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A year is a long time in football and for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Oliver Skipp that's truer than for most.

Just over 12 months ago, a then 17-year-old Skipp was named among the travelling group of academy players to join Mauricio Pochettino's first team squad on their pre-season tour to the USA.

Fresh from U18 football and a few U23 matches, the teenager looked every bit the youngster among men as he travelled out with the team to Los Angeles. The blond, wide-eyed academy scholar was still studying for his A-levels yet when he stepped on to the pitch in front of thousands of fans it soon became clear he was in the right place.

Christian Eriksen, using the teenager's nickname 'Skippy' when speaking to the media across the Atlantic, was impressed, marking him out as one to watch.

Fast forward just over a year and Skipp has made 14 senior appearances for Spurs, including 10 matches in the Premier League, as well as playing in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup and on June 1 he took his place on the bench for the Champions League final in Madrid.

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It has been some ride for Skipp and there's no resting up. He spent his 19th birthday on Monday helping to teach Maths and PE to Year 4 pupils at Ferry Lane Primary School in Tottenham as part of a Premier League Primary Stars lesson delivered by staff from the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

Club staff go into schools across the local community every week delivering these lessons and the appearance of Skipp was a big hit. The children even sang 'happy birthday' to him and presented him with a cake and cards.

You only have to glance at Skipp to see what's changed. A year's worth of Pochettino training sessions have transformed the teenager. Gone is the slight, fragile-looking youngster, replaced with a stronger, bulked up unit of a midfielder.

There was no fear from the manager of throwing him into the chaos of the final stages at the Etihad Stadium as Spurs drew 2-2 with the reigning champions Manchester City last month.

The changes are not just on the outside. Gone is the deer in the headlights look of his early club interviews. Watch those videos from last season back and you'll see a youngster barely remembering to breathe as he nervously rushes out a couple of words to each question.

Today, for his first interview outside the club's own media channels, football.london finds a very different Oliver Skipp.

He speaks to the classroom of children and they're all engaged, hanging on every word he utters.

There's a confidence about the way he talks now, a belief that he deserves to be on the same pitch as the Eriksens, Kanes and Dele Allis of the world - the Pochettino effect.

"It's been amazing [this past year], just coming into the building two years ago as a full-time player and you don't think it can happen this quickly," he admitted.

"It's all happened so fast and credit to the manager for trusting me to be in and around the first team. It's amazing, it's more than I ever could have wished for."

Just two years ago, Skipp and his fellow academy midfielder Luke Amos were chatting about the future over lunch at a summer youth tournament, the Tournoi Européen U21 competition in Ploufragan, France.

The following summer Pochettino paired them up against Barcelona in front of a near full house at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

"I remember that lunch well. We were out there in France, discussing things as you do when you're young and then 12 months later we're out on tour with the first team," he said.

"Luke played practically every minute of that tour and then I came in and it was me and him against Barcelona in the second half. I remember it so clearly, it was crazy, in front of 60,000 fans, it was amazing that we could share that experience together as two players who had come through the academy.

"It was something special that US tour for me, to get the minutes that I did with the World Cup going on, it really helped me to establish myself, training every day and then after that tour it went from there."

Pochettino is not a fan of globe-trotting pre-season tours - he'd rather work with the players at Hotspur Way - but one purpose he always uses the money-spinning trips for is to decide on the next academy starlet in his midst.

The likes of Ryan Mason, Harry Winks and Skipp have emerged from the tours as the next star in the making and this summer's tour to Asia looks to have paved the way for 17-year-old Irish striker Troy Parrott to follow suit as well as the slightly older defender Japhet Tanganga.

Skipp believes that the summer tours are the perfect melting pot of first team stars and young players coming through all working together away from their natural environment and the academy youngsters can only benefit.

For him, just weeks after returning from his first pre-season tour, Skipp had done enough to convince Pochettino and the club to hand him a brand new, three-year contract. The midfielder is indebted to those summer days, both this year and last.

(Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)

"You look at this summer's tour and there were six or seven of us on it, all from the academy. It was great to be involved," he said.

"I played 90 minutes against Juventus and the gaffer trusted us. In the Bayern game three academy boys took penalties and it's really something to feel that we're trusted and we produced the result."

He added: "All the first team players have been really good with me, especially on that first tour where you're nervous and you haven't been away with the team before. You're just desperate to impress but they made settling in so easy.

"On that first tour there were maybe 12 first team players and they were absolutely brilliant with all the young players, making them feel like they could play with freedom, expressing themselves.

"The gaffer was key to that as well. We were made to feel like we could play as we had been for the U18s, but just of course taking it to a higher standard."

Eriksen might love 'Skippy' but ask the teenager who he looks up to and it's a former Tottenham midfielder, one who returned to the club for a brief spell as U18s manager and left an indelible mark on him

"It's Scott Parker for me, who I had for a little while with for the U18s when he came back as a coach," admitted Skipp.

"He was brilliant. Obviously he played in a similar position and had a brilliant career. He was someone that I could take advice from, learn from and soak up all the information that he was giving me. He was brilliant for that year and a bit that he was at the club."

The fact that Skipp has managed to progress as much as he has on the pitch while completing his studies off of the pitch, shows just how much capacity he has to learn and it's something that caught Pochettino's attention early on.

Like at the Argentine's former club Southampton, a real focus is put on improving youngsters as people as well as players and their schoolwork is never an afterthought. It's a compulsory part of their daily life at Tottenham.

Skipp was studying for his Economics and History A-levels throughout last season while becoming a Premier League player and despite all of his commitments found out this summer that he had passed them both with flying colours.

"It was tough, there were times when you'd had a hard training session and our education officer would be like 'you've got a lesson now' and you'd drag yourself to it every time. You just wanted to go home," he admitted.

"It was important to me though that once I committed to it that I finished it off, so I had something to fall back on or simply extra learning that I can use whenever, perhaps after my playing career. You never know what's going to happen.

"Richard Hale [his Hertford-based secondary school] were brilliant until I left in Year 11. They allowed me to miss PE lessons to catch up on things. Obviously I didn't need PE with what I was doing at Spurs so I'd come in for a couple of sessions during the week and then I'd catch up on stuff I'd missed at school during those PE lessons.

"Then in the last two years with the tutors that Spurs have brought in, they were really good. They were flexible around me and were making sure I got all of the lessons I needed."

Skipp excelled off the pitch, but what about his lessons on it? Much has been made of Pochettino's long list of youngsters he's turned into international stars, but what is it like to be the Argentine's latest project?

"The gaffer is brilliant with us younger players. Say if it's during an international break some of the academy boys will train with the first team and he will give them a taste of what that life is like," explained Skipp.

"I think he really helps young player's development with the way he integrates you into the squad. The pre-seasons are massive for young players at the start of each year. You have to take your opportunities."

Not every talented young academy player graduates from The School of Pochettino. There are many who don't make the grade despite their abilities.

Marcus Edwards, once infamously compared to a young Lionel Messi by Pochettino, moved to Portuguese side Vitoria this summer after failing to take that next step at Spurs.

Purely talking about his own experiences rather than those of others', Skipp believes that the Tottenham manager demands one thing if you're to unlock all of his lessons.

"If you show the right work ethic, he will have time for you. As long as you are showing that he will be brilliant with you," he said.

"It's probably the same with most managers, but particular the gaffer, as long as you're putting in the work, showing him the desire then he will give you all the time in the world.

"His door will be open at any time for anything you need. I think as long as you're giving your all then it's perfect.

"He's always open for a chat and making sure you're positive and in the right frame of mind, just making sure you feel integrated into the group. I'd say a father figure is a good description of how he is."

Skipp will travel to Athens on Tuesday for Tottenham's latest Champions League adventure at Olympiacos the following day and he will be heading back to a competition where he got his initial taste of first team life.

The very first time Pochettino named the teenager in a competitive matchday squad, on October 3 last year, it was in a match that was as big as they come.

"The first time I was ever on a bench for Spurs was against Barcelona at home. It was crazy!" remembered Skipp excitedly.

"You look across at their team and you just think 'wow', Barcelona, at Wembley in the Champions League, it doesn't get much better than that on your first involvement."

His debut came just over two weeks later in the Carabao Cup against West Ham at the London Stadium.

"The gaffer names his team quite late, that one in particular really was. I found out I was on the bench not long before the match and then I got the call back from warming up in the second half and that I was coming on. It was a proper 'pinch yourself' moment," he explained.

"You just have to make sure you put that to the back of your mind because you've got a job to do. We saw out the win in the cup and that made it extra special I think.

"Of course there were nerves but that's more something as you're coming on. When you step foot on the pitch, the nerves settle and once you take a couple of touches everything's suddenly alright."

By the end of the year Skipp had made his first Premier League start, in a 1-0 win against Burnley at Wembley.

Now in his second season with the first team, Skipp is a familiar face in Spurs' matchday squads. As he did with Harry Winks in his formative years, Pochettino is quite happy to throw the teenager into the tightest of matches, epitomised by his appearance at the Etihad this season.

"It was a great experience [at the Etihad] but not just that, you have to remember he's set you a job to do," said Skipp.

"Against Villa [the previous week] it was to see it out and make sure of the three points, at the Etihad it was to stay tight and make sure you deliver that bit of energy to the team with your fresh legs.

"It's not so much thinking about the game, more the specific job you've got to do in the moment, giving the team whatever the gaffer has told you to do."

There are certainly a lot of happy people in the Skipp family right now. Every single one of them is a huge Spurs fan, including the man himself, and it makes the journey and the destination all the sweeter.

"We're all Spurs fans. It's a dream really. Sometimes you wake up and you just think about it. That's when it hits home," he said.

"All those sessions you've done, all those journeys your family took you on, to and from training, it's all been worth it. It's hard to find the words for, but the biggest emotion is definitely pride."

Skipp was called up to the England U21 squad for the first time this month, and although he didn't end up getting any minutes with Aidy Boothroyd's side in their European Championship qualifiers, the experience was invaluable.

"I really enjoyed it. It was a honour to be called up for your country, experiencing a different set-up and just being in and around the U21s," he sad.

"The only next step is the senior England team. It shows the improvement that's been made."

Skipp might be quickly moving up the football ladder but he hasn't forgotten where he came from.

On Friday afternoon he rushed over from training to be among the crowd at Hotspur Way, watching his former academy team-mates draw 2-2 with Southampton in the Premier League 2. He's a regular feature at development squad matches when first team commitments allow.

"I'm still really good mates with quite a few of them and any time I've got available to go and watch them I'll always be there," he said.

"I've grown up with these boys, playing alongside them for years, since I was eight or nine. You want to watch them and see how they're developing."

However, the modest teenager refuses to admit that he might now be considered an inspiration to his old team-mates, having shown how to make the step up from academy to first team. For Skipp there's only one man who takes that mantle.

"Harry Kane has gone all the way from the academy to being one of the best strikers in the world, if not the best striker in the world," he said. "He's a massive inspiration to me and the other young players.

"He's someone to learn from and copy, to try to instill some of his habits into your game and soak up what he does. He's a top international and I think the academy boys look up to people like that who have made it from where they are now. It brings it all closer to home and proves that it can be done."

One of the young rising hopefuls looking up is Parrott, who impressed on pre-season this summer and is aiming to follow in Skipp's footsteps.

There was a surprise for Skipp this summer when he discovered that he would no longer be the owner of the number 52 shirt and that the 17-year-old Irishman's name instead rested above it.

Skipp found he himself had jumped up the food chain, awarded the the number 29, previously owned by Winks before the England international's switch to the number eight.

"Honestly it was only maybe a day before [we first played] I found out. I went in and I saw that Troy had taken my number 52 shirt. I was winding him up about it, telling him to look after it and keep it in good hands!" said the young midfielder.

"I didn't choose [the number 29], I just found out the day before. I guess it shows that [I'm developing] but I'm not really bothered about what number I have. I guess you can always get lower though I suppose!"

What comes next for Skipp? The teenager thinks for a moment and then admits that all he needs to do is put himself firmly in the hands of Pochettino.

"I think all I can really control is to keep pushing and working hard in training, keep showing the coaching staff and manager that I'm ready, training at 100% in every session," he said.

"That's all I can really do and what happens from there happens. You can't really control anything else. I just need to keep going."

There is one competition though that Skipp is yet to play a single minute in, despite having been on the bench for that showpiece final in Madrid.

"I'd love to play in the Champions League, to hear that music, the football and everything that comes with it," he admitted.

"I enjoyed last season soaking up all the different atmospheres as we went further and further in the competition. What a crazy experience that was."

Oliver Skipp's school education might have finished now but his football eduction under Pochettino has only just begun and it's highly likely that he'll be walking out to that famous music sooner rather than later.

Oliver Skipp visited Ferry Lane Primary School in Tottenham to join a Premier League Primary Stars lesson which was delivered by staff from Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. To find out more about what the Club is delivering on its doorstep, download the Spurs Official App or visit here .