Jose Mourinho has talked up the huge potential of Tottenham wonderkid Dane Scarlett after recently giving him some playing time in the Premier League and Europa League.
The 16-year-old forward looks a very promising talent coming through at Spurs and already seems to be edging his way into Mourinho’s first-team thinking.
MORE: Tottenham lead chase for £40m Premier League star
This is some compliment from the Portuguese tactician, who is not exactly known for handing out opportunities to young players too easily.
Throughout his career, Mourinho has often overlooked some fine young players in favour of more proven big-name signings, and this led to him notably allowing the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne to leave Chelsea when they were not yet the big names they are now.
Those players ended up having great careers elsewhere, and Mourinho might now be more careful about overlooking promising youngsters when he has them.
Scarlett looks like the real deal and Mourinho did not hold back in his praise of the teenager.
“He’s a diamond. He’s a kid with an incredible potential,” Mourinho told BT Sport, as quoted by the Metro.
“He’s working many, many times with the first team which gives him of course a different personality.
“He’s playing of course with the young people, he’s still 16, 17 soon but he’s still 16. And I believe that next season he’s going to be a first-team player, a first-team squad player, because his talent is to develop and when the kids are very, very good, 17, 18 or 19 years old doesn’t change much.
“He’s going to be a fantastic player. I hope just that everything goes well around him and nothing strange disturbs his development, because the kid is a fantastic talent.”
“If I could go back in time I would change 90% of my life” – which former Man Utd star said this? Click here to find out.