Mauricio Pochettino loves Tom Carroll almost as much as we do

Harry Kane may have had a brace for Spurs in their big home win over Norwich City, and Erik Lamela might just have been the Man of the Match, but all the talk has been about Tom Carroll, who came in as a late substitute and fired a worldy past Declan Rudd for his first ever Premier League goal.

Mauricio Pochettino loved it too and spoke glowingly about wee Tawmmy's performance on Saturday, as reported by Lyall Thomas at Sky Sports.

"This is what we want when players come on from the bench," Pochettino, who started Carroll in last weekend's win at Southampton, [sic home loss to Newcastle] told Sky Sports.

"Tom made a real impact for the team and we are very pleased for him. He deserves this moment because he works hard in training. He deserved to play today.

"I was very pleased with the performance and we have to congratulate the players. It was a difficult game and we started with difficulty in the first 15 minutes, but the final result was very good and we deserved to score more."

Tom wasn't the best player on the pitch on Saturday, but he completely stole the show with a fantastic goal that was his first in the Premier League. Not quite as good as Andros Townsend's, but it was pretty neat.

Look, our site has a reputation for being, shall we say, over-exuberant about Tom Carroll. We do love him a lot and are so pleased that he's coming good, because a lot of the masthead has been tracking him since he was 17. Sure, a lot of our schtick is just that -- schtick. But it's all in good fun, and all of us (except Skipjack) are beyond thrilled that he's finally making a breakthrough in the first team under Pochettino.

Take away all of that and we should STILL be excited about Tom Carroll, because he's another academy product who's worked his way through the youth system and is now getting not-insignificant minutes at central midfield at age 23 for a top-four side. Tom, like Nabil Bentaleb, Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, and Andros Townsend before him, is continuing the trail blazed by Ledley King. That's nothing to scoff at.

Some of you may get tired of it or understand it, but the Tom Carroll love is OURS, and you can't take it away. (And if you thought THIS was great, wait until Marcus Edwards starts getting minutes.)