Under Pochettino's leadership, a group of academy graduates formed an exceptionally energetic team. Mason was especially close to Harry Kane—they shared a room as teenagers at a youth tournament in Mexico and later gained more experience together. The highlight was the 2015/16 season, when Spurs were in the title race for a long time, but ran out of steam in the spring finish and Leicester celebrated the trophy. "Not getting it over the line was a failure, but at the same time, I don't think we as players weren't ready to win the Premier League."
At 25, the English midfielder decided to leave his boyhood club, influenced in part by financial incentives during the planning of Tottenham's new stadium, but mainly by his desire for regular playing time. "Looking back, I don't regret things in life, but it was a bad time to leave. At 25, I made a decision that felt right for me: I just wanted to go and play, rather than only play half the games," he explained his thinking at the time.
His playing career ended for good after a clash during a corner kick, in which he suffered a fractured skull and then spent weeks bedridden in severe pain, with Petr Čech himself visiting him in the hospital. He could not return to professional football, but he hung up his boots at peace: "I was able to end my career because I knew I had given everything I had."
The full TV version of this episode of the Big Pete documentary series will be available on CANAL+ Sport and the CANAL+ streaming service in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Poland, Myanmar, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania, and Hungary, and on SuperSport in South Africa and Switzerland.