The Athletic have spoken to Tom Carroll about his successful season at Exeter City, with the outlet revealing that the former Tottenham midfielder turned down a player/coach within Spurs’ Under-21 set-up last year.
Carroll was highly regarded while coming through the ranks in the Spurs academy. The technically proficient midfielder was backed by many to become a future first-team star, with some even likening him to former Spurs man Luka Modric.
Carroll came through the Tottenham academy system
However, after being frustrated at the lack of opportunities at Spurs, the England Under-21 international eventually completed a permanent move to Swansea in 2016.
The midfielder was ravaged by injuries during his spell in Wales and eventually left the club in 2020 to sign a one-year contract with Queens Park Rangers.
The 32-year-old did not fare much better at Loftus Road and subsequently dropped down to League One with Ipswich Town in the 2020-21 season.
Tom Carroll turned down player/coach role at Spurs
The Athletic reveal that Carroll then trained with Tottenham’s Under-21s throughout the 2022-23 season and that the coaches at the club were so impressed with him that they offered him a permanent player/coach role.
It was explained that the role was similar to the one that Tom Huddlestone took up at Man Utd, where the midfielder was expected to continue playing with the Under-21 side, but Carroll turned down that role and decided to sign for Exeter instead last summer.
The midfielder has had an impressive season in League One, having been a regular starter for Gary Caldwell’s men.
When asked about the year he spent back at Tottenham in 2022-23, the former Spurs academy graduate has now told The Athletic: “They were good with me. I was training on the best pitches, the best facilities. I know matches are completely different to training at times but it made me think, ‘I can still do this’. It was a great place to go to every day and train with the top young players in the country.
“Everything is done properly. At some clubs at first-team level, they sometimes skipped ‘prehab’ and the (body) activation stuff before training; perhaps it was seen as not as important.
“But last year it was almost me being stripped back to being a youth-team player, being in the gym at this time, in there for half an hour, doing different stuff in circuits; there were different exercises I picked up that I felt really helped me.”
Tom Carroll is enjoying his football again
Carroll revealed that Exeter’s possession-based style of play was one of the main reasons why he took up the offer from the Grecians.
When asked about his move to the League One side, he said: “The style of play was massive because it’s a league where not loads of teams play the way I’d like to see the game be played.
“I spoke to the manager and decided to come down here (Exeter is in Devon, in the south-west of England — a four-hour drive from London). I think they wanted to see if I was fit, and I wanted to see what it was like down here, and it just clicked straight away.
“Having a new training ground is another big plus for that as well. You go to some clubs (at League One level) and you’re still in portacabins. So that was another big factor.”
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It is great to see that Carroll appears to have rediscovered his love for football again at Exeter. The midfielder will hopefully enjoy a few more successful years at the club and perhaps even help them make a push towards promotion to the Championship.