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The Tottenham wonderkid Jose Mourinho loved finally unleashing full potential after hard setbacks

Dane Scarlett really impressed Jose Mourinho in their time together at Tottenham and played for him in both the Premier League and Europa League
-Credit: (Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)


Dane Scarlett is starting to show why various Tottenham Hotspur managers have tipped him for the very top.

The 20-year-old has caught the eye of different Spurs head coaches over the years with his finishing ability, but has found other young strikers at the club reaching landmarks before him. Scarlett has watched on as first Troy Parrott found goalscoring success in the Netherlands and now Will Lankshear has scored his first goal for Tottenham in the Europa League after making his case in the summer ahead of Scarlett and another young forward in Argentine Alejo Veliz.

That was meant to be Scarlett, who has all of the elements to be an exciting young striker but has not found the road as smooth as some might have expected for him. Back in 2021, after he became the youngest player at 16 to register an assist in the Europa League since Kylian Mbappe, Jose Mourinho raved about Scarlett.

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"Dane has incredible talent. I don't want to speak too much because tomorrow I arrive in the building and the kid's boss is going to kill me! I don't want that so I don't want to speak too well about him," he said. "I just want to say that he will be 17 next month and I want him to be part of the first team squad next season.

"So this season he is there and here, goes to training sessions with us and matches with the kids of his age and trains there. Next season he has to be a first team player. Immense talent. Very good physical development.

"He's very good, he's going to be very good. I hope that nothing is going to destroy that potential. He must have feet on the ground and head on his shoulders because he has a fantastic talent."

He added to BT Sport: "He is a diamond, a kid with incredible potential. He has worked many times with the first team and that gives him a different personality. He is still 16, 17 soon and I believe next season he will be a first team squad player because he has a lot of talent. He is going to be a fantastic player and I hope everything around him goes well. He is a striker, a number nine, I have been playing him from the sides similar to Marcus Rashford and is very clever."

After handing the young striker his Premier League debut, Mourinho said: "It means a lot to me because I wanted to be the one to put him on in a Premier League match, because I know that he will be somebody in a few years."

Even after leaving Tottenham, Mourinho could not stop thinking about Scarlett and what he believed he would become during an interview in the summer of 2021.

"I know he’s still very young, just 17, and it is probably too early for the next World Cup, but Tottenham Hotspur have a striker in Dane Scarlett, who, if everything goes well, is going to be phenomenal. For England, there is lots of promise," he said.

His Tottenham successor Nuno Espirito Santo also had plenty of hope for Scarlett and his future.

“We have big, big expectations regarding Dane because he did so well in pre-season – the game against Leyton Orient in which he scored and many of the [other] games in pre-season,” said the Portuguese. "He’s a young talent that we want to develop and we want to make him better and want to make him grow because there’s a lot of potential there."

Scarlett was always seen as one of the best finishers within the club. He grew up idolising Harry Kane and Gareth Bale and would later train and play with them. The compliments for the young forward continued to flow as quickly as Tottenham changed managers with Antonio Conte the next to recognise his potential.

"I'm seeing a lot of improvement today in Scarlett honestly if I have to tell you. Seeing that this guy is improving a lot, he's only 17-years-old but I can tell you that he is a really important prospect for Tottenham," he said. "He has to be patient and work behind these very important players and continue to work in this way because about Scarlett, I can tell you that I see a brilliant future for him."

After a handful of appearances for Tottenham, the club sent Scarlett out on a couple of loans in order to bolster his development. In the 2022/23 season, he played 40 times for League One side Portsmouth, scoring four goals and adding two assists.

It wasn't a goal fest but it was a season which helped the teenager understand the physicality and relentlessness of senior football, even if a change in manager halfway through the campaign from Danny Cowley to John Mousinho saw the starts dry up after a positive first half to the loan.

On his return, Postecoglou liked what he saw in Scarlett and believed that a follow-up loan to Ipswich would help him develop further into a striker who could come back and compete for a spot in his team.

"Yeah definitely, that's why we sent him out. Dane was really good with us during pre-season and there was a lot of interest in him right from the beginning as soon as I got here," said the Australian. "The reason I kept him with us for so long is because I was really encouraged with the way he was training and the way he was developing, but there always comes a point with young players where you need to decide.

"I always felt after a certain time that the best kind of development for young players is to play and you have to make a decision is he going to play enough for us now to help him continue to develop and become a first-team player for this football club or would it be better off going somewhere?

"And let's face it, Ipswich are a good side, they play good football, they've started the season well and he'll have to fight for his position there. It is not like anything will be given. We know the Championship is a tough league so, if he can go there, play a significant number of games and perform well, for us that is exactly what we want from these loan periods, so come pre-season next year he is advanced where he then becomes somebody who is competing for a first-team squad [spot]."

However, the loan at Ipswich in the Championship did not work out at all as he just couldn't get a start under Kieran McKenna with the Tractor Boys flying high on the way to their promotion to the Premier League. Spurs recalled Scarlett in January and he got six more appearances under his belt at the club, making 17 in total for the north London side even if that first competitive goal for the club is yet to arrive.

In the summer, he fell back down a bit. For one reason or another, despite a goal in pre-season at QPR, he slipped down the pecking order with Veliz below Lankshear, who had been impressing Postecoglou in training with his efforts. A third loan move beckoned for Scarlett with Oxford United his destination and another chance in the Championship.

In the early weeks, it felt similar to the Ipswich move with Scarlett unable to find a way past the club's established attackers who had helped them to promotion. The young Spurs man would watch on from the bench or at most get a couple of minutes here and there in his first few months in Oxford.

Then a big first goal in October at home against West Brom - the team he made his Premier League debut against - changed his fortunes. The young striker came off the bench and showed excellent movement and a big leap to head home a flicked-on long throw, sending the stadium into delirium.

That earned him a start against Derby three days later and he duly scored again, before another goal arrived against Swansea, making it three home goals in a row, endearing Scarlett only further to the fans.

Strikers need goals. It's as simple as that. He is now starting regularly in the Championship and scored an excellent goal for England U21s against the Netherlands on Monday night, with an early diving header to convert Samuel Iling-Junior's cross. That made it two goals and an assist in his past three outings for England's U21s.

Scarlett could always finish but now he is getting stronger in terms of his frame, his hold-up play and movement but also mentally with the way he deals with setbacks and the need for patience. The growing confidence and understanding of what he needs to do is there to see in his displays right now.

While it's still early days it feels like he's on the path that Jose Mourinho and Tottenham saw for him as a 16-year-old. If he realises even half of the potential they spotted in him then he's going to become some player.

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