Tottenham left in tough position amid Ipswich Town agreement: View | OneFootball

Tottenham loanee Dane Scarlett has struggled for Championship action in recent weeks at Ipswich Town, leaving his parent club with a big decision to make.

The 19-year-old striker has already played for two clubs this season, the maximum number allowed. He's made 11 appearances for Ipswich in the Championship, while he featured for Spurs in their League Cup defeat to Fulham in August. This means that if Spurs were to recall him next month, Scarlett would not be able to go on loan to another club where he may see more first-team action.

In all likelihood, if he was to be recalled, Scarlett would probably play for Spurs' U21 side for the remainder of the campaign, not ideal for one of the club's most promising young players.

It throws up a conundrum for Spurs, where they can either let the forward play a bit-part role in Ipswich's promotion charge, or bring him back to North London where he can play regular football, albeit at U21 level.

Dane Scarlett's 2023/24 season at Ipswich Town

Scarlett is yet to start a game for Ipswich this season, seeing his game time limited to apperances from the bench.

The forward has made 11 appearances in total, but is yet to register a goal or assist for the Tractor Boys. This is a stark difference from last season when Scarlett was loaned to League One side Portsmouth and made 40 appearances across all competitions for Pompey, scoring six goals and registering two assists.

It's worth remembering that Ipswich are not only in the race for automatic promotion, but the Championship title, too. This has probably surpassed even Kieran McKenna's ambitions for the campaign, so it's perhaps understandable that Scarlett has found game time hard to come by in a team doing so well.

Despite not featuring as much as Spurs would have wanted, Scarlett is still making the Ipswich match-day squad for every game, which shows he's still in McKenna's plans at least.

The Dane Scarlett solution

If Spurs were able to recall Scarlett and loan him out to another side in January, then it would make sense to recall the forward. However, as Scarlett can't play for another team this season, it's probably best for Spurs to leave him at Ipswich.

It's far from ideal for both Spurs and the player who would have wanted to be playing regular football, but it could be argued that playing a bit-part role in a Championship title-chasing side will have far much more benefit than the alternative, which is playing U21's football for Spurs.

The player will learn a lot more about himself and football in general, being in an environment where his club are competing for three points every Saturday in a do-or-die race for promotion in a competitive league than he would playing in Premier League 2 in games with no crowds and no real incentive to win.

It's not an ideal situation by any means, but Scarlett needs to make the most of being in the Ipswich Town environment and contributing when he can to help the team win promotion. A Championship promotion on his CV will be far more beneficial than any number of minutes playing at U21 level.