Tottenham End of Season Review: Tom Carroll

Tom Carroll’s time at Tottenham might be coming to an end even after what should have been his break out year.

It doesn’t make much sense at first to devote an entire post to the efforts of someone who was among Tottenham’s most peripheral players this season. For some fans though, that Carroll did get minutes this season was thrilling.

The 23-year-old knows the periphery well. He’s been in the employ of the club for his entire career, though only earned his first Premier League start this season.

Loan moves to the likes of Swansea, Queens Park Rangers and Derby ranged from modest success to wasted time. His ability was evident regardless. Smaller than your average Premier League midfielder, what he lacked in brawn he makes up for in ability on the ball.

That talent made his position hard to define, however. He wasn’t a typical box-to-box midfielder, but he also wasn’t exactly a playmaker. Faced with a choice between more multi-faceted or robust players, Carroll often lost out.

Mauricio Pochettino evidently saw something in Carroll, however, and elected to keep him at the club for the last year of his contract rather than sending him out on yet another loan.

Carroll joined a small cadre of Tottenham academy graduates that Pochettino chose to cycle through on the bench, including Harry Winks, Josh Onomah and Alex Pritchard. His relative experience made him Pochettino’s first choice to rotate into the starting XI for cup games and Europa League fixtures, and it was there where the club and fans finally got a good look at their patient young academy product.

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His first proper start was supremely promising. Facing off against the minnows of Tottenham’s Europa League group, Qarabag FK, Carroll demonstrated an ability to command the center of the pitch while also pressing forward when possible. The opposition might not have been especially formidable, but he proved that he could play in Pochettino’s system.

That impression didn’t last long however. Less than a week later Carroll earned his second start of the season in Tottenham’s Capital One Cup match against Arsenal. The 2-1 loss wasn’t exactly a disaster — Pochettino fielded a significantly rotated side and clearly wasn’t planning on taking the competition that seriously — but Carroll was at the center of both of Arsenal’s goals.

His inability to properly cover the area he left behind him allowed an otherwise unimpressive Mathieu Flamini to run into acres of space and scored both of Arsenal’s goals. If the performance against Qarabag highlighted all his strengths, than the loss against Arsenal highlighted all his weaknesses.

Carroll wouldn’t earn another start for two and a half months, when Pochettino gave him 90 minutes in a virtually meaningless match against Monaco in the final round of the Europa League group stage. He performed well enough there — even scoring a goal — for Pochettino to consider bringing him back into the fray.

His first Premier League start came three days later in the 2-1 loss to Newcastle. Not the most illustrious return, but it didn’t dissuade Pochettino too much. Carroll would continue to get minutes through the busy festive period and beyond, scoring goals against Norwich and Colchester along the way.

As Tottenham’s schedule gradually got easier after dropping out of the FA Cup and Europa League, Carroll’s chances dried up. Though he came on at the second half for the concluding match of the season against Newcastle, his case was not made better in the humiliating 5-1 defeat.

So where do we end up with Carroll? More importantly, where does Pochettino and the rest of the decision makers at Tottenham end up with him?

The fact is that, despite the fact that he was given more opportunities to prove his mettle than any of the other prospective academy breakthroughs this season, Carroll has failed to impress. His few moments of glory are not enough to balance all the other minutes when he looked out-classed, out-smarted and out-played by occasionally very modest opposition.

Next: Tottenham End of Season Review: Ryan Mason

Perhaps there’s a system out there that Carroll could thrive in. He will no doubt have his fair share of suitors this summer, but it’s a safe best that Tottenham will not be among them.

Final Grade: D+