Les Ferdinand has shed light on what he has picked up from watching Tottenham’s Mikey Moore play at Rangers this season.
The 18-year-old has been tipped for big things at Hotspur Way for the last few years, and he is now showing just why many are excited about him.
Moore is now delivering consistently in the final third for Rangers, and has become a fan favourite at the club over recent months.
In fact, some pundits have suggested that Spurs were wrong to loan out the teenager, arguing that he would have come in handy for the Lilywhites, given their struggles in the wide areas this term.
Les Ferdinand reveals what should excite Tottenham fans about Mikey Moore
Ferdinand has revealed that he has been keeping track of the teenager’s development from a young age, and asserted that learning to deal with the pressure at Rangers will do wonders for the youngster.
The former Spurs striker told The Daily Record: “I speak to David Pleat quite a lot and David was very much involved in Tottenham when Mikey Moore was coming through the academy. I remember David naming a few players he felt had a good chance in the game and Mikey’s name was among them.
“So I’ve been keeping an eye on him ever since. I saw Mikey a few times last season in Europe, and he looked very, very promising. I was pretty surprised that Spurs let him go out on loan this year because of the squad they have and the lack of creativity we’re now seeing lead to problems. I thought they’d keep him around.
“Thomas Frank lost a few key players to injury, like James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, but I suppose they felt he probably would benefit better from being out on loan and getting a full season under his belt. Sometimes you look at it, and you think where’s the best place to get game time?
“And yeah, there’s a lot of pressure up at Rangers. But then it all depends on how you see him dealing with that because you’ve got different personalities. With some players, you might think, ‘No chance, he can’t go to Rangers, he won’t be able to deal with what comes with that’.
“But the Tottenham leadership obviously felt that he was mature enough to be able to deal with whatever came at Rangers this year. And to be fair, I was up watching a game a few months ago and saw him play against Hibs just before Christmas and I thought he did superbly.”
Ferdinand admitted that the maturity that the Tottenham academy graduate has shown at Rangers has caught his eye.
He continued: “The one word that springs to mind when talking about Mikey Moore this season is maturity – he’s shown a level of maturity that perhaps most 18 year olds don’t show.
“I heard him say in one of his first press conferences that his aim is to be one of the best players in the world and I like that because you have to believe in what you’re doing, regardless of what everybody else says. If that’s where you want to go and that’s what you believe you’re capable of, that’s what you’ve got to tell people.
“I often hear people go to certain clubs because they want to win something – but they don’t talk about it, they just skirt around the edges. But if that’s his ambition, why not talk about it? From what I’ve seen of Mikey so far, I certainly do like his attitude.”
Ferdinand warns Moore cannot warm the bench next season
Reports indicate that Tottenham may extend Moore’s loan spell at Rangers in the summer so that the youngster can continue getting regular game time.
Some Spurs fans may feel that the 18-year-old should compete for first-team minutes at Spurs, but Ferdinand believes that the youngster would not benefit from warming the bench.
He added: “Whatever happens next with Mikey, it will be no good for him after a season like this one when he has played so many games for Rangers for him then to go back and do nothing or only get sporadic minutes. We’ll only know by the end of the season whether it’s been a good year for Rangers but so far has it been a successful loan for the young man? I think that’s beyond doubt.
“So the last thing you want to do is go back somewhere where you end up sitting on a bench, where you’re not involved. Mikey will want to expand on what he’s done. Whether that means another year at Rangers as progression for him, it’s not for me to say. But what I can tell you is that I’d hate to see him go back to Spurs and just sit on a bench and not play.”
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