And Townsend had to be patient waiting for the chance that came last year. This is how long the evening was before his overnight success: from the age of 17, he was farmed out on loan by Spurs nine times. Some of those spells, like the one at QPR, were hugely beneficial. Others, like a brief sojourn in Leeds, were little short of miserable. But looking back, he believes it was an apprenticeship worth serving.