Tottenham temptation for Oliver Irow recall must be high amid eye-catching scenes

Tottenham Hotspur's Oliver Irow is 10 games into his loan stint with Plymouth Argyle.

The Pilgrims currently sit top of League One, with 19 points collected from their opening 10 games of the season.

Irow joined Argyle completed a season-long loan deal to Home Park in late August, after spending time with Mansfield Town last term.

A product of Tottenham's academy system, the versatile forward has been turning heads in Spurs' youth system for a number of years now.

He's also represented England at various youth international levels, and is clearly a player who many feel has a very bright future ahead of him.

Now 20, however, Irow is at the stage of his career where getting regular minutes in senior football will be vital to reaching his full potential.

What has Plymouth manager Tom Cleverley said about Oliver Irow?

Plymouth are providing him with this opportunity, and he's immediately found a key role with the Devonshire outfit.

Argyle are managed by Tom Cleverley, with the 37-year-old ex-Manchester United midfielder one of the youngest gaffers in the EFL.

Cleverley has been in charge there since summer last year, and after some very challenging first few months, he now seems to have found his feet at Home Park.

As a young player, working under a fellow young manager can be extremely beneficial from a relationship and understanding perspective.

Speaking via BBC Sport in late September, Cleverley evidently loves working with Irow, and was full of praise for the Tottenham talent.

"He's really confident. He really believes in himself that he can impact the games," Cleverley said.

"He knows that the lads and the fans and the staff have accepted him very quickly as a person and a player.

"He should be looking short term now, working as hard as he possibly can to have a really good season in League One with us and then hopefully that's onwards and upwards to the Championship for Ollie next season.

"We're speaking a long way down the line. Ollie's got a lot of hard work to do and keep this run going, but we're pleased and so are Spurs."

So, just how good have Irow's underlying numbers been from his opening few months as a Plymouth player?

Where does Irow lead all League One rivals this season?

Tottenham do have the power to recall Irow from his Plymouth loan spell in January should they wish.

Given Spurs' slow start to the season, they may well give this much consideration, especially with their forward line in particular misfiring.

The Pilgrims will be praying that doesn't happen though, as he's scored four times from his first 10 games in all competitions for them.

Per FotMob, no left winger - the position he's primarily playing for Argyle - has scored more goals than Irow's three in League One this season.

Meanwhile, his 1.26 shots on target per game and 3.12 expected goals on target rank him in the top 2.4 percentile of his positional rivals.

From eight league games, he's had 18 shots, made six successful crosses, completed seven dribbles and taken 19 touches in the opposition box.

So, word will surely have got back to Roberto De Zerbi of Irow's exploits in Devon.

If he continues on the trajectory he's on with Plymouth, then a January recall will only grow increasingly tempting for Tottenham.