Farewell and good luck Luis Binks:

Young Tottenham Hotspur centre half, and in my opinion one of the Spurs academy’s brightest young talents, Luis Binks has officially left the Lilywhites to join MLS side The Montreal Impact on a permanent transfer. This is extremely sad news for followers of the Spurs academy set up, as the tall and imposing centre half had been progressing so well over the last couple of seasons at Spurs. The 18 year old who had been at Spurs since the age of six, had been one of our under 18’s and 23’s best and most influential players this season. The England under 19 international who can constantly be seen scanning the field of play looking to make a perfectly executed long diagonal pass is, as I put it in an in-depth article in which I wrote last season (in my opinion!) one of England’s most exciting young centre halves. Binks who is from Gillingham in County Kent but also eligible to represent Scotland at international level, is a young player who loves defending. A great reader of the game, but also somebody who is willing to put his body on the line for his team, the former pupil of The Howard School is in many ways the complete central defender. Binks would have first come onto the radar of followers of the Spurs Academy set up back in 2017 when he came off the bench to debut for our under 18’s in a league game against Aston Villa while still an under 15 player, has made great progress in the game since making his under 18 debut all those years ago. 

Binks who played for both Scotland under 17’s and England under 17’s in the run up to the 2018 U17 European Championships, signed scholarship terms with Spurs that summer. In his first season as a scholar the teenager cemented his place in Matt Wells’ under 18 side. And he became an integral member of the hugely talented Spurs team who came within a whisker of winning the Premier League South that season. Putting in some colossal performances at centre half for both the under 18’s and 23’s in the same season, Luis really did look the part. Elegant but decisive, along with our under 18’s captain fantastic Armando Shashoua, Binks was one of our under 18’s most important players. In the same season Binks also helped a Spurs under 17 side win the Euro Youth Cup in St Wendel, Germany. Binks also featured on a couple of occasions for our under 19’s in the UEFA Youth League, and he also featured in a string of games at the end of season Terborg tournament in the Netherlands, once again looking as consistent and effective as ever. In that season Binks put in excellent performances (almost always playing at LCB) against the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City, Crawley Town and Middlesbrough, and he never seemed to have a bad game in all of the games that I saw him play in that season, and to top it off he also chipped in with three goals.

The left sided centre half started the current campaign by impressing with our development side in a pre-season friendly against non league side Dulwich Hamlet. Binks would then star at the Tournoi Europeen out in France, where he put in a series of very Toby Alderweireld like performances. Binks started the competitive season off with our under 18’s but it didn’t take him long before he had been promoted to the development side. In total Binks made 20 appearances for both sides combined, plus an additional six for our under 19’s in the UEFA Youth league. A defender who performs well under pressure, Binks as I had alluded to earlier in this piece is in my eyes the real deal. Imperious in the air and extremely reliable on the ground. Binks excels at long and short range passing something which he must have worked on in training since he was a young boy. Furthermore, as a central defender, apart from being aesthetically pleasing, he is also a real leader and somebody who is able to galvanise his teammates and encourage them to make intelligent decisions. Binks as a defender possesses decent pace and as somebody who reads the game so well and anticipates danger, he rarely lunges in however, he isn’t afraid to get stuck in if he needs to. Brave and committed, but also a cultured central defender who keeps impeccable positioning on the pitch, Binks is also a highly decisive player who is strong on the ball and able to bring the ball out well from the back.

Writing this article makes me sad as not only was Binks one of my favourite ever Spurs defenders at youth level, (and yes that includes Japhet Tanganga!) but he was also the one out of all them (along with Brooklyn Lyons-Foster) where you couldn’t pin point a single weakness of his game. While some may criticise his pace Binks has worked on that a lot over the last year and he managed to significantly improve his speed and agility. The Montreal Impact who are managed by Thierry Henry have not only gained a classy young player who has a great attitude, but they have also gained a top young man who will prove in time to be one of their most valuable players. Binks has been a pleasure and a privilege to watch play for the various Spurs youth teams over the last few seasons and I and many other followers of the Spurs youth set up will be very sad to see a player who will more likely than not become a top class defender and leader go. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Luis all the very best of luck at his new club and I hope that he thoroughly enjoys this exciting new chapter in his career. Farewell and good luck young man!