Wednesday night's fixture between Heart of Midlothian and Tottenham Hotspur at Tynecastle Park is a friendly. For one of the Hearts squad, however, it is a meeting with a club he grew to dislike due to his beginning in football.

Daniel Oyegoke, a very confident but polite individual with a presence, is relishing the chance to rekindle acquaintances with Spurs. When asked to share his experience of facing the men from North London during his time at Arsenal he was more than happy to, providing an honest and forthright answer.

“I faced them quite a few times," he said. "We used to beat them up! It was always a good fixture for us.

“They tried to tell us the importance of the derby when you are young. I’ve never really liked Spurs, so hopefully we can try to beat them up again!"

There could, however, be a familiar and a friendly face amongst the Spurs squad. 

“Oliver Skipp is a good few years older than me but I caught him when I was playing for the 21s," Oyegoke said. “Dane Scarlett, who is there at the minute, is a really good friend of mine. I’ve got quite a few friends there as I live near the area.

“They have a good team. So do we though. It’s a game we’ll use to build our fitness and, yeah, hopefully beat them up!"

Oyegoke confessed to not actually being an Arsenal fan, explaining he "just loved my football" and that he "wasn’t really a fan of any team". But such is the North London rivalry he had that mindset ingrained into him. 

He joined the Gunners from Arsenal when he was around 14 as a forward who played out wide or through the middle. He soon became a defender and was able to witness the changing of the guard from Arsene Wenger to Unai Emery and then, before joining Brentford, Mikel Arteta.

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“That was the best thing for my development, as soon as I became a defender I started to get involved with England at youth levels and pick up a lot of experiences," he said.

“I look at my time there very fondly. I made a lot of friendships and connections with people who helped me along the way. It was a good club for me.

“I joined at the end of Wenger and then it was Uni Emry. It went on to Arteta. Obviously, I was quite young but I spoke a lot with Arteta. I was involved in pre-season games with them, training and stuff. I had quite a few sessions with him.

“He’s obviously a great coach and you can see the detail he likes to go into, you can see it coming out now in the way Arsenal play. It was good to take what I could from him and hopefully bring it here."