Mikey Moore has lavished praise on one Tottenham teammate’s ability as well as his mentality, as the 18-year-old looks to establish himself as a first-team regular at Spurs.
Roberto De Zerbi has said that he is willing to trust young players if they show they are good enough, insisting that age will not be a factor in his selection decisions.
Tottenham’s academy starlets thus have a huge opportunity to catch the eye of the Italian and his coaching staff during pre-season, and fast-track their progress to the first team.
De Zerbi allowed many young players to showcase their ability in the friendly against Auckland on Sunday, and the man who captained the side on the day has now come in for a lot of praise.
Tottenham starlet Mikey Moore hails ‘leader’ Archie Gray
De Zerbi has already named Archie Gray as an example for Tottenham’s other youngsters, with the 46-year-old praising the midfielder’s mentality.
Moore has now seconded his manager’s words, speaking glowingly of Gray’s leadership and the role he played in guiding the young players through Sunday’s friendly.
The teenager said (via Football.London): “Obviously, Archie will be and is a leader and he’s a top, top footballer. He deserved to have the captain’s armband up there today.
“He’s one who can help the rest of the young boys through it, and I think he showed that in his performance today as well. I think he was very good. So yeah, he’s another very, very good footballer who has a good mentality to go with it. He was top.”
Moore praises ‘unbelievable’ Luca Williams-Barnett
Despite being only 18, Moore is one of the more experienced players in Tottenham’s pre-season tour, with the squad consisting of a whole host of academy players.
The Spurs winger confessed that it was a great opportunity for those players to play in front of a big crowd at Auckland on Saturday.
When asked if the likes of Luca Williams-Barnett turn to him for advice, Moore said: “Yeah, 100% yeah. I think we’re all on different journeys and we all experience different things. Obviously, I’m quite close to their age, but maybe I’ve experienced a bit more so far. So I feel like I can help some of the younger boys who I’ve played with a few years ago and kind of help them through.
“Obviously, as you just mentioned him, Luca is an unbelievable footballer. So it’s nice to be able to help them and they’re going to find their own way through it and experience it themselves as well. I think all the younger boys enjoyed it. You saw that today, they dealt with it really well to come away and deal with having 40,000 people in the stands. It was nothing for them, the boys were top.”