Spurs Set to Pluck Ollie Tanner From Non-league Obscurity

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Tottenham fans may have their eyes on rather bigger-name signings in the January transfer window, but the Spurs hierarchy are also closing in on one of the hottest prospects in non-league football. Winger Ollie Tanner looks set to sign on the dotted line at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, having plied his trade with Sussex semi-pro side Lewes FC this season.

The left-sided midfielder is very much a flair player and has all the tricks in the book. Born in Farnborough, Hampshire, Tanner was an academy member at Spurs’ bitter rivals Arsenal as recently as 2017/18. He left the Gunners on a free transfer to join National League side Bromley in the summer of 2018. However, he was unable to break into the Bromley first team and after his release from Bromley, Lewes snapped him up at the start of 2021/22 following a successful trial.

More than a dozen scouts have taken a keen interest in Tanner’s form

Tanner has lit up The Dripping Pan, with top-flight scouts from no fewer than 14 clubs flocking to Lewes throughout the season so far. Brighton & Hove Albion is the nearest Premier League club to Lewes and, unsurprisingly, the Seagulls have also shown their interest in Tanner. They made a nominal transfer offer for Tanner, with a commitment to loaning him back to Lewes for the rest of this season. However, this approach was rejected by the Lewes hierarchy.

If reports are to be believed, Spurs have made a bigger offer for Tanner’s services. However, they aren’t prepared to loan him back to Lewes and would prefer him to spend the remainder of the campaign with the academy and U23s. The bigger transfer fee is likely to curry the most favour with Lewes, who could put the money to good use to secure the club’s future for the coming seasons. Lewes manager Tony Russell intimated that Tanner had spent “four days’ training” with Spurs and that “the club want him” permanently.

Can Tanner handle the enormous step up the football pyramid?

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There’s no doubt that it is a seismic step up for Tanner from the Pitching in Isthmian League to the Premier League, the biggest league in the world. One of the biggest aspects to overcome for the 19-year-old will be the step from semi-professional to professional. The physicality of professional football takes its toll even on academy prospects that have been in and around top-flight clubs from a young age. Fixture congestion in the Premier League is rife with clubs like Tottenham, who often have European aspirations to factor in. An academic study said that an inter-match recovery period of 96 hours or more is essential to maintain player intensity.

It's also likely to be a stiff test of Tanner’s mental resolve. A quick scan of his social media profiles and past posts suggests he is still a fervent fan of Arsenal. Being a supporter of the Gunners hasn’t stopped Spurs signing players in the past, with the likes of Matt Doherty and Darren Bent both self-confessed Arsenal fans. However, some of Tanner’s tweets in particular leave a sour taste in the mouth, with some rather antagonistic posts about Spurs and skipper Harry Kane in particular.

Either way, if Tanner is lucky enough to secure a move to a Premier League club, he must take the opportunity with both hands. Being afforded a second bite at the cherry with a Category A Premier League academy is not something many players receive.

The Tottenham faithful will know that Tanner is a low-risk punt that their head of academy coaching Chris Powell believes can reap dividends. However, the club’s hierarchy also need to be thinking bigger before the closure of the January transfer window. Their comfortable defeat at the hands of Chelsea served to highlight the multiple gaps in quality throughout Antonio Conte’s first team squad. As Jermaine Jenas has already said, the club must financially back Conte with his transfer targets or risk returning to square one in the summer. Norman Giller believes a poor end to the January window could be serious enough for Conte to walk out on the club.

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