Tottenham midfielder James Maddison says he is excited by the "scary" potential of the club's teenage winger Mikey Moore, who is pushing for more minutes in Thursday's Europa League game against Ferencvaros in Hungary on Thursday.
Moore, 17, is yet to start a game for Spurs but was lively in his latest cameo from the bench in the 3-0 win over Manchester United at the weekend.
With forwards Heung-min Son, Richarlison and Wilson Odobert all sidelined for the game in Budapest, Postecoglou could hand Moore his full debut, and Maddison was full of compliments for the teenager.
"When he first came up [to the first team] I had to remind myself how young he actually is," Maddison told reporters in Hungary. "When he first came up he was 16 and more like a man already.
I’m really excited to see how his journey goes and try to help him as much as I can
"When I watch him play, he’s very powerful, and he’s only going to get stronger as he develops into his body. It’s quite scary, he’s got a lot of ability. But I don’t want him to feel any pressure because he’s getting a lot of people talking about him, and rightly so, and that’s down to him training well, getting in the first team and getting exposure which is what he wants.
"Firstly, he’s a great kid… a really polite and well-mannered young man, which is a credit to his family because as a senior player with a young lad coming up that’s the first thing you recognise. You don’t want a young lad coming up with that arrogance, and that 'who does he think he is'.”
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Moore caught the eye with some outstanding performances for England’s Under-17s at this summer’s European Championship, including a brilliant individual goal in a 3-1 win over Spain.
"And then his ability on the ball. We’ve seen it in training and the Spurs fans will be keen to see more in games. But we see it in training,” Maddison continued.
“He’s got bags of ability and it looks to me as if he loves the game, loves playing, gets tackled and sometimes falls on the floor and jumps up as if nothing’s happened and he wants the ball again.
I always try to have a little chat to him because I think ‘what would a 16-year-old James Maddison want?’
“So I’m really excited to see how his journey goes and try to help him as much as I can.
"I always try to have a little chat to him because I think ‘what would a 16-year-old James Maddison want?’ and he would want one of the senior first-team players to put an arm round him and one, treat him like a man, but also give him to advice to try and help him, and accelerate that success and living the journey he is going to have.
"He has got to go and do it when he gets the opportunity and I’m sure he will, and I’m sure he’s keen and eager to get going and get more minutes. I look forward to it."
