Troy Parrott has been on the goal trail in the Eredivisie with AZ Alkmaar and Tottenham could end up benefiting in the long run.

The 22-year-old Republic of Ireland international moved from Spurs to the Dutch side last summer in a £6.7million deal with the north London club inserting a 20% sell-on clause into the transfer. That clause could come into play in the not-too-distant future because Parrott has been setting the Eredivisie alight this season.

The young striker, who signed a five-year contract with AZ, has already scored 10 goals and laid on one assist in 17 league matches so far this season, scoring in his past three games before the winter break. Only Twente's Sem Steijn has scored more than the Irishman in the Dutch top flight this season.

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Parrott has 14 goal involvements across 24 games in all competitions, including netting in the Europa League as well as returning to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to face Spurs in October.

The youngster has really found his feet in the Netherlands, having netted 17 goals for struggling Excelsior Rotterdam last season while on loan at the eventually relegated club. He has also made 26 senior appearances for the Republic of Ireland, scoring five goals for his country.

Parrott said in an interview with Sky Sports this season that the realisation that rather than trying to get involved with everything deeper on the pitch, he simply needed to be in front of goal as much as possible was key to his development.

"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 that 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," he said.

"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 it into my own head that ultimately you're a striker and you need to be in the box to score goals."

Former Tottenham star Rafael van der Vaart said of Parrott this season: "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 is 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 is a gem."

Parrott joined Tottenham in 2017 as a 15-year-old from Irish side Belvedere and despite high hopes for him, he was only able to make four appearances for the first team. He spent five loan spells away at Millwall, Ipswich, MK Dons and Preston with varying degrees of success in the Football League until that loan in the Eredivisie with Excelsior last season really kicked on his career.

The striker said in an interview with the Irish Independent in October that he knew it was time to leave Spurs last summer.

"I was ready to go in the summer just gone. In my own mind, I was ready to leave. For four or five years, for me, it was just Tottenham, Tottenham, Tottenham. I wanted to be there, to play there, but I just didn’t see an end goal for me there, so I came here, moved on and we’ll see what happens now," he said.

"I felt this was the right path for me before I came here and what’s happened so far proves that it was the right decision. It has paid off – it’s still early. I can’t say now that it will all go perfectly, that I will score 100 goals. Who knows how it will go? But I do know it’s started well and it’s important to take each game as it comes, not plan too far ahead. The most important thing for me is that I am settled and enjoying it here.

"I made that decision, to leave Tottenham, by myself. I didn’t let anyone sway that decision. I did speak to family and people close to me, but it was me that made the call and I felt it was the best decision to move here. It was the right thing to do."

Parrott was always desperate to break through at Tottenham and the fact that he can be registered as club-trained by the north London outfit means you can never rule out a future return to N17 if his career continues to explode and the goals keep raining in. Either through that or his sell-on clause, Troy Parrott will eventually give something back to Spurs.

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