Town loanee Zeki Fryers insists he has no regrets about turning his back on first club Manchester United in 2012.
Rather than snap up the new contract on offer at Old Trafford the then 19-year-old opted to reject the deal and move on, convinced he was doing the right thing to further his career.
Fryers explained: "I could have stayed. They offered me a three-year contract but I made the decision to leave. It was a big shout but I just looked at my future and decided it would be elsewhere. I don’t have any regrets.
"I’ve been to a few clubs but it’s been good and I’ve enjoyed it. I started at Manchester United when I was 10 and I was there all the way through to 19. That was an important time and gave me a good grounding, a good base, and I enjoyed it. I also made a lot of friends at the club.
"I trained a lot with the first team players and I looked up to them so when I got in the team and played alongside them it was the best thing ever.
"No one stood out more for me than Wayne Rooney — he was the one as far as I was concerned. It was a pleasure to train with these guys and I learned a lot, not only in football terms but how they live as professional footballers. It was a big help.”
Having made the decision to move on Fryers spent some time training with Tottenham during the summer of 2012 but they could not agree a compensation deal with United and he instead moved to Belgium to join Standard Liege.
But within six months he was back in England to join Spurs, a move that angered United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and led to him accusing the Londoners of "blatant manipulation” of the situation and calling for the youngster’s registration to be withheld until the Premier League examined the move.
United were angry that Spurs, with whom they had been discussing a possible £6 million compensation fee, had instead secured Fryers for around half that price from Standard Liege.
But Spurs pointed to the fact that the Belgians had sacked their manager and his replacement didn’t see Fryers as being part of his plans going forward, while the player had also become homesick and was eager to return to England and revive his career.
Fryers reflected on his short stint in Belgium, adding: "It was different over there but I just wanted to play some games and learn something new to be honest. I got to learn another language, French, and overall it was a good move for me. I grew up a lot because I was away from the family.
"I think I needed that because breaking away from Manchester United was hard. It wasn’t easy leaving the club I had supported as a child but going to Belgium helped. I just thought the time had come for me to move on and go elsewhere.
"United were a bit funny about me leaving but I went out to Belgium and then come January there were a few clubs interested in me.
"I felt Tottenham offered the best opportunity in terms of developing me as a footballer and offering first team football. They were the biggest club that came after me when I was over at Standard Liege.”