Tottenham captain Son Heung-min has hailed Mikey Moore's "amazing quality" and believes that the teenager will become "one of the top players". The 17-year-old is rated extremely highly at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and is already part of Ange Postecoglou's plans despite his tender years.
Making two appearances off the bench for Spurs' senior side last term, the attacker came on for the closing few minutes of last weekend's win over Brentford and he could potentially be given some more playing time in the Europa League. Moore has clearly made a big impression on Son on the training pitch at Hotspur Way, with the left-winger regularly going to the Spurs captain for advice.
"Yeah, he's a fantastic boy and obviously, I mean, he's coming from the academy. You as a club, you look after him even more," said Son when speaking to football.london in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Qarabag fixture. "Everybody is so welcoming and looking after him, so do I, because he's such a lovely kid and working hard every single day, coming with the first team with that age it's not easy, you know, like sometimes you're very shy.
"But he's showing good personality and working hard, which is very important to me. When you see the young players are working hard in the first team and you just want to help, you just want to help him. You know that as well when I was young, and now he's coaching at Manchester United, Ruud van Nistelrooy, he was helping me a lot in my Hamburg time.
"Now I want to be that guy as well, you know, just having him around me and just talking about things, because we are playing in a similar position that if I can help him a little bit with advice, then I'm always open to it.
"Mikey is also coming to me most of the times and asking questions, which is very fun. I enjoy talking to him. He's a fantastic boy and then I'm definitely sure that he can be a fantastic player. There's no doubt because he has such amazing quality.
"As we always say about young players, let's don't give him too much pressure on his shoulders. Just let's enjoy how he develops, how he improves every single day, every single season and as a fan, as supporters, we should just enjoy watching him and he will be, I think, one of the top players."
A key figure in Postecoglou's Tottenham team, Son has played both from the left wing and also as a striker when required. The head coach's demands of his wingers may differ slightly to others and that has meant that the South Korean and Dejan Kulusevski previously have had to adapt their game.
"No, I think it's all about the the manager's system, and then you just also have to adapt, which is very, very important, but it doesn't mean that I have to stay all the time in the wide areas," he told football.london. "Sometimes in the last game I was cutting inside, making these inside runs and when Dom [Solanke] comes into a deep position when he dragged the centre-backs out of the position then I'll make the runs into this space.
"I think it's all about depending on the situation, but Deki is the kind of guy who wants to be more in the middle so that he can handle the ball really well with his back to the opponent and I think that's his game and he's a joy. At the moment, he's having a great season.
"One thing that not everybody is talking about is that Deki's workrate is unbelievable. He's everywhere on the pitch, you know? I think people don't always see that, you know, but like, he works really hard that I think so hard that I when I see all the data and sometimes I get shocked, you know? So it feels like he never stops running.
"I think players all appreciate what he does and with the ball, with the quality that he has there is no doubt that every position he can do. I think as a manager, I think he can put him anywhere and he'll do the right thing for what he what he asked to. So, yeah, there is no doubt about what he does, and he's doing amazing at the moment."
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