Tottenham trio spotted back at Hotspur Way ahead of Burnley after returning from loan spells

It is straight back down to work for Alfie Devine and Ashley Phillips despite helping loan club Plymouth Argyle achieve Championship safety on the final day of the league season. At a time when their Plymouth teammates will have departed for their summer break ahead of returning for pre-season in late June or early July, the duo are now back with Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham first-team squad at Hotspur Way.

In a photo uploaded to Tottenham's Instagram page on Wednesday afternoon, the duo could be seen putting their football boots on ahead of training as James Maddison stood by them in the background. The photo of the trio was taken by none other than Tottenham right-back Pedro Porro, who had control of the camera as they waited to go out for training.

Photos of Porro with the camera and the photo he ended up taking can be seen on the club's Instagram account. Young goalkeeper Josh Keeley was also visible in one of the images where Porro was on camera duty.

Just like Devine and Phillips, the 20-year-old spent the second part of the 2023/24 campaign out on loan after linking up with National League side Barnet in January. Although Barnet's League Two promotion quest ended in disappointment as they lost 4-0 to Solihull Moors in the semi-finals of the play-offs, it proved to be a very good move for Keeley as he made 25 appearances for the Bees.

Since Barnet's season has come to a close, Keeley was on the bench for Tottenham's Under-21s on Monday afternoon as they secured a 4-3 win over Aston Villa in their Premier League 2 play-off encounter. The young shot-stopper was an unused substitute on the day as Luca Gunter started between the sticks.

Devine and Phillips also got regular minutes in the tank during their time on loan in the Championship with Plymouth Argyle. Devine initially started his loan spell in the Pilgrims team before finding himself in and out of the side from the beginning of March onwards.

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However, he was recalled to the starting XI on the final day against Hull City and helped Plymouth achieve Championship safety by beating the Tigers 1-0 at Home Park. In total, Devine started nine of his 15 appearances for the Devon-based club, registering two assists in the process.

Phillips went on to make 20 appearances in total for Plymouth, with the defender able to play in two of Argyle's FA Cup encounters against Leeds United at a time when Devine was cup tied. Starting 16 of his 18 Championship appearances for Plymouth, the 18-year-old did find himself as an unused substitute in two games during the run-in but he returned to the XI for the team's final two fixtures of the campaign.

Certainly worthwhile loan spells for all parties involved, Plymouth Live have reported that Argyle have expressed an interest in taking the duo back to Home Park for the 2024/25 campaign.

Speaking after the win over Hull, Argyle director of football Neil Dewsnip said: "The loan players will obviously go back (to the parent clubs) but we are already in discussions to see if we can maybe access one or two of those to stay again next year, but we are very early in the discussions."

Although he didn't name Devine and Phillips, Dewsnip then confirmed those talks were about the Tottenham players. For now, the duo and Keeley will be trying their best to impress Postecoglou in what remains of the season as the head coach gets his plans in place for next campaign.

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