Kieran Trippier may have finally emerged from Kyle Walker’s shadow at Tottenham but their battle for international supremacy has only just begun.
Walker’s £50million move from Spurs to Manchester City has enabled Trippier to continue an upward trajectory in his career that is the product of patience.
Trippier came through the youth system at City but after two loan spells at Barnsley and a further temporary spell at Burnley, he signed permanently for the latter in 2012. Three promising years at Turf Moor preceded a £3.5m switch to Tottenham and two years acting as Walker’s understudy.
Things began to change at the end of last season when Trippier took advantage of a deteriorating relationship between Walker and Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino to start seven of the club’s final 13 matches in all competitions including victories over Arsenal and Manchester United.
Those performances earned him a call-up to the England setup for the first time in June, when he made his debut lasting 76 minutes in France’s 3-2 victory at the Stade de France.
Kyle Walker-Peters and, more pressingly, imminent £23m arrival Serge Aurier from Paris Saint Germain are ready to challenge Trippier at club level but the 26-year-old also has his sights on a straight fight with Walker to emerge as England’s first-choice right-back.
Although the competition has always been fierce – and Nathaniel Clyne will no doubt enter the picture for England upon his return from injury – both Walker and Trippier have always been friends and little has changed despite parting company at club level.
“We are very close,” he explained. “Obviously we were in England in the younger age groups, we're both from up north, so we've got a really good relationship on and off the field.
"Before the games, whoever was playing would talk about the opponent on the wing. Building up to the week, talking about the players who were playing against, who we could be facing, so we had a lot of discussions and, yeah, just tried to help each other as much as we could.
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“And whoever was getting the nod to play, [the other one] could see more of the bigger picture on the bench. So when I was on the bench and say they were targeting Walks or anything, I used to help him out and just give him my ideas in the back of his mind.
“When it came to the end of the season and Walks left to go to Manchester City, he moved on for his career now and so I've just got to focus on my career, keep working hard on the training field and try to make the right-back slot my own.
“We're both fighting for the same spot again but it is going to be no different to club football - whoever plays, obviously we've got Nathaniel Clyne, who is a brilliant player, there's still tough competition. I will just keep doing what I was doing since I was younger and keep working hard.”
With Clyne absent, Trippier and Walker face a straight fight to start Friday night’s World Cup qualifier against Malta.
Southgate has experimented with wing-backs – a system both have been exposed to at club level – but regardless of formation, Trippier believes he is now ready to cement his place in the squad ahead of next summer’s finals in Russia.
"[The World Cup squad] is my target,” he said. “Obviously being called up the last two camps now, I just need to be playing week in, week out and putting performances in to be recognised to be on the plane to the World Cup.
“I want more of this, so I've had the taste of being in the England squad, seeing what it's like, meeting all the boys and that.”
It is a far cry from his failure to hold down a place at City, whose ambitions and methods were transformed by the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008.
“My situation was difficult as the money started to come into Man City at the time,” he said.
“I knew I wasn't going to get into the team because I had Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta in front of me.
“I went to Burnley, I was playing every week and then I decided to stay there, sign permanently just to play games and to be happy playing week in, week out and there's nothing better than that.
“If there are young players out there who are not playing, I'd obviously advise them to do what I did - just go out, play games and be happy playing in the Football League.”
You never know where it might lead.