It’s been a bit quiet on the incomings front for Tottenham Hotspur over the last week, with the outgoings heating up instead. News has filtered through around the futures of the likes of Emerson Royal, Jamie Donley, and Djed Spence, among others. The latest name to be mentioned on that front is Troy Parrott, the Irish youth product who now seems destined to depart Tottenham Hotspur:
The news comes from Alasdair Gold, reporting for Football London, and confirms a rumor that has been making its way around the web over the last few days. Questions were initially raised when Parrott didn’t appear in any of the training ground photos as the players made their way back for preseason, before Paul O’Keefe (who we typically don’t reference as a primary source) alluded to the fact that the young striker was headed to AZ Alkmaar.
Gold’s report all but confirms those rumors, and the mention of a fee and scheduled medical means that barring some sort of hidden injury, this one is probably close to being done. £6.7 million is a pretty good price for an academy product; many were hoping for bigger and better things for Parrott, but youth development is never linear and Spurs’ mixed approach to youth, some tough loans, and some off-field issues have resulted in Parrott’s future lying elsewhere.
Parrott spent last season on loan in the Eredivisie, where he was one of the few bright spots for an Excelsior Rotterdam side who ended up relegated to the Eerste Divisie, scoring 10 goals and providing 4 assists in 25 appearances. Looking at home in the Dutch League, a club like AZ is probably a good fit for him: bigger, with higher expectations and better players but at a level at which he’s probably more comfortable.
We’ll have more on this as it unfolds, and in the meantime, we can start to mourn the loss of the Party Parrott.