A former Tottenham midfielder, who came through the youth ranks at the club before going on to make more than 50 appearances for the first team, has now returned to Hotspur Way as a coach.
It has always been very hard to predict which young players would go on to have great careers at the highest level and which ones would fall away.
Hardly anyone would have predicted when Harry Kane was 20 years of age that he would be a first-team regular for Tottenham, let alone go down as the club’s greatest player of the modern era.
The opposite is arguably true of Tom Carroll, who was of the same age group as Kane, but was tipped for big things from an early age.
Although he showed promise when he first broke into the side under Harry Redknapp and went on to make 56 appearances for the Lilywhites, the midfielder never really fulfilled his potential.
Tom Carroll returns to Tottenham after eight years
The technically gifted midfielder did have some success in the Premier League for a brief period with Swansea City, but since then, he has had a bit of a journeyman career in the EFL.
He played most recently in League One for Reading, with his association with the club coming to an end this summer.
John Wenham, who regularly breaks news about the Tottenham youth sides on his Lilywhite Rose social media platform, has now revealed that Carroll has returned to Hotspur Way.
Wenham shared that the midfielder has now returned to the North London club as an academy coach, although it is not clear what his exact role is.
Spurs continue to appoint former players as academy coaches
Tottenham have a history of appointing some of their former players as academy coaches.
Spurs legend Jermain Defoe worked as the Under-18s head coach from 2022 to 2024 before leaving to pursue his own ambitions, while Scott Parker also started his coaching career in the Tottenham academy.
Bringing former players back as academy coaches is the best way to impress on the youth at the club just what it means to play for the Lilywhites.