Spurs‘ technical coordinator Tim Sherwood stated that he would like to see the youngster go to a passing team in the Championship.
“He could possibly go out of loan but only at the right club. You don’t see Chelsea sending out McEachran to anyone. If we were going to send Tom Carroll out anywhere it has to be a Championship club, and one who passes it, so that narrows it down to about two.”
This is the same Tom Carroll who FA coaches had not even heard of before making his mark in Europa League and domestic cup matches:
“They said ‘Tom who? That’s not right. They should be going out and watching games. But then you just have to look at the England Under 21s and see they have got three centre halves playing in midfield. They are powerful boys but you need a bit of both, a bit of a ballplayer. Carroll played against Stoke and they couldn’t lay a glove on him.”
Tom Carroll, the hugely-promising midfielder at Tottenham Hotspur, falls squarely into that bracket. He will pull the strings for Spurs against Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League tonight and even his coach, Tim Sherwood, acknowledges you could be forgiven for thinking the 19 year old "is the mascot" such is his stature.
"There is a perception you have to be a lump to get by but that's a myth," Sherwood said.
Sherwood represented England, lifted the Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers, played for Tottenham and is a respected pundit for Al Jazeera television. The Spurs' technical co-ordinator is not known for hyperbole or empty platitudes so you listen and you listen good when he says Carroll has the ability to hold his own in the same team as Xavi and Iniesta.
"He could play for them [Barcelona], no question," Sherwood said. "He's got the lot. He's technically good enough, sees a pass, can pop it [the ball] round the corner and only Jake Livermore [the 21-year-old midfielder] runs more than him in a game in the first team."
Sherwood, 42, was a midfielder of some repute during his playing career and has therefore taken Carroll under his wing and champions his cause with Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager.
"He's one of those who has needed a bit more time to develop physically," Sherwood said. "He could have got released and I'm sure there are lots of Tom Carrolls who have been released. He's never going to be giant but he will grow and hopefully not look like the mascot anymore."
Tim Henson, Carroll's sports teacher, oversaw the young midfielder's rise from a boy into a teenager at school. He remembers the day he first clapped on eyes on the 11 year old as he walked through the gates at Parmiter's School in Watford.
"He was so tiny when he turned up," Henson said. "I had reservations about putting him in the middle of [the] pitch as an under 16 as he would get kicked about but it's not held him back. He has such a low centre of gravity and such good feet. If he was a foot and a bit taller he would be in Spurs' first team now. He's the best I've ever taught."
Henson was fulsome in his praise of Spurs for persevering with Carroll. "There were many who always thought he was going to be too small, especially as football clubs seem to pick athletes above footballers, so good on Spurs for sticking with him," Henson said.
Carroll acknowledged he experienced that sinking feeling at the age of 14 when he suspected he was going to be released by Spurs.
"I kept getting bullied off the ball and I did start to wonder," Carroll said. "But it's not a problem now. Last season I started to go to the gym but then felt sluggish on the pitch so I stopped doing that. I feel strong and not in a rush to get to the gym or bulk up."
