Where are they now? Former Spurs Academy player Jamie Reynolds:

A Spurs Academy player for over a decade, versatile player Jamie Reynolds was born in Westminster but brought up in Grays in Essex, and he had been playing for Chelsea’s Academy and also Grays Cosmos prior to joining Spurs. After working his way up the Academy ranks at Spurs, Reynolds joined the club on a full-time basis in the summer 2016, signing scholarship forms with the club after having missed the majority of the previous 2015/16 season through injury. Reynolds played predominantly in midfield for our under 18 side during his first year of scholarship at Spurs, making 13 competitive appearances for the Spurs under 18 side, scoring one goal and also registering one assist. Jamie demonstrated his ability on the ball during that particular season, and he was really tidy with it, and he also worked well off the ball. Reynolds started the first three competitive games of the following 2017/18 season in central midfield once again, but starting with an Under 18 Premier League South game against Southampton in the September of 2017, Reynolds was moved out to play at left-back. He adapted really well to playing in that particular position, and he was given license to get forward in that role, and in the games that he played for Spurs during the 2017/18 season I thought that he really flourished from playing in that position. A regular for Spurs’ under 18 side that  season, the tigerish but skilful left-back who loved to get forward, also demonstrated really good defensive ability, particularly in one-on-one situations. Strong in the challenge and with good pace to his game, Reynolds put in some really strong performances during the season, such as in a UEFA Youth League game against AS Monaco’s under 19 which we won, and also against Liverpool’s under 18 side in the Premier League Cup, a game which we won 4-0.

A really good crosser of the ball, Jamie Reynolds was really potent going forward and the creative side of his game meant that he created a good number of chances over the course of the season, and he ended up registering six assists for Spurs’ under 18 side that season. Jamie was making really good progress that season up until he sustained a bad injury in an under 18 league game against Norwich City at the Norfolk clubs Colney training centre, in the April of 2018. Having to be helped off the pitch by the Spurs physios, Reynolds did not play again that season. In fact Reynolds missed the whole of the next pre-season, and he didn’t make his competitive return to action for Spurs until the October of 2018, when he completed a half of football for our under 23 side, in a 1-0 Premier League 2 victory over Leicester City. By now a first year professional at Spurs and a part of our under 23 side, Jamie made seven more competitive appearances for Spurs at Academy level during the remainder of the 2018/19 season, but sadly he left the club after his contract came to an end in the summer of 2019. Reynolds did actually play again for Spurs as a triallist, featuring in a pre-season friendly for a Spurs development side in July 2019, when we played against Ebbsfleet United, and Jamie did well on the pitch that day, but that was to be the last time that he played for Spurs. A player who is good at making overlapping runs down the left flank, and who is also a good passer of the ball, Reynolds spent some time without a club after leaving Spurs. I recently caught up with Jamie’s old Spurs teammate Charlie Freeman and regarding Jamie he said “Jamie and I both joined Spurs at a similar time and played together for around ten years. Jamie always had great ball control and was confident to drive at players, over time he became very physically strong however, he was majorly set back due to knee and shin injurys, like me game time got tough, but off the pitch Jamie was and still is one of my closest friends, we shared digs together and it made both our stays a lot more enjoyable. He’s a great lad and was well respected at Spurs! ” Reynolds signed for National League South side Billericay Town during the first half of the 2019/20 season, with former Spurs player Jamie O’Hara the manager of the Essex Club. 

Reynolds only featured on a couple of occasions for Billericay’s first team (he made his competitive debut for them as a substitute in an FA Cup first round tie against Forest Green Rovers), but he left Billericay not long afterwards. He then ended up trialling with category one Academy side Sunderland, and Jamie played one Premier League 2 game for their under 23 side, playing at left-back in a 3-0 defeat to Manchester United, but Reynolds never ended up signing for Sunderland. However, in the December of 2019 he signed for Isthmian Premier Division side Cheshunt F.C. (former Spurs player Mark Hughes was the assistant manager at Cheshunt at the time), and Reynolds has played a good number of games since jointing the Hertfordshire club in 2019. Unfortunately the Isthmian Premier Division was stopped during the March of 2020, but in the following 2020/21 season Jamie has got a really good run of games in senior football, scoring three goals from left-back during the 2020/21 season, with his first of the season coming against Horsham, Reynolds demonstrated his quality going forward with the ball. Sadly the Isthmian Premier Division has been stopped since November of last year, although the former Spurs man who is now 21, did play in Cheshunt’s last game of competitive football, when they played Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Trophy in the December of 2020. Since I’ve started this series of articles on looking at where former Spurs Academy players are now, I strongly believe just like in the previous articles on former Spurs Academy players who I’ve written on, that Reynolds is  another player who has great potential to go really far in the game. And I have no doubts whatsoever that in the future Jamie will rise up in the leagues in England and enjoy a really good career in the game.

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