OPINION
Tottenham aren’t blessed with great strength in depth in the striking department.
The ever-impressive Harry Kane is currently the club’s only senior, out-and-out centre forward after Fernando Llorente left over the summer, and beyond the England captain, Spurs’ only other alternative is teenage starlet Troy Parrott.
The 17-year-old has been making waves at youth level for some time now, hitting 19 goals in 27 appearances last term, and starting this season with a brace in the Premier League 2 match against Manchester City U23s.
The Irish youth international, who also hit two on his debut for the country’s U21s last week, has still yet to make his competitive first team debut for Tottenham, but is already being hailed as a potential heir to Robbie Keane, as outlined in a piece from The Times.
And so Spurs should be worried by reported interest in their prodigy from one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
According to Football Insider, Bayern Munich are keeping tabs on Parrott, and are compiling a dossier based on regular scouting reports ahead of a potential raid for the youngster.
That would be disastrous for two reasons.
Firstly, Parrott’s potential is evidently sky high, and losing him before he realises it would be a real kick in the teeth.
Secondly, there is every chance that he will be called into action at some point this season, given Kane’s recent injury record.
The 26-year-old missed 17 games last season through ankle injuries, according to Transfermarkt, and also missed spells in 2016/17 and 2017/18 with similar complaints.
Clearly, Kane has a recurrent issue, and should that flair up again this term, the only natural like-for-like replacement Mauricio Pochettino can call upon is Parrott. Losing him would, therefore, be a real blow.
Perhaps most worrying of all, however, is the fact there is now a precedent for this kind of move to go ahead.
Ever since Jadon Sancho decided that he wanted to pursue first team opportunities in Germany, it seems as if there has been a growing number of young, English-grown talents making their way over to the Bundesliga.
Reiss Nelson went from Arsenal, as did Emile Smith-Rowe, while West Ham’s Reece Oxford has moved to the continent permanently, to name a few.
In fact Sancho’s move has been such a success that former England striker Emile Heskey has gone as far as to suggest that English football could end up owing a debt to the youngster for showing his peers that there is another route to the top, as reported by the Mirror.
That route may look increasingly tempting to Parrott the longer he is deprived of a shot in the first team set up at Spurs, and the hope will be that he doesn’t take a similar path to Sancho and seek his big break elsewhere.