Tottenham Hotspur’s Troy Parrott has been earning himself a lot of plaudits recently within the media.
Robbie Keane spoke glowingly of the 17-year-old recently and revealed the management teams at both Spurs and the Republic of Ireland rate him very highly.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said: “He’s one for the future, I’m excited to see his progression because he’s definitely got a chance. The people at Tottenham have high expectations of him. I speak to Pochettino all the time and he loves him. Jesus (Perez), the assistant manager, loves him.
“He’s not really ready because he’s not playing. He’ll play for Ireland, 100 per cent. Whether it’s six months or a year, we don’t know. That’s up to Tottenham, if they play him or send him out on loan. He’s good enough to go somewhere. Will he get that chance at Spurs now? Probably slim. He trained with the squad last year a lot. It’s just unfortunate he’s got a couple of injuries that set him back.”
Pochettino’s admiration of the young centre-forward appears to have been backed up by Football.London in a recent report as they have suggested that the manager has been impressed with him in training and could be prepared to integrate him within the first-team next season.
And, there has already been plenty of things we can be get excited about regarding the teenager’s future at the club.
We have already witnessed Harry Kane’s rise through the ranks and, perhaps, the young Irishman could follow in his own footsteps if given the time and development he needs in the next stage of his career.
Parrott has clearly shown that he is a natural goalscorer at the youth levels, having netted 15 times in his 13 appearances for the Under-18s, whilst adding a further two in his 12 matches for the Under-23s.
With Fernando Llorente set to leave at the end of the season and Vincente Janssen likely to depart us this summer as well, the 17-year-old could have the perfect chance in the upcoming campaign to test the waters and see what he can truly do at this stage of his career.
The pressure would certainly be off of his shoulders, as it would be rather unreasonable to expect him to hit the ground running, but if he did, it would be a welcomed bonus to the side.
Pochettino has shown in the past he is not scared of giving talented youngsters players a chance if they deserve it and Parrott clearly looks deserving of his opportunity in the near future.
Perhaps, we could give him a chance in the first half of the season and then potentially loan him out for the second half to see where he is at? That way we would be able to see what he can do and what areas of his game will need to be worked on at a senior level moving forward.