Josh Onomah joins Aston Villa as Mauricio Pochettino takes unusual decision to send youngster out on loan

Onomah is rated as the best future prospect in the Spurs set-up, yet he has never been sent out on loan before given Pochettino's wish to protect him from perceived lesser coaches

Josh Onomah is poised to join Aston Villa on loan after Mauricio Pochettino's change of heart (Getty)

Mauricio Pochettino does not bend easily but in the case of Josh Onomah he has changed his mind. 20-year-old Onomah is heading to Aston Villa on loan, having signed a new four-year contract at Tottenham Hotspur, giving him the chance to test himself in central midfield in the Championship this season.

That would be common at many clubs but at Tottenham it is a surprise. Pochettino’s policy with his best youngsters at Spurs – and Onomah remains the most gifted of his generation – has been to keep them at Tottenham. Pochettino rates his own coaching staff so highly that he does not want lesser coaches getting their hands on his players.

So Onomah, unusually for someone his age, has never been on loan. At the start of the summer Huddersfield, Brighton and Burnley were all interested in taking him but Spurs said no. A good offer from Celtic, where he would have played more, was rejected too.

But after getting Onomah back in for pre-season just three weeks after the Under 20 World Cup final – which Onomah’s England won – and then taking him to the US tour, Pochettino has decided to change course. And the decision on the loan is ultimately inseparable from the debate on Onomah’s best position.

Onomah sees himself as a box to box midfielder, especially given his physical development in his late teens. That is the role he has played in youth teams and that is where he played so successfully for England U20s earlier this summer.

But Pochettino does not trust him there, not yet. Last season Onomah and Harry Winks started as equals but Winks quickly earned Pochettino’s trust in the middle, Onomah never did. By the end of the season, Winks had started 12 games, Onomah just three.

Pochettino only saw Onomah as an option out wide, trying to make the most his speed and strength, but not trusting his skills in the middle. Ultimately he was a back-up for Moussa Sissoko and that was it, until he proved to his manager that he had learned.

The problem with Pochettino’s stance is that he was not giving Onomah the chance to prove himself in midfield at Spurs, but nor was he allowing him to do that elsewhere. Onomah was stuck. People close to Pochettino were insisting to him that Onomah was in fact a very promising midfielder and should be allowed to play there. Pochettino is a manager with very clear ideas in his head about how he wants to work, and he does not change path willingly. But this week, in the case of Onomah, under strong advice about what Onomah can be, he gave way.