Name: Troy Parrott

Club: On loan at Millwall from Tottenham Hotspur

Date of Birth: 4 February 2002

Position: Centre-forward

TROY PARROT – HIS CAREER SO FAR

By now, even though he is only 18 years old, Troy Parrott is a name most football fans are aware of. The young centre-forward is largely believed to be one of the be hottest prospects that Tottenham Hotspur currently have in their squad. Still, with there being a huge need to give him much more playing time than Jose Mourinho can currently offer, Parrott was sent out on loan to Millwall for the upcoming 2020/21 season.

The Dublin-born talent started his youth career at Belvedere, one of the local clubs, but was scouted and signed by Spurs really quickly. So in 2017, he moved over to London and two years later, upon celebrating his 17th birthday, he would sign the first professional contract with the club. It was also that same year that he made his senior appearances for the club, the first of which came during Spurs’ tour of Asia in July 2019, having previously trained with the first-team on numerous occasions throughout 2018/19.

And since we are talking about an extremely talented young man, he wouldn’t exactly have to wait for too long to get his debut. It arrived in the Carabao Cup third-round tie at Colchester United, just a couple of months after his first appearance for the seniors ever in pre-season friendlies. And this is when things finally started happening for the now 18-year-old starlet.

In November, he was called up for a Premier League clash for the first time and ended up sitting on the bench as Spurs drew 1-1 with Everton. Some time later that same month, he would also debut for Northern Ireland, even recording an assist along the way. But it’s in Spurs’ youth squads that Parrott shined the most.

He played 14 games for the U18s, scoring 17 goals and assisting three. After that, he appeared 14 times for the U23s as well, tallying five goals and one assist on the side. The best stint, however, was probably with the UEFA U19 team, as he became the U19 UEFA Youth League top-scorer for the 2019/20 campaign, ending his stay with the team with nine goals in nine appearances in total.

In December 2019, Parrott would finally get his Premier League debut as he came off the bench in a 5-0 routing of Burnley at home. The most recent thing to happen was, of course, the decision to send him out on loan to Millwall for the upcoming season, where he’ll hopefully get enough game time and return back a much-improved player.

TRANSFER LATEST

At the moment, there don’t seem to be many transfer news or transfer rumours circulating around Parrott. Of course, that was not the case just a couple of weeks earlier. The 18-year-old had been linked with a potential loan deal away from Spurs and it was finally announced that he would join Millwall for the upcoming 2020/21 season.

There are no other Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumours that would suggest a major twist in this story as he is very much expected to return back home and eventually slot right into the first-team, competing in the Premier League.

For now, however, we’ll be watching the youngster in the Championship.

PLAYER PROFILE

Just a simple glance at Parrott’s earlier stints in the academy and Spurs’ U18 and U23 squads is enough to see the young striker is as lethal as they come. He combines great movement and anticipation with a lethal strike and will always be a nuisance and danger in the opposition’s box. Naturally, some of his best attributes do include good shooting and dribbling abilities.

Combined, these two traits make Parrott a very tricky player to mark, especially when he’s constantly moving across the box and the final third as a whole. His main zone of operation seems to be the penalty area but he likes to drift just outside of it where he can link up with his teammates and potentially unbalance the opposition’s defensive line by dragging markers out of their position.

This part of his player profile is largely underrated because despite often setting his teammates up for a shot at goal, he doesn’t necessarily record exceptional assist tallies. Still, he seems to be much more than just a fox-in-the-box.