There will be another familiar face in the Spurs ranks tomorrow when Tom Carroll returns to the Liberty Stadium after his loan spell last season, one that could have resulted in him staying at the Swans.

Carroll played a reasonable part in the Swans run last season and boss Garry Monk revealed that he could have stayed at the club at the end of that loan spell but the player wanted to go back and see if he could force his way into the Tottenham side.

And that decision seems to be paying dividends as he has made seven appearances for Spurs this season and is expected to play some part as the Swans entertain Tottenham tomorrow afternoon.

"Tom did great, I really enjoyed working with him and he's a really good prospect," said Monk.

"I spoke to him at the end of the season about coming here and of course we were interested.

"But I think it was a case that he really wanted to go back there and see if he could work his way into the first team.

"If it wasn't working there he wanted to go out and get regular football. That was something I couldn't guarantee him.

"He's a young developing player that is doing exceptionally well.

"You've seen already this season that he's been involved in the first-team set-up and that's credit to him.

"There will be other players like Tom playing in other leagues of similar ability that would cost a third of the money.

"But it wasn't about that with Tom. It was more from a footballing side of things that that decision was made."

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