And speaking on Gold and Guest Talk Tottenham, journalist Alasdair Gold suggested that he had received glowing reviews about Donley’s performance in the friendly.
“Jamie Donley at left-back, that was an interesting one, having to fill in there, which would presumably – I haven’t seen any photos yet – but we’re presuming maybe Destiny Udogie’s not quite there yet in terms of fitness,” he said.
“From what I understood, apparently Jamie Donley was excellent as a left-back, which I guess we’ve spoken about this before, and using midfielders in the inverted full-back roles, they’re kind of going to take to a lot of aspects of it because the role brings them into the middle anyway.”
Postecoglou showed on a few occasions last season that he is not afraid to make tough decisions – which may seem unpopular – if he feels that they will help Tottenham in the long run. Perhaps there was no better example of this than the way he made his strong feelings known on the clash with Manchester City late on in the campaign.
So he will not be worried about putting his faith in a young player who really impresses him over the summer, and that perhaps presents an opportunity to someone like Donley to force their way into his plans.
Postecoglou will loan him out if he feels out that his development would be best-served that way, but there is arguably no better manager for Donley to have if he feels that he is ready to start knocking on the first-team door on a more consistent basis.