LIVING IN THE MOMENT

Exclusive interview with our young midfielder OLIVER SKIPP, now an established member of our first team and also a familiar face to today’s opponents, who is enjoying every moment in the Premier League spotlight.

- Paul Miles

It’s a fact of a footballer’s life that you don’t get a lot of time to reflect. You live in the present, day to day, game to game, July until May, or even June if international duty calls. Then do it all over again.

That time to reflect certainly feels a long way off for Oliver Skipp who, at the age of 21, is now a key figure of Antonio Conte’s squad. When the time does come to look back, however, you can be sure his season’s loan at this afternoon’s opponents Norwich City in 2020/21 won’t just be looked at fondly, but as an integral part of the ‘Skippy’ we see today.

“It’s hard to reflect too much, because you are so involved, always thinking about what’s next,” Skippy pondered as we spoke after a recent training session at Hotspur Way. “Maybe you can do that at the end of your career, but you have to make the most of it now. That’s the focus, day today. Perhaps we should reflect more though, look at the bigger picture sometimes.”

That ‘bigger picture’ looks impressive at the moment. Born in Welwyn Garden City, brought up down the road from Hotspur Way in Hertford, a Spurs fan who progressed through the Academy after first stepping into a Spurs Development Centre at the age of five, Skippy realised his dream by making his first team debut in a League Cup win at West Ham just over three years ago in October, 2018.

He’d featured 23 times in all competitions when he took the step to go on loan to Norwich in the Championship at the start of last season. Living away from home for the first time, during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, Skippy learned a lot about himself on and off the pitch.