Marcus Edwards was a Tottenham Hotspur academy graduate and made his first team debut in an EFL Cup clash against Gillingham in September 2016.
A month later, the 20-year-old suffered a serious injury and was forced to miss the majority of the 2016/17 season.
After regaining full fitness, the attacker struggled for minutes and after loan spells at Norwich City and Dutch club Excelsior, he left Tottenham for Portuguese side Vitória de Guimarães last summer.
During his time at the north London club, Mauricio Pochettino likened Edwards to Barcelona star Lionel Messi and following that, there was a lot of media attention on the youngster.
Speaking to Portuguese newspaper Record, Edwards cited the attention as one of the reasons for his struggles at Tottenham.
“I wasn’t always an easy young man… And the media attention, the conversations about me, all of this didn’t benefit me. I don’t think I could handle all this well. And that was reflected in the way I played, the joy I had or didn’t have on the pitch,” the winger said.
“I needed a project like the one in Vitória, where I could be calm and just worry about playing football.”
Edwards also gave his views on Tottenham’s decision to show Pochettino the exit door and replace him with José Mourinho.
“He’s a great manager, but all of this is still a little shocking to me, including Mourinho being the coach,” Edwards said about Mourinho’s appointment.
“I never thought that was possible. It’s very strange to see him with the Tottenham crest on his chest, but now that he’s there he wants to have all the success in the world, as he did in all the teams he was at.”
