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Tottenham Hotspur have been watching some of Britain's top young talents this season with a view to getting back to the transfer model that served them well in the past.

In the early years of Mauricio Pochettino's reign, Spurs were associated with buying young British talent and developing them into stars.

The Argentine's first signing was Welshman Ben Davies, and from then on the club brought in Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Kieran Trippier to supplement academy products Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and later Harry Winks, Josh Onomah and now Oliver Skipp, as well as British players such as Danny Rose, Kyle Walker and Andros Townsend.

However, the club have not signed a British player for the first team since Trippier's arrival from Burnley in June 2015. Tottenham have overloaded on foreign players ever since, while letting the likes of Walker, Mason and Townsend go, and loaning out Onomah.

That has meant they have too many foreign players for their Premier League and Champions League squads. Vincent Janssen was left out of the Premier League squad as Tottenham already had the allowed 17 foreign players. His foot injury and absence from Pochettino's plans made that decision an easy one.

However, with Dier and Davies not qualifying as 'locally trained' in the Champions League squad due to their academy years outside England in Portugal and Wales respectively, Pochettino has also had to leave Juan Foyth and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou out of the European squad with Janssen.

The departure of Mousa Dembele to China in the coming days will open up a spot in the Champions League squad for Foyth, who has impressed Pochettino with his development since returning from injury this season.

Tottenham are looking at potential signings this month, although Pochettino has admitted it will be difficult to bring players in this window. The Spurs boss has always stated that a target must tick all the boxes to fit into his tight-knit squad and the club is also having to be careful with its finances due to the growing costs of their new stadium and the delays in opening it.

The club are looking to return to their model of homegrown signings, with Alli, Dier and Trippier all now valuable international stars and proving the success of their previous investment. Buying young English players brings less risk than foreign starlets but in turn the prices are slightly higher.

Despite Pochettino's recent insistence that he hadn't heard of Jarrod Bowen until last week, football.london understands that Tottenham have continued to send scouts to watch the Hull City player and they were in attendance again as he plundered two more goals against Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, making it nine goals in his last eight matches.

The right-sided midfielder can also play behind the striker and has been lauded by his team-mates for his work off the ball and his defensive efforts in tracking back - something Pochettino demands from all of this attackers.

There is a belief that like Heung-Min Son and Lucas Moura, Bowen could be moulded into a converted striker who can also play out wide. The attacker, who turned 22 last month, was rested for Hull's FA Cup and Carabao Cup matches this season so would not be cup tied for those competitions or any European matches.

Interest in Bowen is growing with Crystal Palace, Leicester City and Burnley scouts all watching him in recent weeks, Everton boss Marco Silva - who managed Bowen during his Hull years - is an admirer while, in the Championship, Leeds United are interested in securing his services.

His 13 goals so far this season, after bagging 15 last season, mean his price tag at Hull is rising past the £18m mark and potentially away from a value Tottenham are comfortable with.

The club have also been keeping a close eye on 18-year-old Leeds winger Jack Clarke, who has provided two goals and two assists during his breakthrough season in the Championship for the table-toppers.

Spurs have previous in prising young stars away from Leeds in the past in Aaron Lennon and Danny Rose, and Pochettino has a good relationship with his former manager Marcelo Bielsa who is now at the helm of the Championship club, but Leeds are not believed to be willing to let Clarke go at this stage in his career, particularly with their current Premier League promotion hopes.

Nineteen-year-old Norwich City full-back Max Aarons is another on Spurs' radar and in League One, Sunderland's Josh Maja, a 20-year-old Englishman whose contract runs out this summer and has decided not to sign a new deal there, is someone the north London club have looked at over the past year.

In the summer, Tottenham looked at bringing in Sheffield United's David Brooks, Norwich City's James Maddison and Aston Villa's Jack Grealish as part of their homegrown plan.

However, they missed out on all three, Brooks moving to Bournemouth and Maddison to Leicester, with both impressing in the Premier League, and Grealish penning a new deal at Villa as talks collapsed over his move to Tottenham.

Spurs will continue to look to replenish their homegrown stock during the next two transfer windows and hopefully for them with a bit more sucess.

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