Tom Carroll's rejuvenation at Exeter City after rejecting Tottenham player-coach role

Former Tottenham midfielder Tom Carroll has disclosed that he turned down a "Tom Huddlestone role" at Spurs to sign for League One side Exeter City last summer. The 32-year-old left North London in 2017 after injuries limited him to just 56 appearances over five seasons.

Despite being part of the same Tottenham academy generation as Harry Kane, Carroll's career took a different trajectory to England's No9. After leaving Spurs, he joined Swansea and made 67 Premier League appearances for the Welsh club before moving to Championship side QPR for a season.

A stint with Ipswich followed, but persistent physical issues led Carroll to take a year-long break from football in 2022. He returned to train with Spurs' U21s in the summer of 2023 and was offered a player-coach role - similar to the one Tom Huddlestone held at Manchester United until recently.

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However, in an interview with The Athletic, Carroll revealed he declined the offer as he felt his playing days were not yet over. Watching updates from numerous Premier League and EFL matches on Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday, hearing about his former clubs and peers, was particularly difficult.

"That's what did it for my head," Carroll admits. "I thought, 'I can't do this for another year'. I've got two young boys and I wanted them to see me actually play instead of me saying, 'I'm going to training' (during the week) and then just being at home on the Saturday."

By last summer, Carroll hadn’t played in a competitive fixture for a year when he got a call from Grecians manager Gary Caldwell, who sold him a project at the League One club, one that included a recently-refurbished training ground, and spoke of his ambition to play high-energy, possession football. Carroll was impressed. He impressed Caldwell, too, and in the July signed a one-year contract to play for Exeter, and he played in 42 out of the club's 46 League One matches.

"After the game, I was like, 'I've missed this feeling'," Carroll said after the 3-0 opening day win at Wycombe, as the Athletic reports. "Winning games, you can't really replicate it. It's just a buzz with the boys after, going over to clap the fans. I think that's special. After that game, it made me realise, 'I can still do this. I still feel good'. So I just wanted to enjoy it and get that buzz back."

Carroll is glad he took a year off to recharge and is now eager to see what lies ahead for Exeter next season following their 13th place finish in his first campaign with the club - although he has yet to sign the new contract which has been offered to him. He has enjoyed his time in Devon but it has meant living away from his wife and children, who are based in Hertfordshire, just north of London, so it's a decision he is mulling over.

"Having a year out has made me realise that I should try to enjoy it," Carroll said. "In football, everything goes so quickly that you can get caught up in it. You win a game, you feel great for maybe that evening, and then it's on to the next one. But I wanted to come back in and try and enjoy it as much as I can, and I've done that. We have got a pretty good squad now, so it's just about building on that.

"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."