Ten weeks into his season in Germany, we check in on Spurs’ academy winger Mikey Moore and his progress on loan at Köln. The prodigious Moore is still waiting for his first Bundesliga goal, but the story is more complicated than his overall statistics might suggest.
Moore left Spurs on deadline day, 31 August, on a season-long loan with no reported option to buy. It marked a step up from his spell at Rangers last season, where he made 47 appearances, scored seven goals with four assists and won the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award. Roberto De Zerbi admitted he’d have liked to keep him, but felt the 19-year-old “needs to play and put games inside of him”, something best achieved, for now, away from north London.
Köln wanted him badly, reportedly breaking their own policy on loans without a purchase option to sign him. Sporting director Thomas Kessler praised his “excellent technical ability” and said he was “creative and bold in one-on-one situations.”
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Moore has been a regular in the squad rather than a fixture in the starting line-up. He has featured in every Bundesliga game since arriving, but started only four of his first seven. After a bright debut off the bench at Stuttgart, he started three games in a row in September and October, against Werder Bremen, Hamburg and Gladbach. Dropped to the bench for the defeat at Frankfurt, he has moved in and out of the side since.
René Wagner has mainly used him as a No. 10 behind the striker, the playmaking role Köln signed him to fill after Jakub Kamiński left, rather than on the right wing where he made his name at Rangers. He has also drifted out to the left, which is where the cross for his debut assist came from. The pattern so far is of a player trusted enough to play every week but not yet enough to be first choice: busy on the ball, willing to take players on, but without the goals or final pass that would guarantee his place in the side. Spurs fans will recognise this encouraging yet frustrating picture from some of his cameo appearances for his parent club in previous seasons.
The German press has been less patient. In early November, Bild reported “bewilderment” and “growing impatience” at the club, saying he shows his quality “in flashes” but “all too rarely”, which is hardly unusual for a 19-year-old. Wagner joked that a goal or assist from Moore was “still something I’d have on my personal bingo card.” Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reported this week that Köln see “no chance” of keeping him beyond this season, though Spurs are unlikely to want to let him go either.
For England it’s a different picture. Moore captained the Under-20s in October, scoring in wins over Italy and France, and has now earned his first Under-21 call-up. He joins Archie Gray in the squad for games against Portugal and France this month.
It’s too early to call this a failed loan. Moore is 19, playing out of position in a new league, for a side in the bottom half struggling for results under a coach who only took over in the summer. The quality is there: the Gladbach game and the England form show it. What’s missing is the end product, and the rest of the season is about turning flashes into goals and assists.
What to watch: the Bayern game on 20 November, where he faces his self-described “massive idol” Harry Kane.
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