Tottenham Hotspur will go up against a familiar face when they take on AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night. Ex-Spurs wonderkid Troy Parrott has enjoyed a brilliant start to life in the Netherlands, scoring 12 goals in just 24 Eredivisie appearances since his move last summer.
The Republic of Ireland international came through the youth set-up in north London, but wasn't able to force his way into the Spurs starting line-up on a regular basis. Despite being highly rated in the youth set-up, Parrott made just four appearances in all competitions for the first-team - enjoying a number of loan spells elsewhere.
Millwall, Ipswich Town, MK Dons and Preston North End were the clubs he spent time with in England - before a season-long loan with Dutch club Excelsior Rotterdam. Parrott scored 17 goals, including two hat-tricks in the relegation play-offs and was unable to save the club from relegation, but caught the eye of a number of teams during that spell.
AZ Alkmaar were the quickest club to pounce, agreeing a reported £6.7million deal with Spurs for his services last summer - therefore bringing an end to his spell in north London. Spurs negotiated a 20 per cent sell-on clause into the transfer deal and could soon reap the rewards with Parrott setting the Eredivisie alight this season.
The 23-year-old has 17 goals in 38 appearances in all competitions, including four in the Europa League ahead of his reunion with Spurs later this week. Former Tottenham star Rafael van der Vaart has been impressed by what he's seen of Parrott: "I think he's going to be a very big player. I don't know what it is. I saw him at Excelsior, but then it was more on the counter.
"Now he's a good, footballing striker, who actually has everything. He just has to develop the killing a bit. He can perhaps play football a little too well to be a killer. Then you start wandering a bit and that costs strength. In the final phase you lack some strength to score. I really think he's a gem."
Ange Postecoglou was also pleased to see his former striker doing well, speaking earlier this season he said: "It is good to see Troy doing so well, I think he had a great loan spell in the Dutch League last year. He is looking like he started his AZ career in positive fashion too so it is great.
"In terms of getting a chance, sometimes in football it is just about timing. We have a striker here, mate [Solanke], who was at Chelsea and Liverpool early in his career and he has done alright since. There is a pathway forward for everybody."
Unfortunately for Parrott, though, that pathway wasn't at Spurs despite hope he could follow in the footsteps of Harry Kane and forge a career in the first-team.
Former Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho was always keen to temper expectations when it came to Parrott, but the Portuguese did give him a number of opportunities to impress.
"This is a world where lots of people, they don't even know if Troy has long hair or short hair," Mourinho said when asked about fans calling for Parrott to play. "Or is blonde or is dark. They don't even know that and speak about: Troy, Troy, Troy, Troy, he should play. There was a guy behind me on the bench the other day; 'Play Troy, play Troy'. I don't think he knows Troy."
Mourinho did hand Parrott minutes in the game that day against Wolves before sending him back to play for the U23s in a goal-scoring return with a message.
"I was so happy with the way he performed and I'm not speaking about the goal that he scored," the then Spurs boss explained. "I told him before the game, every time you play with the kids of your age, you have to show your colleagues why you are the privileged one.
"Why you are training in the first-team every day and some of them are not, they are still in the group age. Because it was something that he was not doing. Every time he was playing with the kids, he was playing with the mentality of, 'I shouldn't be here' or 'I am too good to be here' or 'It's not here that I want to play'. And this is an educational process that comes. I have no problem to say because I know that he will confirm - I had exactly the same words with Scott McTominay.
"This is the way you work with kids and if, in these generations, kids, they have things too easy in life, I think it's part of the education to also see the other side. So I think Troy will come even stronger and stronger when everything happens step by step. And not immediately, because he is not ready for immediately. So it is a process."
However, Parrott acknowledged earlier this season that he needed to change his game, learning the most during his spell with Excelsior.
Parrott said - in an interview with Sky Sports - that he simply needed to be in front of goal as much as possible. He said: "The thing that helped me the most last season was that I realised I was a striker who needed to be in the box. On a couple of the loans I had, I tried to show my ability to come deep and link play.
"A lot of the time, I was too far away from the goal to score.
"I worked a lot with the coach at Excelsior on just being in the box, being there when the ball is getting crossed. I think for me that was the biggest thing, just drilling that into my own head that ultimately you're a striker and you need to be in the box to score goals."
Spurs will be hoping their former academy talent doesn't come back to haunt him over two legs.