For Ryan Mason, calling time on a 20-plus year association with Tottenham Hotspur , a journey that included the transition from an academy product to a first team player and the start of a coaching career, required a gut feeling.

"It's hard to explain why the timing felt right, because it's more of a feeling so the feeling was there and I've felt it for a while, and also to end the season in the manner in which we did at Tottenham, it was almost like a nice closure to an amazing chapter in my sort of personal career there."

Mason was part of the group that ended Spurs' 17-year trophy drought by winning the UEFA Europa League last spring, but even outside of that triumph, it is not hard to envision why he had felt the itch to forge his own path "for a while." The 34-year-old joined

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