Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BRADY: OUR TROY LOOKS THE PARROTT
Robbie says Spurs striker can thrive where he failed to fire at Old Trafford
ROBBIE BRADY sees parallels between the start of his own career and the one Troy Parrott is embarking on.
And while he will happily offer the teenager advice, he reckons the Tottenham starlet is far more clued in than he was when he joined Manchester United as a 16-year-old.
Brady played in the same youth teams as Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard and the trio were often called up to train with the first-team.
Like 17-year-old Parrott this season, Brady also went on preseason tours with the seniors in 2012 and 2013.
But he said yesterday: “When I was younger I didn’t have the drive that it took to force myself into a Manchester United first team.
“I was sort of thrown in there. I was young, away from everyone, I was going back to Dublin all the time.
“Troy seems to have the backing of Pochettino to play in those games pre-season, at such a young age.
“I’ll help him and have a chat if there’s anything he wants to ask me - I’d love to have a chat with him, but he’s doing grand.”
Brady once felt the wrath of Alex Ferguson for not standing up for himself when Cristiano Ronaldo skipped passed him in the queue for food in the club canteen.
‘All stories grow arms and legs,” laughed Brady. “But maybe there was a little bit of naivety. I was a young lad from Dublin.
“Some lads would have been around clubs like Man United from seven, eight, nine years of age.
“They had a feel for fit and knew what had to be done. It took me a couple of years to get onboard.
“It’s a massive thing getting moved up and away at such a young age. In hindsight I would have done some things differently.
“I was a young lad from Dublin, I’d just signed for Man
United. I was on top of the world.
“Not that I thought I had made it by any means. When you go to a club of such stature, you’re a drop in the ocean.
“You may have a good name here but when you go over there you have to prove yourself and do things right, which I didn’t do half the time.”
Brady will play with Parrott in tomorrow’s New Zealand game and are the two players with the most to gain ahead of the Denmark showdown.
And just like the Ireland fans, Brady and the other senior players are as intrigued by Parrott as anyone else.
Parrott has only trained with the first-team for two days but Brady already sees what the fuss is about.
“No one pushes on as quick as he does without going in and doing things right,” he said.
“He seems to have got his head down, he’s training well and he’s pushing on. It’s a great thing for Ireland.
“You have to realise he is 17 and you need a bit of looking after without realising it at times.
“We’re all here for him. We’ll have an arm around him and he’ll show us what he has got his week.”
Parrott has been prolific for
Troy should keep doing what he is doing because it is paying off now
TOUGH TIME Robbie Brady can’t wait to make up for lost time in an Ireland shirt
Tottenham’s underage teams and Ireland are crying out for a goalscorer.
But Brady insists it would be foolish to put too much pressure on his shoulders so soon.
“There’s not too many Robbie Keane’s floating about and it seems as if he’s got an eye for goal.
“But we won’t be putting too much pressure on him at such a young age. Please God in years to come, he can add some goals.
“I watched a couple of the games he played in pre-season with Tottenham. He didn’t look out of place in that team and at such a young age.
“It’s great to see a big name with a bit of a backing coming through. Training with him yesterday, he’s clever, he’s got an eye for a pass, an eye for a goal, a big frame.
“He didn’t train like he was nervous. It didn’t seem to faze him at all. He seems ready to play football.”
Brady added: “He should keep doing what he’s doing because it’s paying off for him and things can only get better.”