Former Republic of Ireland international Gary Breen has been waxing lyrical about top Tottenham Hotspur target Troy Parrott this week, and although the Academy graduate only turned 17-years-old last February, he’s certainly made his mark for us during this pre-season.
Former Spurs star Robbie Keane has long been singing his praises and expecting him to have his breakthrough year in the 2019/20 campaign, and quoted by Balls.ie this week, Breen believes that Irish fans will see the lad sooner rather than later, as going off his pre-season exploits and his performances against Manchester United and Real Madrid in particular, he doesn’t think that manager Mick McCarthy will leave it too long at all before giving him a maiden senior call.
“I’m reluctant to say it because I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but I can’t wait to see Troy Parrott this season. He’s 17-years of age playing against Manchester United and Inter Milan, up against grizzly, experienced international centre halves, and he coped brilliantly. Chris Smalling tried to bully him, he went after him and got rolled twice. Then he flicked the ball over his head. Smalling didn’t go looking for him again, he treated him with the respect he deserved…He can cope with the physicality of the Premier League. If I could pick any club for a young star to be at it would be Tottenham, under Mauricio Pochettino and that pathway that they have. He will be in the Ireland squad. He will look at him and say ‘can he cope? I don’t care what age he is’. If he’s seen the games that I have seen, he will say ‘yeah, he can cope’…He won’t be thinking about getting Troy in and giving him a few games to develop so that the next manager can get the benefit. Mick is all about the here and now. Mick will look at Troy and think that kid is strong enough to play. It’s just whether he gets enough games at Tottenham.”
There’s no denying that he had a good impact this summer, and if we don’t loan him out the expectation is we’ll start seeing a little bit more of him as the weeks pass given how well manager Mauricio Pochettino seems to rate him (and has been bringing him on with first team involvement) but we need to keep the pressure off him and just let him continue developing.
Gaining praise like this is fantastic, but let’s not expect too much too soon – maybe a call up to give him a taste, but let him find his feet as he transitions.
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