Tom Carroll has insisted that he was good enough to play more regularly for Tottenham Hotspur, and had little choice but to depart for Swansea City once first-team chances began to dry up.
The 24-year-old was used heavily by Mauricio Pochettino at White Hart Lane last season, featuring 19 times in the Premier League and 30 times overall.
Regular football proved to be harder to come by in the first half of the 2016-17 campaign, though, as just six minutes of top-flight action forced him to take up the option of joining Swansea in January on a permanent deal.
Despite slipping down the pecking order in North London and eventually moving on, Carroll has no hard feelings and believes that Pochettino has only helped to improve his all-round game.
"Last year went well for me. We had a good season and I was involved quite a lot," he told the Swans' official website. "But this season I didn't really get the chances that I did last year. It was frustrating for me because I thought I had done well.
"[Pochettino] is a good guy and a top manager. I think he has helped me improve as a player. The work they do both in the gym and on the training field at Tottenham has made me a better player. I can only thank him for that."
Spurs academy product Carroll, who has yet to be capped at senior level by England, has started four league games for Swansea since joining last month - three of them ending in victory.
Daniel Lewis
