There are few Irish footballers in better form than Troy Parrott is currently. Especially after an impressive showing in the first leg showdown against his old club Tottenham Hotspur, where he drew ample praise.
Some football fans may be surprised by this recent run of form but for those who have been following Troy for the last couple years, it seems he is just starting to hit his stride.
Troy Parrott moved to Tottenham Hotspur from his local Dublin side Belvedere FC in 2017. Troy spent over two years in the spurs youth set-up before making his first team debut in a EFL Cup 3rd round tie vs. Colchester United. Nearly 5 months after the EFL Cup match Troy made his Premier League debut (on my birthday, December 7th) against Burnley under Jose Mourinho.
Despite all of this success coming before his 18th birthday, Troy’s next few years would be more challenging. While under contract at spurs, Troy Parrott spent the rest of his late teens-early twenties on loan at various clubs in lower levels of the EFL.
Troy’s first spell of success away from Spurs was with MK Dons where he scored 10 goals and added 7 assists. In the next season, Troy was loaned to Preston North End, where he would spend a majority of the time playing out of position and or coming off the bench.
At the time this was a difficult pill to swallow for both Irish and Spurs fans who were hoping for young Troy to carry the torch for a new generation in a transitional period for country and club respectively.
As is the case in modern football, fans tend to forget that players need time and adequate experience to develop. Shortly after Parrott’s loan spell at Preston ended, Troy set his sights on football outside of the doldrums of the EFL, and instead looked to try his hand at the progressive footballing powerhouse of the Netherlands. It was here Troy would begin to experience his first period of dominance in a top European League with Excelsior Rotterdam.
In his first season outside of England since he left home in 2017, Troy Parrott went onto score 17 goals and add five assists in his first season playing in the Eredivisie. The success Troy found in his introductory spell outside of England led to the young man looking for a permanent move of the same ilk. Shortly after the sale of the prolific Greek Striker Vangelis Pavlidis to Benfica, AZ Alkmaar came knocking.
At AZ, Troy went from strength to strength getting off to a roaring start early at his new club. He had a massive outing against Heerenveen where he went on to bag four goals and receive a new rendition of freed from desire from his new home supporters.
Parrott continued to have an impressive first half of the season with AZ where he was subsequently named the Eredivisie Player of the month for this past December. Totaling 17 goals and three assists so far for his new club, including four goals so far in the Europa League, Troy Parrott is showing that Irish footballers should be looking beyond the shores of England.
Despite Tottenham Hotspur overturning the tie in the second leg, it begs the question whether Spurs are starting to kick themselves for letting Parrott leave the club with all of their weaknesses in attacking positions. While Spurs could be kicking themselves for letting Troy leave and flourish, Troy Parrott could be licking his chops at the thought of keeping Spurs ownership & fans awake at night for not having more faith in him as he developed into the quality baller he is now and aspires to be in the future.