Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Robbie Keane believes that Troy Parrott has all of the tools to be a success in the game but has urged caution over his development.

Robbie Keane was given his debut for Wolverhampton Wanderers at the tender age of 17 and made people sit up and take notice about his talent when he bagged a brace against Norwich City.

Parrott is also 17 and has been on the periphery of the Tottenham first team on occasions but has yet to make it into one of Mauricio Pochettino’s match day squads.

The youngster is regarded in his native Ireland as being the next big thing since Keane burst onto the stage.

Keane is now involved in the Republic of Ireland international set up and revealed that he recently made the trip to London to meet up with Parrott to get a sense of his personality and was suitably impressed by the Spurs academy player.

The former Spurs striker also revealed how highly regarded Parrott is thought of by Mauricio Pochettino and his backroom staff at Hotspur Way.

Keane told the Irish Times: “We have to be careful with Troy Parrott,”

“A couple of us here have to be careful not to pigeonhole him with being the next me and all of that. He’s him. He’s Troy Parrott so we have to let him develop as a young player.

“Has he got ability? Absolutely. I speak to (Mauricio) Pochettino all the time and he loves him. Jésus (Perez) the assistant manager loves him. He definitely has potential but then he. . .what? 17. . just turned 17; I know I got thrown in at 17 but he’s still young and he’s had a lot of attention.

“People at Tottenham love him,” he continued, “he’s a lovely lad, he definitely has the mentality, he has everything so he certainly has a chance but it’s up to him.”

He added: “When we took the job over I had an hour with him at the Tottenham training ground,”

“I went over and had lunch with him, just wanted to have a chat with him, see where he was.

“He definitely has the right temperament to be a top player and like I say the manager speaks very highly of him. He’s got a chance so, when the opportunity comes for him he needs to take it.

“We need him to develop, to keep scoring goals, I know he did for the 23s last season and then he got injured but we need him to keep progressing, keep developing, keep watching, keep learning, keep listening, keep speaking to Harry Kane, watch what he does, what his movement.

“As a young kid I used to do it myself, watch the top players because you can learn a lot from them.”