TOTTENHAM MANAGER JOSE Mourinho says Irish teenager Troy Parrott is not ready to fill the striking void left by the injured Harry Kane.
With Kane out for the foreseeable future with injury, there has been an increasing clamour for Mourinho to throw 17-year-old Parrott into the cut-and-thrust of first-team football.
Amid all of this, Mourinho has lamented his lack of striking options in Kane’s absence, and has played Son and Lucas Moura out of position to cover the role.
Although Parrott made his Premier League debut off the bench in a 5-0 win against Burnley in December, he has not played for Spurs’ first team since.
He was an unused sub in the FA Cup third round draw away to Middlesbrough – a game in which Mourinho made just two substitutions – and then didn’t make the matchday squad for the subsequent replay.
Speaking to the media ahead of tomorrow’s home game with Norwich City, Mourinho said he believes that Parrott is not yet ready to fill Kane’s sizeable boots. While he did not rule out giving the Irish striker some game-time, he plainly stated he is not yet in the running for a regular starting berth.
“I’m ready to answer you because I had a long conversation with him today, so I’m ready to share with you a little bit”, Mourinho told the media, as reported by Football London.
“I think he has potential. I think he needs to work a lot. He has a process to go through, a process that probably [recent debutant Japhet] Tanganga had. One thing is [being] 17 and another thing is 20. We are speaking about three years of distance and three years.
“Ok, in Tanganga’s case it was three years without a Premier League match, but it was three years of working and playing: playing in his age groups, playing in England national [underage] teams, which also gave him some experience. Then with me it was just the last part of his preparation before he had his first opportunity.
“I think Troy has to go through a process. Can he have minutes? Yes he can minutes. I’m not saying he’s not able to have minutes, but to put on his shoulders the responsibility of replacing somebody to be replaced, I don’t think he’s ready at all.”
Parrott will be 18 at the beginning of next month, and made his senior international debut in a friendly against New Zealand last November. He has been a regular for the Irish U21s in their Euro 2021 qualifying campaign so far, scoring four goals.
Originally published at 14.09
