had their ear to the ground and tended to know about these things, the same names kept cropping up. Watch out for Ryan Mason, plays just off the striker, scores for fun. Danny Rose, left winger from Leeds, quick as anything. Andros Townsend, another left-footed winger, tidy player, hell of a shot on him. And there’s a striker in the under-18s called Harry Kane who may just turn out to be something. “The most talented and exciting group of players I have worked with,” said John McDermott, the then academy coach who is now the FA’s technical director.

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