Derby lining up loan for Tom Carroll

Well we've all spilled a lot of blood and tears imagining a future where Tom Carroll is at the heart of Tottenham Hotspur's starting midfield, but it appears that future may have to wait a bit longer. According to the Herts and Essex Observer, Championship club Derby County is lining up a season long loan for Tom Carroll.

The 22 year old midfielder has impressed at Spurs but played relatively few minutes. Finding playing time doesn't look to be getting any easier considering that Tottenham has recently acquired every midfielder that has ever played the game. Tom has a history with Derby, having had a short loan there in 2012, and their playing style would suit him infinitely better than QPR's did last year.

Honestly this is a pretty good loan for him if there isn't a Premier League team willing to give him minutes. Derby play good football and were unfortunate not to get promoted last year. Regardless, I'm sure this will disappoint the many Spurs fans who think that the only acceptable move for him would be using a time machine to get him minutes with the 1974 Dutch National Team. As talented as Carroll is, he still needs to step his game up to earn a place at Spurs and at age 22 he probably needs to take that next step sooner rather than later.  If playing time is what he needs, there are probably few options better than Derby.