Radu Dragusin’s impressive performance for Romania in their 3-0 victory over Ukraine at Euro 2024 and Micky van de Ven’s cameo as the Netherlands beat Poland have been the main on-pitch headlines from Tottenham Hotspur’s international stars over the last couple of weeks.
However, the most eye-catching performance came from a player who spent last season out on loan. Troy Parrott came off the bench when the Republic of Ireland faced Hungary in a friendly at the beginning of June and, with virtually the last kick of the game, scored on the counter to seal a 2-1 victory.
Parrott had been back in his own penalty area to defend a late set piece, which he cleared, before forcing an error that led to a counter-attack from which he scored.
That display of tenacity had been commonplace during his loan spell in the Dutch top flight with Excelsior Rotterdam, where he may just have reignited a career that looked to have been fizzling out.
That Ireland goal came hot on the heels of the 22-year-old scoring back-to-back hat-tricks at club level in what proved to be a doomed attempt to avoid relegation from the Eredivisie.
Now, with Parrott entering the final 12 months of his contract at Spurs, he and the club face some big decisions over his future.
Troy Parrott grew up in Dublin and started his career with local side Belvedere before joining Spurs at the age of 16.
In February 2020, he was rewarded with a new contract at Tottenham but, a month later, the club’s head coach Jose Mourinho warned him about his attitude. At that stage, Parrott was training regularly with the first team but playing regularly for the under-23s.
After one such match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, in which Parrott scored, Mourinho said: “I was so happy with the way he performed and I’m not speaking about his goal.
“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’. Because it was something 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’.
“I had exactly the same words with Scott McTominay (at Manchester United). He was not loved in his age group because he was not there with the right frame of mind. The moment we started changing that, lots of things started changing for him. Troy cannot go there (the under‑age teams) with discontent, contempt. It is a process. So everything goes very, very well.”
Parrott made four appearances for the first team during the 2019-20 season but has not played for them since. Over the last four years he has spent time on loan with Millwall, Ipswich Town, Milton Keynes Dons, Preston North End and Excelsior Rotterdam. He started 21 times for Preston in the Championship during the 2022-23 campaign and only scored three times. The forward’s expected goals tally, which measures the quality of chances a team produces, was only 5.6. He underperformed but the service he received was not exactly reliable.
In an interview with The Athletic in April 2022, while he was with MK Dons, Parrott admitted: “At 16 or 17, I thought I was good and I didn’t realise how much I had to learn about the game. I thought everything would be plain sailing and I’ve learned the hard way that in football it’s not.”
Parrott was convinced to join Excelsior on loan by their manager Marinus Dijkhuizen who had a brief spell in charge of Brentford in 2015. Dijkhuizen wanted Parrott to focus his energy on finding good positions in the box and gave him examples of other young players he had helped to improve.
Parrott struggled with a hamstring injury this year and received a needless red card after the full-time whistle in a 4-0 victory over Volendam for flicking the ear of an opponent during a scuffle, but he shone with 10 goals in 25 games, including a late winner in their local derby against Sparta Rotterdam.
Excelsior finished 16th in the Eredivisie, which meant they had to compete in a play-off series to avoid relegation to the second tier. Parrott scored a hat-trick in the second leg of their 9-2 aggregate victory over ADO Den Haag in the semi-finals.
Dijkhuizen’s side were thrashed 6-2 in the first leg of the final by NAC Breda. Parrott spearheaded a remarkable comeback in the second leg, as he scored another hat-trick to level the tie at 6-6 on aggregate. But NAC scored a crucial goal in the second half to condemn Excelsior to relegation. Parrott chipped in with seven goals and one assist across the four play-off games but it was not enough to save them. This took his overall tally to 22 direct goal involvements in 32 matches.
His first goal in the second leg against Breda highlighted the threat he offers running in behind defenders. Lazaros Lamprou receives the ball on the left wing, moves inside with his first touch and plays a delicate through ball into space for Parrott to chase.
Parrott cleverly uses his body to protect the ball from Breda’s centre-back Jan van den Bergh and lets it roll across him.
Parrott charges ahead of Van den Bergh and calmly slots the ball past Pepijn van de Merbel.
Parrott scored a lot of goals by running into the left channel and exploiting his speed. On multiple occasions, he scored tap-ins from drilled crosses into the six-yard box — a tactic Postecoglou loves. He can score with both feet too.
In Excelsior’s 4-2 defeat to Twente in December, Redouan El Yaakoubi makes an interception and pings the ball forward.
Parrott latches onto the ball just outside the box.
And fires a shot with his left foot past Lars Unnerstall before Robin Propper can make a block.
Parrott’s first goal against ADO might be the most impressive. Excelsior try to play up the pitch but are forced to go backwards to goalkeeper Stijn van Gassel, who clears it under pressure.
The ball floats inside Den Haag’s half towards the right wing and Parrott moves in front of Matteo Waem.
Parrott is ushered towards the corner flag by Waem and Joel Ideho but manages to escape and finds Kenzo Goudmijn. The midfielder executes a slick first-time pass straight back to Parrott.
The forward sneaks in behind Den Haag’s defence and cheekily chips the goalkeeper Nick Marsman.
“I’ve loved it over there (in the Netherlands),” Parrott said following Ireland’s win against Hungary. “It’s been everything I hoped would happen when I first decided to go over, so I’m buzzing. It’s more technical over there, you have to use your brain a lot more rather than just being physical. It’s suited me and how the season has gone has shown that.”
What happens now depends on a couple of factors. Spurs only played 41 games last season and that number will significantly increase with their participation in the expanded version of the Europa League. Richarlison was the only natural No 9, apart from 20-year-old Dane Scarlett, in Postecoglou’s squad last season and there were mixed results when he was unavailable. Son Heung-min and Timo Werner can fill in centrally but it is not their strongest position.
Parrott could be a useful alternative to Richarlison in the Europa League and other cup competitions but, after a couple of seasons of starting regularly, moving to a bench role might not be the best for his development.
If Parrott leaves Spurs should be able to earn a decent amount of money following his performances in the Eredivisie but it would have been unthinkable, four and a half years ago, that he might never play for them again.
(Top photo: Herman Dingler/Getty Images)