Troy Parrott must have felt like he had aged in a matter of seconds as he discussed Evan Ferguson’s meteoric rise.
Sitting at the side of Ireland’s training pitch in Turkey, ahead of Friday’s Euro qualifier in Greece, he was quick to remind everyone that he’s still one of the young guns too.
“I’m not a senior,” he laughed. “I’m not too much older than him!”
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But Parrott understood the context of questions, having walked in 18-year-old Ferguson’s shoes at the same age.
Joining Tottenham in 2017 saw to that, making four first-team appearances along the way, as well as loan spells with Millwall, Ipswich, MK Dons and Preston North End.
The 21-year-old was himself billed as the next big thing, although injuries have played their part in tempering expectations for now even if the potential remains.
But having lived that spotlight, the Tottenham forward can relate to what Ferguson is experiencing right now after a breakthrough season to savour with Brighton.
The Meath man is also nailed down to start in Athens on Friday, with Parrott fighting it out with Adam Idah, Michael Obafemi and Mikey Johnston for the other forward role.
Parrott said last night: “We have some good strikers and good attacking options.
“It can only benefit us as a team having the likes of Evan coming through and the rest of us all competing for places.
“To play in this team as a front two or front three you need to be at the top of your game, otherwise you’re not going to play.
“I don’t want to say what Evan should or shouldn’t do. But if I can say something it’s to keep doing what he’s doing as he’s smashing it right now and that can only help us.
“He’s doing what he needs to do on the pitch and he’s a nice lad off the pitch - he’s a good addition to the squad and can only help us
“But this is about the whole country, it’s not about one or two players.
“We want to qualify for the tournament coming up so whoever is put out there to score the goals needs to do it, it’s on us.”
Parrott is locked in that battle with Idah and Obafemi to partner Ferguson on Friday but goes into the key qualifier on the back of a see-saw season at Preston.
He scored three goals in 32 appearances but missed three months after suffering a hamstring injury while celebrating a goal he scored against Norwich in October.
“It was a year of ups and downs but I enjoyed playing, being back in the Championship and competing every week. I can’t complain, I played a lot of games.
“The only down would be the injury and not scoring enough goals but I’ve got confidence that I can do that next season.”
And on the injury, and the luckless nature of it, Parrott explained: “It was my first Championship goal and then straight away, I didn’t get to celebrate it.
“The goal goes out the window because you’re just thinking ‘how long am I going to be out for, when am I going to be playing again’.
“As a player, you know as soon as you do something, you’ll have a rough idea how bad it’s going to be.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be a short term thing. I was just getting my head around it, making a plan, a route to getting back.”
Parrott is back and raring to go with Ireland having been left out of the matchday squad to face France in March.
By his own admission, he wasn’t at his fittest for that opening qualifier but a run of games with Preston since then has him primed for involvement this time.
And Parrott insists Ireland - after nine-days of prep in Turkey - should not shy away from declaring they want victory in the Greek capital, and against Gibraltar on Monday.
“We just need to put together everything we’ve been working on since we came out here. It needs to flow and if it does I think we can win the game,” he added.
“That’s what we’re here to do, we’re here to win. We want to pick up results in every game we play.
“Before we played any games (in this group) if you were thinking of games that we need to win it would be these two coming up.
“We’re all in a good place at the moment, just going off training since we’ve met up, we all seem to be flying, all the attackers, the whole squad.
“The performance we put in against France was top and we need to take that into these two games.
“If it all comes together for us then we can match the best teams in the world. If we go there on Friday and it starts flowing, then I think we’re taking three points.”
Troy Parrott has wished Tom Cannon well in his international career - whoever it may be with.
The strikers were both on loan at Preston North End this season with Parrott sent by Tottenham and Cannon from Everton.
It emerged this week that England want to snare Liverpool native Cannon for their U21s next season.
He played for Ireland’s U21s as recently as March and was named in Stephen Kenny’s senior squad for a training camp in Bristol at the end of May.
But he pulled out with tonsillitis and plans to bed him back into Jim Crawford’s U21s instead, for upcoming friendlies, failed to materialise in the face of England’s interest.
In Turkey this week, Ireland boss Kenny revealed he will meet with Cannon and his agent - the brother of West Ham boss David Moyes - for talks in the coming weeks.
Last night, Parrott admitted he was unaware of Cannon’s international intentions and said: “I don’t know to be fair but whatever he decides to do I wish him all the best.”
Asked if he was close with Cannon, Parrott continued: “I wouldn’t say best friends but we spoke to each other every day and we were playing together.
“I spoke to him a little bit off the pitch but I haven’t really spoken to him since I left.
“I liked him as a player and I liked him as a person. We would like to have him here, but if it’s in his interests to go elsewhere then I wish him all the best.
And quizzed on Cannon’s best attributes, Parrott added: “He’s really quick - really, really quick and he’s a good finisher.
“He makes clever movements in behind and he uses the space well. But it’s up to him and whatever he wants to do.”
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