Ange Postecoglou could not stop waxing lyrical about Tottenham Hotspur wonderkid Mikey Moore following the Lilywhites' 2-1 win over Ferencvaros in the Europa League.
The 17-year-old was one of four teenagers to start for the North London giants in Hungary, where Will Lankshear, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall were also drafted into a much-changed Tottenham lineup.
Moore - hailed as one of the most exciting prospects to emerge from the Tottenham academy - excelled on his first start for the club, playing a key role in Pape Sarr's opener with a driving run into the middle.
The 2007-born starlet then should have bagged an assist for Timo Werner in the second half, but the German made a meal of a gilt-edged opportunity, trying to take the ball round the goalkeeper but firing into the side netting.
Brennan Johnson's fifth in five games spared Werner's blushes before Barnabas Varga's late consolation, but Tottenham held on for a fifth straight win in all competitions, and the spotlight remained firmly focused on Moore at full time.
Postecoglou: 'How many 17-year-olds are playing in the Premier League?'
© Imago
Comparison have naturally been drawn between Moore and fellow 17-year-old Lamine Yamal, who has taken Barcelona by storm over the past year, but Postecoglou believes that the Premier League is a different kettle of fish to La Liga for teenage stars due to the physical demands.
Asked if football is 'getting younger' in his post-game press conference, Postecoglou said: "No, no, I still wouldn't say that. I mean how many 17-year-olds are playing in the Premier League?" as quoted by football.london.
"Yeah, Yamal is brilliant but it's not a common thing. It's still pretty rare because you have to take into account, not just their physical maturity at 17 of being able to handle it, their emotional maturity, you've got to be really careful.
"There are always exceptions to the rule and Yamal is certainly one of them, but like I said, if you look at the Premier League, how many 17-year-olds are actually contributing and Mikey is already to is, which shows that he's got something special, but we've just got to be really careful about how we develop that.
"I think because it's too easy just to say, oh, you know, he's a great young player just throw him in there, especially in the Premier League because of all the leagues probably in Europe, it's the most physically challenging.
"So young players, the first thing I want to see is can they handle it and to be fair, Mike handles it pretty well, and certainly Archie and Lucas have that, but we've got to be careful with them."
Comparing the Premier League and La Liga's youngest players
© Reuters
While we may never know how a 17-year-old Yamal would have performed in the Premier League, the Barcelona prodigy has already registered nine goals and 12 assists in 46 La Liga matches, while Moore has only made four appearances in the English top flight.
The Tottenham starlet is just one of four 17-year-olds to have made an appearance in this season's Premier League; Arsenal duo Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly and Everton's Harrison Armstrong are the others.
Moore is the youngest of the four, having been 17 years, one month and 10 days when facing Brentford on September 21, but there have also been an identical amount of 17-year-olds playing in La Liga this season.
Yamal's teammates Marc Bernal and Pau Cubarsi join Mallorca's Marc Domenech in that list, but none of them are the youngest to play in the Spanish top flight this season - that honour belongs to 16-year-old Valencia winger David Otorbi.
No 16-year-old has played in the Premier League this season, and there have been a total of 20 teenage appearances in the 2024-25 English top flight, compared to 25 in La Liga.
Ben Knapton
