Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Harry Winks has been speaking about his time since leaving N17 and admitted he lost love for the game at the club.
It has now been a number of months since the 28-year-old made the move to the Championship with Leicester City.
And it seems like he may be returning to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next season as the Foxes look set to return to the top flight.
Winks lost love for football
It really was a difficult few seasons for Winks in north London with a lack of game time leading to a loan move to Italy.
He did join Sampdoria for the 2022/23 campaign, but injury meant he was not quite able to play as much as he would’ve hoped for.
His time at Spurs did see Winks rack up over 200 appearances across all competitions, however, he told BBC East Midlands Today that the last few years were a struggle: “Maybe the last two or three years of my time at Spurs was tough, but before that it was amazing and I loved every minute,” he said.
“I learned a lot from that as well, it definitely develops your character when you don’t play as regularly and you don’t feel as important.
“But again I wouldn’t want to change it for anything, I’ve learned so much along the way in my career and it makes you enjoy the highs more when you’ve been through that.
“I probably did lose a little bit of love for it in the last couple of years when I wasn’t playing and left out of squads and things like that.
“It’s difficult to find that love for it, but once you make the brave decision to leave and go to Italy and try to find it there, which I did, and to come here… now it is probably the most I’ve ever enjoyed football in my career.”
Winks made way for Maddison
The summer transfer window saw Spurs and Leicester see a player from each club make the move to the other.
Winks swapped Hotspur Way for Leicester’s state-of-the-art training facility in a deal which was believed to have been worth around £10m.
And then we saw James Maddison make the move in the opposite direction with Spurs paying around £40m for the England international.
Although these were separate deals, it would have been interesting to see whether Maddison would’ve been possible had we not allowed Winks to go the other way.
Regardless of how his final years unfolded in north London, Winks is an academy graduate and it is great to see and hear him enjoying his football again.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t come back to N17 and cause us issues with Leicester looking set to win the Championship this season.
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