Sunday 13 September 2015 13:59, UK
In his latest Super Sunday interview, Patrick Davison meets Tottenham's Ryan Mason, one of the many talented youngsters at Spurs.
I'm yet to have a proper look round the Etihad Campus - Manchester City's year-old training base, built at a reported cost of nearly £200m, containing a 7,000-seater stadium and with bedrooms for the players.
But of those I have seen - and they're almost all amazing -Tottenham's is the most impressive. The state-of-the-art complex, in Hotspur Way, Enfield looks like the sort of top secret 'facility' you'd see in a sci-fi film.
The reality is it was built in 2012 to give the first team of today and the academy prospects of tomorrow the best chance of success.
This week I was at the training ground for interviews and - while walking to my car, past a sign directing me to the nearest helipad - I bumped into Academy coaches Bradley Allen and Will Antwi.
It was a brief conversation - I know Bradley a bit, having interviewed him in the past, while I recognised Will from his playing days with Wycombe - but they certainly sounded like guys enjoying their jobs. And why wouldn't they?
They have facilities that are second to none and, as Bradley pointed out, there's an easy way to motivate their young players - just tell them to take a look at the first-team squad.
Last season, and so far this, Tottenham have fielded the team with the youngest average age in the league.
Andros Townsend, Eric Dier, Danny Rose, Alex Pritchard, Tom Carroll, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb, Dele Alli, Kyle Walker and, of course, Harry Kane make for a strong core that have either come through the Academy or been bought in early in their careers.
Of those, Mason was the first to join the club, spotted by Spurs legend Micky Hazard at a soccer school when he was seven - and he's one of those who we've come to the training ground to see.
The midfielder only really broke into the team last season but now has the feel of a senior player as he guides new arrival Dele Alli through our interview for this week's Super Sunday.
A serial loanee before Mauricio Pochettino's arrival, Mason says a lot of the credit for his breakthrough must go to the manager.
"He's basically a nice fella who knows his football, I can't thank him enough. A lot of others would not have chucked me in," says the player who made his Spurs debut against NEC Nijmegen in the UEFA Cup back in November 2008, but had to wait four years to play again.
"I think I'd have played 50 or 60 games by now if he'd been manager earlier. He puts his faith in young players - he's improved us as people and as players."
Despite the long-term promise of Mason and his cohort, many Spurs fans are restless. On the pitch, the team go into this weekend's game against Sunderland still without a victory this season.
Off it, the club were outspent by all their direct rivals except Arsenal during a transfer window capped by their failed attempts to sign Saido Berahino.
But Mason believes Spurs' young players can go at least some of the way toward bridging the spending gap.
"Last year we came fifth, and we haven't gone out and spent millions and millions like some of the big boys," said the 24-year-old, who also became an England international during a whirlwind 2014/15.
"The club now look for players who fit the bill, players who want to work hard, who want to do the work in training.
"The focus is on players coming through the youth system and bringing young players in."
That focus has helped create a togetherness and a team spirit, forged over many season in youth and reserve teams, that has now been carried into the Tottenham first team.
"Me and Andros have been here about 15 years. H [Harry Kane] is a couple of years younger but played up with us quite a bit.
"When you've played reserve team football in front of 50 people, then you play at White Hart Lane with five or six of the same lads - it's hard to describe what that feels like.
"The supporters can see it means something to us."
If you're coming through at Tottenham now you've got one of the best training grounds in the world, a team you might actually be able to get into and - if the likes of Ryan Mason do continue to succeed - some heroes to look up to.
Catch Patrick Davison's full interview with Ryan Mason before live coverage of Sunderland v Tottenham on Super Sunday, 12:30pm, Sky Sports 1 HD
