Mauricio Pochettino has a track record with bringing through youngsters, so when he starts giving one game time you need to sit up and take notice.
The Tottenham Hotspur boss is very much of the adage that if you're good enough, you're old enough.
The list of young players the Argentine has turned into internationals and Premier League stars is long, and testament to his ability to not only spot a star in the making but manage their development perfectly.
The first sign of a Pochettino project is usually that the player gets taken on a pre-season tour and is given plenty of game time after they impress him and the first team players.
Then they are rewarded for their summer efforts with minutes here and there over the coming months, often late on in matches.
For those that Pochettino really has high hopes for, he will have no issue with throwing them into the final stages of a tight match, regardless of the opposition.
In the 2016/17 season, he did exactly that with a certain Harry Winks.
After the young midfielder impressed on the club's pre-season tour to Australia, Pochettino began naming him on the bench in the Premier League.
His first minutes came three matches in, in the end stages of game against Liverpool, with the scores tied at 1-1 with Jurgen Klopp's side and any mistake likely to tip the balance.
The pattern continued with Winks coming on for the final minutes of games against Middlesbrough, Leicester and Arsenal, with the scores either tied or just a single goal separating the sides.
Then came that famous start against West Ham at White Hart Lane and the goal that sparked that celebratory leap into Pochettino's arms.
Fast forward a couple of seasons and, injuries aside, Winks has become one of the first names on Pochettino's team sheet and an England international to boot.
Now there is a new midfielder that the Spurs boss appears to be nudging gently along the path to the top table.
Like Winks, Oliver Skipp was highly regarded within Tottenham's academy, often playing as a 16-year-old in U23 matches and EFL Trophy games against experienced Football League players and more than holding his own.
His pre-season experience came first in the USA last summer, when he impressed Pochettino and first team stars such as Christian Eriksen quickly warmed to 'Skippy'.
The teenager would make 12 appearances in his first season, including eight in the Premier League, but it is this campaign where the Winks comparisons are starting to show.
Those who have watched Skipp during his academy matches will have seen a similar player to Winks, a throwback to Michael Carrick, a box-to-box midfielder who can create or destroy simply by choosing the right positions before picking up the tempo in the opposition direction.
They're players not known for their goalscoring, but more the foundations that attacks are built upon.
After another impressive pre-season, this time in Asia, Pochettino's use of Skipp so far this season in the first two matches, although minimal, has been telling.
He brought on the 18-year-old in the first game against Aston Villa in the final moments, ahead of both Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama.
Then he did the same again in the cauldron of the Etihad Stadium, with the score poised at 2-2 and City's attacking might banging at the door.
Wanyama wasn't even on the bench and again Skipp was preferred to Dier in those frantic last couple of minutes, despite the England international's experience.
Skipp did make an impact, getting a last-gasp block on a Raheem Sterling shot that would end up proving crucial with that late VAR-ruled out Gabriel Jesus effort.
It could well mean that Wanyama's time at the club is coming to a close, but it's worth keeping an eye on what happens next for Skipp, who is a couple of years younger than Winks was when he broke through.
It might just be minutes here and there, but the 18-year-old has Pochettino's trust and at a time when the Spurs boss believes you have to be 'a 9 or a 10 now rather than an 7 or 8' to get out of Tottenham's academy into the first team, it means he feels he has some player on his hands.
