Ashley Phillips impressed on a season-long loan at Stoke City before returning to parent club Tottenham Hotspur
Ashley Phillips has been warned he needs "the pre-season to end all pre-seasons" to avoid falling into a trap of never-ending loans slowly leading to a goodbye at Tottenham Hotspur.
The 20-year-old centre-half is back at Spurs for the summer after an impressive long-term loan at Stoke City, where he got his first taste of playing regular football over the course of pretty much a full season.
He joined Stoke in August and made a couple of cameos before forcing his way into the starting XI in late October and never dropping out, gradually becoming one of the first names on the teamsheet.
The England youth international ended up in a partnership with Ben Wilmot that helped Stoke eventually secure their status in the Championship - and both players were willing to play through injury in the spring to get the job done.
Phillips had joined Tottenham from Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2023 and spent the second half of 2023/24 with Plymouth Argyle before his time in the Potteries. Now he is trying to stake his claim under new Tottenham boss Thomas Frank, who has welcomed two new centre-backs into his squad this window.
Kevin Danso has joined from Lens for £21 million and Kota Takai has arrived from Kawasaki Frontale for £5m. Luka Vuskovic is also now officially a Spurs player and Frank can also call on Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Radu Dragusin and Alfie Dorrington.
It is believed that Spurs haven't been planning to let Phillips out on loan to the Championship again but could test him in a European league. He has still been linked with Sheffield United.
But Football.London's Spurs reporter Alasdair Gold said: "Phillips never really got a chance under Ange Postecoglou, or was not rated by the Australian and his coaching staff, but did have two impressive loan spells in the Championship at Plymouth and Stoke where he earned plenty of plaudits.
"The centre-back turned 20 a couple of weeks ago and he will be fully aware that the arrival of Luka Vuskovic and Takai is going to only block the path further to ever playing a competitive match for Tottenham.
"Frank will want to have a proper look at the big centre-back but Phillips is going to need to have the pre-season to end all pre-seasons to ensure his Spurs career doesn't just become a temporary rest stop between loans before leaving permanently."
While you're here, we have launched a new WhatsApp group to deliver the latest Stoke news directly to your phone. Click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in. If for some reason you decide you no longer want to be in our community, you can leave at any time by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking 'Exit Group', simple as that.