At just 19, he is a regular in the England Under-21s' midfield, he played more than 20 senior games before his 17th birthday and, in the dawning of the Premiership's age of teenage footballers, he will be back at White Hart Lane this month to claim his place among the emergent young stars of Tottenham Hotspur's British revolution.
Tom Huddlestone has spent the first part of the season on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers but Martin Jol's clear-out of midfielders this month has meant that one of the brightest English teenage prospects will finally get his chance in the Premiership.
Should they sign Theo Walcott, Arsenal will believe they have the best young player in the Championship - Tottenham felt the same this time last year when they paid Derby County £2.5 million for Huddlestone, who had then just turned 18, and loaned him back to Pride Park until the summer.
He has remained one of the Championship's best-kept secrets this season, flourishing in Glenn Hoddle's midfield and establishing himself in Peter Taylor's England Under-21 team that narrowly failed to qualify for the European Championship finals. As one of the Englishmen tipped to succeed the Beckham generation, Huddlestone is among those young enough to count the 2014 World Cup as a genuine target.
The teenage stars of England Future are - with the exception of those such as Huddlestone, Walcott, Tottenham's Aaron Lennon, Manchester City's Nedum Onouha, Luke Moore of Aston Villa and Cardiff's Cameron Jerome - still lurking unknown in their clubs' academies.
Leeds and Middlesbrough are believed to have an exceptional crop but few of these young players will get their break quite as early as Huddlestone, who was famously picked by John Gregory on the Derby County bench aged 15, made his debut at 16 and had played 22 senior matches before he turned 17 - more than Wayne Rooney managed for Everton.
It means that battling for a place against Michael Carrick, Jermaine Jenas and Edgar Davids will hold little fear for a player who jokes that the Monday mornings he was allowed off school to train with Derby at the age of 15 were "like an advanced PE lesson".
"Spurs are flying this season and you would always want to go back to a club that is doing so well rather than one that is struggling," Huddlestone said.
"I think if they can do what they have been doing then a top-four finish is not out of the question. It is going to be more difficult for me to break into the team but I feel confident, it's something I have to do."
Sixteen may sound like an early age to start playing professional football but one glance at Huddlestone will tell you that at 1.9m tall he is big enough to take care of himself in the uncompromising world of Championship football.
His has been a fast-tracked development from kicking a ball around with the substitutes at his uncle's games for the old Hucknall Rolls-Royce semi-professional team to being picked up by his hometown team, Nottingham Forest, and playing in their Under-10s team at the age of just eight.
He spent four years at Forest, although he missed much of his last season suffering from the knee condition Osgood-Schlatter disease and was told by the academy director at the time, Paul Hart - who also famously released Shaun Wright-Phillips - that he had not quite qualified for a place in the academy.
It was then that Huddlestone joined Derby, whom he had played against in his last match for Forest, and rose through the ranks in a strong academy team that also featured the England Under-21s' goalkeeper Lee Camp.
His development at Derby, who have earned a strong reputation for nurturing talent under academy director Terry Westley, was astonishing and, having played a year beyond himself every step of the way, Huddlestone found himself selected for the bench by Gregory in a game against Millwall in October 2002.
His football career developed alongside his schoolwork, a part of his life which his mother Maxine insisted he continue with and, with 3 B grades and 6 C grades at GCSE, he qualifies as one of English football's best-educated young players.
Halfway through his second season at Derby, Tottenham's then-director of football Frank Arnesen made his move with the £2.5 million bid for Huddlestone as his reputation as an emerging star in the Under-21s grew.
Since then he has been back to Pride Park once with Wolves, where he scored his one goal of the season so far, and at Southampton in November he got a close-up look at Walcott, whom Huddlestone describes with a raised eyebrow, and a degree of understatement, as "rapid".
With Pedro Mendes and Sean Davis now at Portsmouth, Jol wants Huddlestone to challenge for a place in his midfield.
"I had just turned 18, and when a big club like Spurs come in for you, and the club accept the offer, it is going to be difficult for you, as a young player, to turn down such a big opportunity," Huddlestone said.
"Spurs' approach of buying young British players gave me confidence and should be good for the future. Playing for the Under-21s, and speaking to players there, they said that Tottenham were an excellent club to join."
Huddlestone is young enough to consider the arrival of Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola as among his earliest memories of football and is still amazed at what Glenn Hoddle can do in training ground matches.
Even as a 16-year-old football debutant he is proof to the likes of Walcott and the next teenage English generation that you have to wait for your chance.
Now, at White Hart Lane, Huddlestone's has arrived.
CAREER SO FAR ...
Tom Huddlestone
Age: 19. Born, Nottingham, December 28, 1986.
Previous club: Derby County.
Signed: July 2005, for £2.5 million ($6.5 million).
England Under-21 honours: 5 caps.
Loaned: to Wolves, managed by former Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle, October 2005; played 12 games, scoring one goal.
- INDEPENDENT
Soccer: Season of the emerging stars
Tom Huddlestone of Tottenham is one of the Premiership's best-kept secrets. Phil Cole/Getty Images
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