Les Ferdinand has delivered his verdict on Tottenham youngster Mikey Moore, who is out on loan at Rangers.
Moore was handed his Tottenham debut by Ange Postecoglou and was sent to the Scottish giants for regular game time this term.
The 18-year-old has thrived under manager Danny Rohl, becoming one of the first names on the team sheet for the German.
Les Ferdinand wants to see Mikey Moore playing regularly beyond this season
Les Ferdinand admits that he has been keeping an eye on Moore since he made his debut for the Lilywhites.
The teenager shone in European games and proved, at an early age, that he was ready for the pressure of first-team football.
This is why the former Tottenham striker revealed that he was surprised that the Englishman was allowed to go out on loan.
Ferdinand has been impressed with Moore’s loan spell and believes that Spurs have a big decision to make at the end of the season.
He wants the 18-year-old to be playing regularly and does not want him warming the bench at the North London outfit.
MORE SPURS STORIES
In his view, a return to Ibrox for another year may not be the worst idea either, but he admits that he would hate it if he did not get enough game time.
He said: “I speak to David Pleat quite a lot and David was very much involved in Spurs when Mikey was coming through the academy. I remember David naming a few players he felt had a good chance in the game and Mikey’s name was among them.
“So I’ve been keeping an eye on him ever since. I saw Mikey a few times last season in Europe and he looked very, very promising. I was pretty surprised that Spurs let him go out on loan this year because of the squad they have and the lack of creativity we’re now seeing lead to problems. I thought they’d keep him around.
“Thomas Frank lost a few key players to injury, like James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, but I suppose they felt he probably would benefit better from being out on loan and getting a full season under his belt. Sometimes you look at it and you think where’s the best place to get game time?
“And yeah, there’s a lot of pressure up at Rangers. But then it all depends on how you see him dealing with that because you’ve got different personalities. With some players, you might think, ‘No chance, he can’t go to Rangers, he won’t be able to deal with what comes with that’.
“But the Tottenham leadership obviously felt that he was mature enough to be able to deal with whatever came at Rangers this year. And to be fair, I was up watching a game a few months ago and saw him play against Hibs just before Christmas and I thought he did superbly.
“Whatever happens next with Mikey, it will be no good for him after a season like this one when he has played so many games for Rangers for him then to go back and do nothing or only get sporadic minutes. We’ll only know by the end of the season whether it’s been a good year for Rangers but so far has it been a successful loan for the young man? I think that’s beyond doubt.
“So the last thing you want to do is go back somewhere where you end up sitting on a bench, where you’re not involved. Mikey will want to expand on what he’s done. Whether that means another year at Rangers as progression for him, it’s not for me to say. But what I can tell you is that I’d hate to see him go back to Spurs and just sit on a bench and not play.”
What are Tottenham likely to do with Moore?
As things stand, Tottenham have bigger headaches to deal with than the future of Moore.
They have hired Igor Tudor until the end of the season, and will then take a call in the summer on who the permanent manager will be.
If they are in the Premier League and he has done a good job, he could be hired permanently, and then Moore’s future would be up to him.
However, if a new manager is in charge or if Spurs are in the second tier, then all bets are off.
Moore, much like Rangers, does not know how things will pan out, so as things stand, the status quo remains.
While Tottenham would want their starlet to continue developing and perhaps be a first-team regular for them in the future, they could be compelled to cash in if the right money is offered.