MAURICO POCHETTINO SAYS Spurs fans must be patient with highly rated 17-year-old striker Troy Parrott.

There has been plenty of hype surrounding the youngster of late. He was named in Spurs’ Champions League squad last month, while the sale of Fernando Llorente, coupled with an injury suffered to Giovani Lo Celso, has prompted speculation that a first-team opportunity could be on the horizon for Parrott, with a recent report suggesting he was set for a senior debut in the League Cup tie with Colchester on 24 September.

The Dubliner has enjoyed a good week, after his brace helped Ireland U21s earn a 3-1 win in Sweden, though Pochettino has attempted to downplay the excitement regarding the player.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of this weekend’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace, the Spurs boss explained: “I think the progress was there because he had the possibility to be involved in pre-season. Now he’s more consistently training with the first team. But I think he needs time, we need to be relaxed. We cannot put his name in the spotlight every day because we’re not going to help him by doing that. He’s still so young.

The best way to help him is to be calm and relaxed about him. If he’s going to be involved, perfect. If he’s going to be involved with the U23s instead, perfect. Sometimes he’ll train with us, good.

“Now it’s a process where he needs to be relaxed. If we put too much pressure we’re going to force or push him to make a mistake and that’s what we don’t want.”

Asked about Tottenham tweeting out Parrott’s Ireland U21 goals, Pochettino added: “Yes, but the fans are excited when they saw me scoring in training on Twitter. The fans are so nice and so sensitive about many things. Of course fans are always trying to discover different things.

“Always it’s exciting when a youngster arrives from the academy. People talk and the fans need to be relaxed. We have plenty of experienced players in our squad, senior players that are still above him.”

Originally published at 14.47

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