Dane Scarlett’s loan spells so far have not been as successful as he, and Tottenham Hotspur, would’ve hoped. But something has clicked this season, scoring three in five on loan at Oxford United.

The 20-year-old has been somewhat of a household name for a few years now. He made his Spurs debut back in November of 2020 in the Europa League at the tender age of 16 years and 247 days. At the time, he was the youngest player to have appeared in a senior first-team competitive game for Tottenham.

Scarlett made his Premier League debut three months later when he was subbed on by none other than José Mourinho.

He has had an intense start to his professional football career, with a lot of hype around him. The youngster has already made 17 appearances for the Tottenham first team.

Many players find the expectation tough to deal with at such a young age, with fans expecting/hoping for young players to continue on this unrealistic trajectory into superstardom.

Underwhelming loan spells at Portsmouth and Ipswich

Scarlett’s first loan spell was at Fratton Park. The England U21 international scored six goals in 40 appearances for Pompey.

His first season away from Spurs seemed to start well for the youngster. He started almost every game for Portsmouth, putting in some impressive displays. However, he was unable to find the net regularly, only scoring three goals after featuring in each of the first 19 league games.

The striker was playing in what even their fans will consider an average Portsmouth side, often featuring upfront alongside Colby Bishop. Whether that was working to Scarlett’s advantage or not is not clear. He’s definitely worked better as a single striker this season at Oxford, however.

As the season went on for Scarlett, he was gradually seeing less game time. By the end of the campaign, he had only appeared in four of the last 12 in the league, with Pompey finishing eighth and missing out on the play-offs.

The following season, Scarlett was loaned out to Ipswich, who had just won promotion to the Championship. Many Portsmouth fans were surprised that Scarlett had managed to get a move to a team in the Championship after failing to set League One alight.

The youngster’s time at Ipswich was short-lived. He was unable to impress manager Kieran McKenna enough to get a start and failed to score after 12 appearances.

In Scarlett’s defense, he only averaged 12 minutes per match across his time at Ipswich. He struggled to make an impact and displace George Hirst and Kieffer Moore, who were having good seasons up front for Ipswich.

Some fans accused him of not working hard enough, or looking unfit. This is not unusual for Scarlett, as the same has been said about him by Portsmouth fans and Oxford fans after his first few games for the club.

Spurs decided to recall the striker at the end of December due to lack of game time. Scarlett finished with zero goals and assists for an Ipswich side who would go on to secure promotion to the Premier League.

Though his first two loan spells were underwhelming, the young striker would only have had to look to Spurs legend Harry Kane for reassurance. Kane spent several years on loan at the likes of Millwall, Leyton Orient, Leicester City, and Norwich City, scoring just 16 goals across all four of those loan spells.

Turning it around at Oxford

So far, Scarlett has had a massively improved season under Des Buckingham.

It was a slow start for the youngster, which was to be expected when you take into consideration two poor loan spells and the fact that United’s number nine Mark Harris has had a successful time at Oxford so far.

After a few substitute appearances, Scarlett was starting to find his feet. He was integral in Oxford scoring an equaliser away at Portsmouth, before scoring a 92nd-minute leveller himself against high-flying West Bromwich Albion the following game.

That earned him his first league start for Oxford against Derby County, in which the youngster scored once again. It was after this game that many U’s fans realised that although Harris might be a harder worker off the ball, Scarlett is a more natural goalscorer, and was putting away chances that Harris wasn’t.

Scarlett continued his hot form in front of goal with another really well-taken finish. It came against Swansea City in a game that saw Harris start ahead of the youngster but was unable to find any sort of rhythm in the game. Scarlett came on and had an instant impact.

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The midfielder left the Rams in the summer to join The U’s.

The Spurs loanee isn’t necessarily playing in a noticeably different style at Oxford but it seems that the now 20-year-old is playing with a lot more confidence and is better physically equipped for this level.

Young players develop quickly and Scarlett is clearly more physically prepared for professional football now compared to two seasons ago.

He also isn’t working noticeably harder, or being more effective with or without the ball, he is simply being far more effective in front of goal, which boils down to a player confident in his abilities.

According to Fotmob, his expected goals this season per 90 minutes is only 0.15, compared to his goals per 90 minutes, which is 0.82. This tells us that he is scoring tougher goals with a lower probability of hitting the back of the net. It also suggests that he’s creating a limited number of chances for himself and having few attempts on goal a game, making his conversion rate even more impressive.

Buckingham has proven himself to be a good man-manager, helping players who are low on confidence get out of that rut. He needs to make sure he is also boosting the confidence of players like Scarlett who need that support in order to thrive.

Being a striker in a team fighting for survival can be a lonely job at times, but the forward seems to be enjoying some good form. He’s been away with the England U21s recently, where he scored against Azerbaijan, which will only help boost his confidence even more.

As long as Scarlett can stay confident and trusting in his abilities, we may be looking at the breakthrough season Spurs fans have been waiting for and Oxford may succeed where both Ipswich and Portsmouth failed.