New signing Souleymane Coulibaly is a great talent – Tottenham chief Darren Eales

Souleymane Coulibaly – Costa de Marfil Sub 17

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By Miles Chambers & Clyde Tlou

Tottenham’s director of football administration, Darren Eales, has hailed new signing Souleymane Coulibaly as a “great talent”.

The 16-year-old Ivorian scored nine goals for his country at the Under-17 World Cup this summer, claiming the tournament’s golden boot in the process.

But the Spurs chief says the striker – who had been compared to Didier Drogba before his arrival from Italian club Siena – is not expected to make an impact in the first team immediately.

“For us that’s a great signing, that’s someone for the future,” Eales told Goal.com.

“Obviously we’re not expecting him to go in the first team and start scoring but we’re hoping that in the future he can be a great talent for Tottenham.

“He’s a young player, he’ll come in and play with our development squad. When the time’s right we’re hoping he’ll be able to burst into the first team.

“He is only a young kid so we don’t want to put too much pressure on him.”

Spurs are currently on their pre-season tour of South Africa, and have two players from the nation in their first team squad.

Eales added: “If you look at the players we’ve got, at the moment we’ve got Steven Pienaar who’s a first team player.

“Bongani Khumalo went out on loan at the end of last season to Preston.

“I think for all our players – if you take Gareth Bale, for example – at some stage when they’re coming through their progression they’ll go out on loan.

“A good example for us is Kyle Walker. He went last year to QPR, then he went to Aston Villa, and he’s in the England squad now.

“He’s come back into the Tottenham team and he’s going to be fighting for a first team spot.

“Loans are all part of a player’s national progression. What we always do at Tottenham is even when they’re loaned out they come back and train with the first team so they’re part of the club.”

Eales also commented on the reception the players and the club have received from fans since their arrival in South Africa.

So far on their tour they have lost 1-0 to the Kaizer Chiefs and have a game against Orlando Pirates on Tuesday evening.

“It’s been absolutely unbelievable,” Eales said. “Right from the moment we touched down in the airport we were met by so many fans – Kaizer Chiefs fans, Orlando Pirates fans, Tottenham fans – and so every airport we’ve landed at we’ve been blown away by the great reception.”

Tottenham finished outside the top four in the Premier League last season, but Eales says that their ultimate aim this campaign is to qualify for the Champions League again.

“Well our big aim is to get into the top four, so that we can get back into the Champions League,” he added.

“We’ve got a great squad of players already so I think there’s no reason why we can’t get back into the top four. It’s going to be difficult.”

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