Jamie O'Hara on his "brilliant" Chesterfield loan spell from Tottenham Hotspur early on in his career

The midfielder joined Town as a teenager from Premier League Tottenham Hotspur in January 2006.

After his loan spell at the Spireites he went on to play in the top flight for Spurs as well as Wolves, Blackpool and Fulham.

“I absolutely loved it,” he told the I had Trials Once podcast.

“They were in League One at the time.

“That was at the old Saltergate stadium that was an absolute hole.

“I was 18-years-old and I was playing in front of three or four thousand.

“They were proper games, proper fans where it meant something and that for me was the best education I could have got.”

O’Hara, who is now manager of National League South side Billericay, said ex-Blues boss Roy McFarland was a “top manager” and “well respected.”

He added: “He was a bit like Mick McCarthy in terms of being no nonsense. He was brilliant for me.

“I think I played 14 games and scored six goals and that got me a new contract at Tottenham.

“I was travelling up there by myself, I was living by myself, there was no cotton wool around you like you had in the Tottenham academy. It was ‘you produce or you are done’.

“It was brilliant for me and I learnt a lot and that put me on a decent path of where I wanted to be.”