Ireland hero Troy Parrott could have joined Leeds United in the summer, and amid his exploits with the National Team, Leeds are trying to rectify a deal ahead of the January window.
Parrott will have woken up on Monday morning with a smile stretching ear to ear. Much has been made of Parrott’s potential when he broke through at Tottenham, and how he had failed to live up to the hype.
Numerous loans while at Spurs, including spells at Millwall, Preston and Ipswich, failed to convince Spurs fans that they had a genuine wonderkid on their books. It took a move to the Netherlands for it to kick in.
After a solid season with MK Dons and then Excelsior, AZ Alkmaar took the plunge. Signing him for a fee of around £3.5m, Parrott has gone on to become one of Europe’s most in-form strikers over two years.
A total of 33 goals and seven assists in 61 games, with 13 coming in 14 this season, Parrott is now the darling of Ireland. Five goals during the November break, single-handedly saving their World Cup dream.
Ireland needed to beat both Portugal and Hungary to secure a play-off place. A brace in a miraculous 2-0 win over Portugal last week was followed by a hat-trick and a last-gasp winner to beat Hungary 3-2.
Amid all the noise, the social media clips of his goals and teary post-match interviews, there is talk of a move to Leeds. LeedsUnited.News understands Leeds scouts watched his superb brace against Portugal.
Dutch media say Leeds have re-opened talks for Troy Parrott
The scouting mission comes after Leeds had shown interest in Parrott in the summer. Leeds officials were told that AZ wanted £25m for the Ireland star and Leeds, understandably, opted to reject that move.
But now, Adam Underwood will be wishing he had chosen to take a risk. Especially, because Parrott will be valued at a much higher fee than the £25m Leeds chose to ignore only a few months ago.
According to Voetbal Nieuws, Leeds’ interest is ‘intense’ and the club has reopened talks with AZ over a move for Parrott ahead of January. But the report also insists a fee will be higher than the summer fee.
AZ expecting record sale as Leeds eye Troy Parrott deal
AZ are expecting something far north of the £25m they told Leeds to pay in the most-recent window. What is fundamentally clear, is that Parrott’s sale will be a record sale, which currently stands at £22m.
That came in the form of current Man City star Tijjani Reijnders, who left AZ for Milan in the summer of 2023. Parrott’s fee will be much bigger than that, even if he recently said he intends to remain at AZ.
Does his form translate into Premier League goals? That is the big question. But Leeds need to take a risk in January and right now, there aren’t many producing the form that Irish hero Parrott is conjuring.
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