Will Thomas Frank turn to forgotten Tottenham starlet amid injury woes?

"I wanted to be the one to put him on in a Premier League match. Because I know that he will be somebody in a few years," said José Mourinho, beaming with pride and ego in the wake of Dane Scarlett's then-record-breaking league debut in February 2021.

Garnering the endorsement of one of the all-time great managers convinced some that Spurs already had their Harry Kane succession plan in place. Post-Mourinho, the praise for Scarlett refused to slow down.

Nuno Espírito Santo: “We have big, big expectations regarding Dane."

Antonio Conte: "I think that Dane Is working very hard and he is a really good prospect from the academy. For sure in this moment he is the best prospect from the academy."

Ange Postecoglou: "As an aside, I've got to say the assist is the most useless statistic in world football. Seriously, it could come off your backside, fall to somebody on the halfway line he scores, and it's an assist. So it doesn't impress me, but Dane's assist at the weekend was a good one."

Despite Ange disguising his compliment as an anti-statistics tirade, I think you've got the picture. Previous managers have had sky-high expectations for the young striker, yet Mourinho's projection for Scarlett to be one of the stars of the England national team alongside Jude Bellingham hasn't quite come to pass. Now 21, the striker has appeared 23 times for Spurs and scored just once.

He was right about Jude, at least.

Scarlett's loans—to Portsmouth, Ipswich Town and Oxford United—didn't pan out, but the club is yet to give up on the striker almost five years on from his Premier League debut.

Thomas Frank has also engaged in the obligatory Scarlett praise, and there may be no better time for a Spurs boss to trust an academy striker since Tim Sherwood turned to Harry Kane at the end of a car-crash 2013/14 campaign.

Is it time for Thomas Frank to trust Dane Scarlett?

“I think he is a great player, a fantastic finisher, left and right foot. He needs to play minutes and games, and right now, the competition is tough here," Frank commented after Scarlett turned a few heads with his impactful cameo against Copenhagen in the Champions League last week.

There was a steely determination on the face of Scarlett that night, evidently focused on making an impression. A 4-0 lead allowed him to spread his wings amid a party-like atmosphere in N17, and some of us started to learn why José was so bullish on this kid during his teenage years.

He should've been given the opportunity to score his second goal for the club after outmuscling and outwitting Copenhagen right-back Junnosuke Suzuki to win a penalty, but Richarlison asserted rank and crashed his effort against the crossbar.

Still, Scarlett had done enough to garner a social media buzz. Amid Frank's worsening injury woes, there have been calls for the academy graduate to finally get a proper chance at his boyhood club.

With Randal Kolo Muani joining Dominic Solanke on the sidelines, Richarlison and Mathys Tel are Spurs' two sole senior striker options for the club's gauntlet run after the international break.

So, there may well be an uptick in minutes for the youngster, but it'd be unrealistic to project Scarlett as our saviour while Solanke and Kolo Muani are absent. There's an emotional pull at play, given that the 21-year-old is "one of our own", but it's Tel who should be enjoying a greater share of the minutes up top after the break.

If Mourinho is in Scarlett's corner, I'm firmly in the Frenchman's camp. His swivel and finish at the weekend reminded me of Harry Kane's goal at Anfield in 2016. Tel could be our sharpshooting crown jewel, but I'm certainly not against Scarlett, who's overcome his fitness issues, playing a bigger role.