DeAndre Yedlin has yet to make his Tottenham Hotspur debut. In fact, he's not even with Tottenham at the moment after being released to join the United States national team ahead of some friendlies. And while that may not be the start that many observers were hoping, at least one veteran teammate is not worried at all.
Brad Friedel, the American goalkeeper who's spent most of the past 20 years in the English Premier League, seems confident Yedlin is coming along just fine.
"It's a lot different than Seattle obviously and he's just received his work permit two or three weeks ago, but he's settled in nicely. It's a new culture, new team, new everything for him.
"There's a massive difference between the two leagues. The MLS is getting better and better, but the Premier League is different than any other league in the world in one main area, and that is the pace of play. Any players, it doesn't matter who you are - and you've seen some world-class players coming and going from the Premier League - it takes them time to get their eye in.
"That's what he's doing in training - and he looks good in training, he looks really sharp. So he'll just have to work really hard and hopefully get his playing time in due course."
Friedel goes on to say that the biggest danger facing Yedlin is outsized expectations.
"For him, there's no danger. He's come in, he's signed with a new club, Mauricio [Pochettino] is an excellent manager, Tottenham's an excellent club and we've got a lot of excellent players. So he's just going to become one of those and he's going to train as hard as he can and then when Mauricio thinks he's ready he'll put him in a game.
"I think the people that expect or want or opinionate without actually being there day to day, those are probably more the dangers than anything else."
In the broad picture, that seems like a bit of a cop out -- the ability to handle expectations is part of what makes great players great -- but he's got a point in the short term. Yedlin is basically fresh off his offseason and it was probably a bit unrealistic for anyone to expect him to slide into Spurs' regular rotation.
Tottenham is still sixth in the EPL table and only five points out of third, while also competing in Europa League and Capital One Cup after just being eliminated from the FA Cup about a week ago. Let's at least allow Yedlin some time to regain full fitness before freaking out about his playing time.