JOSE MOURINO HAS expressed belief in Troy Parrott’s ability to make it to the highest level. In the following breath, however, the Tottenham manager placed a fairly large asterisk on the end of that sentence.

Comparing the 18-year-old Dubliner to Scott McTominay, the Manchester United midfielder he converted from protégé into first-teamer, Mourinho spoke bluntly yesterday about Parrott’s attitude and how it needs to change.

Mourinho will place Parrott on the subs bench tonight when Tottenham host Norwich City in the FA Cup fifth-round. With Harry Kane and Son Heung-min injured, some believe the Irish teenager should be starting. Unfortunately for Parrott, the manager isn’t among that grouping.

Given his pedigree – two-time Champions League winner, title winner in England, Italy, Spain and Portugal – he’s entitled to be listened to, and the point he made yesterday about McTominay’s progress under his watch, is worth considering.

“I told him before the (under 23 game against Wolves on Monday), that every time you play with the kids of your age, you have to show your colleagues why you are the privileged one,” Mourinho said. “Every time he was playing with the kids, he was playing with the mentality of, ‘I shouldn’t be here.’ Or, ‘I am too good to be here.’

“I had exactly the same words with Scott McTominay. Because he was not with the right frame of mind. The moment we started changing that, lots of things started changing for him.

“And every time he was going to the team, he was the best. He was the best in everything, the best in attitude, the best in character. This is the way you work with kids and if, in these generations, kids, they have things too easy in life, I think it’s part of the education to also see the other side.”