‘A Star in the Making’ – Tottenham’s John Bostock

Mention the name John Bostock to a Palace fan and you will most likely get an angry response. There are few 17 year olds in this world who generate such hate from their fellow man but the South London club have no sympathy for a player who, after a couple of years of declaring his loyalty to the club he loved, left on the cheap with a tribunal having to sort out a controversial transfer. Bostock must be some player to have gotten fans so riled up despite having only made five competitive appearances for their club. And he is…

Early Life:

John Joseph Bostock was born in Lambeth, South London, on the 15th of January 1992 and didn’t take long to get into football. He was a key part of his school team who won a regional school tournament and also attended Lewisham’s “Brazilian Soccer Schools” academy during his teenage years, improving himself as an individual and learning the tricks and skills that would differentiate him from the other young players around.

Crystal Palace:

Bostock’s time spent playing for his school team and at the BSS academy was all done whilst under the guidance of a professional club though as the youngster was already signed at his boyhood team Crystal Palace having joined the Eagles at the age of just seven years old. Bostock spent eight years playing for the youth teams at Palace, and making six appearances for England’s Under 16’s in the process, before being called up to Palace’s first team in 2007, being just 15 years old at the time. Bostock was remarkably then given his first team debut, coming on as a substitute in a defeat against Watford at Selhurst Park on the 29th of October. Bostock became Palace’s youngest ever player to play for the first team and became just the 34th player to play in a competitive English league game before the age of 16. Eight days later Bostock made his first start for the club in a game away to Cardiff. Bostock’s dribbling ability and vision in passing both close and short range was already visible and it was clear that Palace had a real talent on their hands. Bostock would go on to make three more appearances for Palace over the course of the season and would also become a regular member of the England Under 17’s, captaining them shortly after.

Controversial Transfer to Tottenham:

Bostock had been the source of transfer speculation ever since his emergence in Palace’s first team with Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea constantly linked with a move for the player. It had always seemed that Bostock would stay at Palace for the foreseeable future though as he and his stepfather (acting as Bostock’s agent) were lifelong Palace fans, had renewed their season tickets for the coming season and had professed their loyalty to the club on several occasions. However, on the 30th of May 2008 Tottenham Hotspur declared that they had signed the youngster much to the shock and horror of everyone at Palace including the manager and owner who had not agreed to the move. With Bostock’s heart set on joining Tottenham who he had made an agreement with, Palace and Tottenham attempted to thrash out a transfer fee for the young midfielder but an agreement could not be reached and it was finally left to a tribunal to decide. The tribunal ruled that Tottenham would pay £700,000 for Bostock originally and future fees which could make the transfer fee eventually £2 million which is much less than Palace had valued the player at with speculation saying that club owner Simon Jordan had been after £5 million for Bostock. Jordan and Palace manager Neil Warnock declared their disgust at the player in the aftermath of his move and he has since been an unpopular figure with the Selhurst Park faithful.

Tottenham & Loans:

Bostock made his first appearance for Tottenham in a pre-season friendly in which he set up a goal to mark a promising first appearance for the club. He then made his competitive debut for the club in a UEFA Cup clash with Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb as a substitute, becoming Tottenham’s youngest ever player in the process by six days as he was just 16 years, 295 days old at the time. Bostock went on to make two more European appearances for the club over the course of the season but failed to appear in any other competition as Tottenham chose to use their more experienced midfielders instead.

On the 13th of November 2009, with Bostock still nowhere near a first team place, as Tottenham preferred Wilson Palacios and Tom Huddlestone in the middle with Jermaine Jenas as backup, the teenager was allowed to join League One side Brentford on loan with some reports claiming that the loan was for a month and others claiming that Bostock would spend three months at the club. Bostock was put straight into the Brentford first team for their league clash with Millwall and he impressed on his first appearance, scoring a brace and impressing throughout which led to the Brentford manager Andy Scott likening Bostock to French legend Zinedine Zidane.

Bostock is clearly a player with a lot of talent at his disposal and the fury displayed towards him by Palace fans show how highly they rated him as they were up in arms to see him leave the club. Bostock’s great on the ball, has an eye for a good pass and is confident beyond his years and he’s still just 17. There’s a lot yet to come from John Bostock – whether at Tottenham, or elsewhere.