JOSE MOURINHO is ready to throw youngsters Troy Parrott and Ryan Sessegnon into the cauldron of Champions League football at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Irish striker Parrott, 17, and £25million ex-Fulham winger Sessegnon are just two of the youngsters the Spurs boss will name in the dead rubber against the German giants.
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Both teams have already qualified from their Champions League group.
Midfielders Oliver Skipp and Tashan Oakley-Boothe, plus central defender Japhet Tanganga and right-back Kyle Walker-Peters are also tipped to get game time in Bavaria.
But Mourinho is risking another Champions League humiliation after Munich put SEVEN past the North Londoners in September.
Ex-Arsenal player Serge Gnabry got four goals in that match.
Mourinho has indicated he will leave key stars at home to rest and will name a young side – and told the media exactly why yesterday at the briefing ahead of today’s clash with Burnley.
The Portuguese boss said: “Because we are going to finish second. It doesn’t matter the result, but it’s very important for the players. Very important for the players that are going to play.
“It’s very important for me to know them better. I am going to play for sure some of the players that are not playing with me in these matches we are playing.
“It’s a great opportunity for young people. A great opportunity for the development of these young players, the Walker-Peters, the Skipps, the Parrotts, the Sessegnons, all these young players that we have, it’s a great opportunity for them.
“Of course there is the prestige of the club also involved, and we are going to try to go with a team that gives us some guarantees to try to fight for a result that we don’t need, but a result that we want.
“We know that tomorrow [against Burnley] is going to be the fifth game in a row, we know that after that we go to Wolves on the weekend, and Wolves is one of the teams that is in front of us in the table.
“We have to look to this game, to Bayern, with all these in mind.
“But if you want to look for the positive side of it, and not to the negative side, it is to say that lots of young players are going to have a good opportunity to play in an amazing stadium, amazing competition, against top players.”
Sessegnon is yet to start for Spurs in an injury-plagued first campaign at N17.
Spurs are five points adrift of Bayern so cannot finish top of the group.
That means they are likely to face a much tougher last 16 tie with the likes of Juventus, Barcelona and Ajax lurking for them potentially.
Mourinho needs to prioritise the Premier League, however, with Spurs already nine points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.
Jose Mourinho explains why it’s easier for Man Utd to play against the better teams in the Premier League after Spurs lose 2-1 at Old Trafford
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
