The foe you know - Newcastle’s DeAndre Yedlin

In this new feature for 2017-18, entitled ‘The foe you know’, we shine the spotlight on former Spurs players who now ply their trade for our next opponents. This week, as we prepare for the first game of the 2017-18 campaign at Newcastle United, we examine the progress of DeAndre Yedlin at St James’ Park.

Rapid right-back DeAndre Yedlin agreed a deal to join us in August, 2014. A promising USA international, he had impressed for the States at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and was consistently catching the eye for home-town club Seattle Sounders in the MLS prior to that.

He made the last of his 69 senior appearances for Seattle, who we had also played against on our pre-season tour that year, in December, 2014, before arriving at Hotspur Way the following month.

His first outing in our colours came on January 9, 2015, for our Under-21s, as he lined up alongside Harry Winks and Josh Onomah in a 3-1 victory at West Ham United and he went on to play two further matches at that level in 2014-15.

DeAndre was named on the first team bench in the Premier League on a regular basis in the closing months of that campaign, making his top flight debut as a substitute for Vlad Chiriches in a 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa on April 11, 2015.

That turned out to be the only time he featured for our first team in a competitive fixture, although he did appear in overseas tour matches on a handful of occasions.

Following a successful loan spell at Sunderland in 2015-16, where he made 25 appearances, he left us to join Newcastle United, newly relegated to the Championship, in August, 2016.

He made his Magpies debut as a late substitute in a 2-0 home win over Brighton & Hove Albion on August 27 before stepping off the bench to open his goalscoring account for the club in a victory by the same scoreline at Derby County on September 10.

He subsequently started on a fairly regular basis and, although he missed a few weeks of action in March and April, 2017, with a hamstring injury, he racked up 32 appearances in his debut season for Rafa Benitez’s side as they secured immediate promotion back to the top flight.

The 24-year-old’s hopes of facing us on the opening day of the new Premier League season, however, seemed to take a blow on July 29 when he picked up another hamstring problem in Newcastle’s 2-1 pre-season defeat to Mainz.

It remains to be seen whether he will have recovered in time to feature when we travel to St James’ Park on Sunday, but he’ll no doubt enjoy the chance to catch up with some familiar faces upon our arrival on Tyneside.