Luke Amos is currently on loan from his parent club Tottenham Hotspur at QPR. He has been involved at Spurs from academy level at just nine years of age. And, he finally was able to make his Premier League debut against Newcastle last season. However, this was only a cameo performance.
Disaster then struck Amos. He ruptured his ACL ligament in an under-23’s match and was out for the season. It is good too see him back on the pitch for QPR. Thus far he has made seven Championship appearances clocking up 322 minutes. This includes three starts in his three last matches, breaking up the play in midfield, doing the dirty work well. Again, this is another revival of sorts for Amos, who has often struggled to get into the QPR set-up this season.
Indeed, Amos must be so relieved to finally get some regular minutes. The player described how the nine months of being side-lined were the “worst in his life”. He spoke of how he struggled to keep up any kind of positivity in this period; “There were days in the gym, it was just me in there doing balance exercises against the wall and I’d break down. I have always been a little bit of a pessimist.”
With his contract expiring in 2021, Amos still has time to impress and make a case for a first team return. However, this is unlikely. There are suspicions that Spurs may well just be using their academy system to develop some decent talent and ship it out. This is a hard claim to prove. Furthermore, there are other academy graduates such as Japhet Tanganga who aren’t being offered new contracts, the club seemingly unwilling to pay to keep these players in their ranks.
The midfielder is now 22 years old and will turn 23 in February. Consequently, Amos needs to find some settled first team football. The most likely source will be a permanent move away from Spurs. “I’m not here to be a squad member” says Amos. Instead he made his case for wanting to contribute and compete for the first team. He admits that “I’ve got to aim for the top and it’s going to be tough to make it at Tottenham.” With the club recently investing in the likes of Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso, it is only harder for Amos to break through.
It is certainly not impossible for Amos to make it at Spurs. Andros Townsend and Ryan Mason are two good examples of those late blooming academy graduates. With the club in flux, Amos may well get his chance come the summer. If there is to be any kind of squad rebuild, it could be the perfect opportunity for the player to take his chance. Indeed, when Pochettino first arrived at Spurs, it was a midfield of Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason that initially kicked off the new Spurs era. Maybe it is the time for the youth academy graduates to see a return to action once more.