Why Tottenham should hold on to academy wonder kid Troy Parrott
According to the Daily Mail, Spurs academy prospect Troy Parrott is the subject of widespread interest from a host of Europe’s elite clubs, including Juventus, Real Madrid and Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.
The 17-year-old Dublin-born teenager is yet to make his senior competitive bow for the Lilywhites but he travelled with the first-team squad during the club’s pre-season friendlies following his prolific form for the club’s youth sides last season.
Parrott made his debut for Spurs’ U-18 side towards the end of the 2017-18 season and made great progress at that level in the previous campaign, despite spending a couple of spells on the sidelines due to injuries.
The 17-year-old netted an eye-watering 14 goals for the U-18 team in 9 U-18 Premier League outings, while also featuring in the FA Youth Cup.
To add to that, the Irishman also made the step up to the U-19 level the last term and bagged 3 goals in 5 games in the UEFA Youth League, whilst also featuring for the U-23 development side in the Premier League 2.
Parrott’s stocks are currently rocketing sky-high following his performances for the Republic of Ireland U-21s during the recent international break, where he bagged 3 goals in 2 fixtures against Armenia and Sweden.
And his prolific form at the youth level, both at Spurs and for Ireland, hasn’t eluded the eyes of the continental giants, with clubs like Real Madrid and Juventus prepared to snare the Irish prodigy away from his boyhood club.
To put things into perspective, Spurs are likely to be aware of the risk of losing yet another talented youngster in the near future after the departure of Marcus Edwards, who departed for Portuguese club Vitoria de Guimaraes earlier in the summer after growing frustrated with the lack of first-team opportunities.
Troy Parrott maybe just 17 but his performances have already drawn comparison’s with a legend like Robbie Keane, while he has been tipped by many to take over the reins from Harry Kane in Spurs’ senior ranks in the years to come.
Quite clearly, Parrott is regarded as a player with the potential to go on and carve out a big reputation for himself as a bonafide goalscorer at the highest level and Spurs losing his services at this stage of his career would be a massive blow to their long-term plans.
With Kane and Heung-min Son going great guns in front of goal in Mauricio Pochettino’s first-team, it is hard to see how Parrott would be fast-tracked into the senior ranks this term.
Despite that, however, the Lilywhites should make an arduous attempt to convince the youngster to stay put and hone his skills to a level that he would be ready to make the transition in the near future.
Parrott is still far from the finished article but, given that he has already shown a level of maturity that belies his tender years, the Irishman certainly appears to be an exciting prospect for the future and Spurs could be left to rue his departure if he goes on to fulfil his promise at some other club.
Mauricio Pochettino’s ability to transform youngsters into world-beaters has been one of the hallmarks of his reign at Tottenham, with the rise of Kane and Kyle Walker-Peters from the academy being prime examples of the manager’s proficiency in nurturing young talents.
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To sum it up, Spurs need to send out a clear statement of intent by holding on to their prized starlets at the academy level if they are really serious about consolidating on their newly-found status of continental heavyweights and Troy Parrott is one name that they just cannot afford to let go of.