Former Tottenham midfielder, Johnnie Jackson, who is now the assistant first-team coach at Charlton Athletic, has admitted that the club tried their best to sign Troy Parrott in January.
Parrott was handed his Premier League debut by Jose Mourinho in the 5-0 win against Burnley in December.
However, despite the injuries to Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, the Spurs boss didn’t hand Parrott much in the way of minutes in 2020.
Parrott was said to be close to joining Charlton on loan in January but the Daily Mail reported that the move fell through due to a bizarre UEFA rule regarding the criteria to qualify as a homegrown player.
Jackson has now opened up on the club’s failed move for the striker and revealed that the Lilywhites pulled the plug on the deal at the last moment.
Speaking to the Last Word On Spurs (as relayed by Football League World), Jackson said: “We were really interested in taking him, we liked him a lot. I spoke to a lot of people there, I spoke to Wayne Burnett, who does the U23s. He said take him, he’s a top lad, a top player. He said he might not play for us every week, but even when he’s on the bench, he will bring you something coming on.
“We watched him closely, we watched a lot of his clips and we had him watched in games and stuff like that. We were well aware of what he can do and we liked him, but they weren’t willing to let him go.”
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The former Spurs man claimed that Parrott had some similarities to Harry Kane and insisted that the striker was destined for a career at the top if he keeps developing. He also claimed that the teenager was likely to interest a lot of Championship clubs in the summer.
Jackson added: “He reminds me of [Harry] Kane to be honest, and the way that he moves. If he carries on improving, I think he is going to be a serious player.
“I guess when we get back playing or next season, whenever that may be, there will be a lot of interest in him and I guess it will be dependent on what Spurs do in the market striker wise, what they’ll be willing to do with him. But I think he needs to get out and play some league football the lad, I think that will be a great start for him.
“He will probably walk into a lot of Championship clubs, on loan next year, there will be a lot of interest for him. We will be looking at him closely and if it is something we can do at the time then I’m sure we will try and do it, but I’m sure there will be fierce competition.”
Spurs Web Opinion
While there will surely be a long list of clubs willing to taking Parrott on loan next season, we should be careful in choosing who we loan the youngster to. The last thing we need is another Jack Clarke type situation where he hardly plays any games and essentially wastes a year of his development. We should loan him out to a side that plays attacking football but one at the middle to lower end of the Championship table so that he is guaranteed to get games.
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