‘Hopefully’: Manager wants ‘very strong’ on-loan Spurs defender to stay the whole season

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Tottenham Hotspur defender TJ Eyoma has been doing well away from North London on loan and his current manager wants him to stay the whole season.

The 20-year-old left Spurs in August to link up on loan with Lincoln, who consolidated their place in League One last season after earning promotion as League Two champions in 2019.

To date, Eyoma has made 21 appearances in all competitions this season, including 14 in the league, helping the Imps to second in the table.

As well as the Tottenham man, Lincoln also have Alex Palmer, Robbie Gotts and Brennan Johnson on loan, and all have made valuable contributions to their excellent start.

Deals of such nature are routinely reviewed in January and manager Michael Appleton would like all four to remain at the club for the second half of the season.

“I’m hoping they all stay but there’s always a window, of either a week or 10 days, where they can be pulled back or we can send them back,” Appleton told Lincolnshire Live.

“The idea behind bringing them in was to keep them for the full season. It wasn’t a case of just do it until January, and hopefully that’ll be the case with all of them.”

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There are several highly-rated Tottenham academy gems impressing on loan, and Eyoma’s efforts for Lincoln so far will certainly be giving the Spurs coaches food for thought.

Eyoma, who can play at both centre-half and right-back, has already made his Spurs senior debut, against Tranmere in the 2019 FA Cup, and has been an ever-present at Under-23s level.

It speaks volumes that Appleton was so eager to have him back again after his loan in the second half last season was brought to an end by the curtailing of the League One season.

“He’s a very strong and aggressive athlete, but also very comfortable on the ball,” Appleton said after re-signing Eyoma. “He’ll be a great addition to the squad.”

With his contract taking him to 2023, there’s plenty of time for him to make even more of a name for himself, and if he continues to impress, Jose Mourinho could well think about promoting him to the first team next term.