Stop weighing talented kids down with comparisons, and just let them grow
YOU’RE going to hear a lot about James Maddison over the coming months and rightly so.
The 21-year-old Leicester midfielder looks a real prospect. He’s clever, brave, has great touch and vision, loves to get forward and has a decent shot on him as his 14 Championship goals for Norwich last season proved.
Sky’s Jamie Redknapp raved about his “brilliant” performance against Liverpool saying he’s exactly the kind of player
England need: “A Luka
Modric, who can receive the
ball off the line and take it in a No.10 role.” Which isn’t a bad comparison after four Premier League games, and there will be plenty more where that came from. Because as soon as a young Englishman shows a flash of talent, many like to stick the hypemachine into overdrive.
Look at Liverpool’s Joe Gomez, who just pipped Maddison for man of the match on Saturday. Garth Crooks said afterwards that “I am really sorry to put so much pressure on the lad but he is the nearest thing I have seen to Bobby Moore for years.”
That’s right, a 21-year-old who only started regularly in the Bobby Moore position for his club last month is being compared to England’s greatest-ever central defender. That’s some pressure, Garth.
But it’s unlikely to be anywhere near as intense as the pressure facing Maddison when Gareth
Southgate eventually gives him a call-up. The Leicester lad, you see, plays ‘in the hole’. A position that gets England devotees more turned on than any of the Kama Sutra, because ever since Paul Gascoigne lit up Italia ’90 from there, filling his boots has been seen as the route to England becoming world-beaters.
The likes of Joe Cole, Kieron Dyer and Ross Barkley crumpled under the weight of being viewed as Gazza’s heir, but the one name that should stop anyone going down that route is Jack Wilshere (below). If Jack had lived up to only half the hype he’s been subjected to he would be leading England out at Wembley against Spain in the Nations League on Saturday.
As a kid breaking through at Arsenal he was viewed as the new Liam Brady and, when he was 19, Paul Merson compared him to Xavi and Andreas Iniesta. Fabio Capello said he was in the same class as Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Raul and five years ago Steven Gerrard said he was convinced Wilshere would become England captain with more than a century of caps. After scoring a brace against Slovenia in 2015 he was likened by different pundits to Bryan Robson, Frank Lampard and Gerrard. Earlier this year Wilshere’s old Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: “He is a bit of a Messi type.”
And only last month his latest coach, Manuel Pellegrini, re-iterated what Harry Redknapp said six years ago, that Wilshere has the same skill-set as Andrea Pirlo. Which means he’s been likened to most of the great modern-day midfielders yet, at 26, playing for West Ham he looks as far away from filling England’s Gazzashaped hole as Gascoigne himself. In that context, Roy Keane’s assessment in February that Wilshere is “probably the most overrated player on the planet”, has a ring of truth about it. Not that we should blame the player for all the ludicrous comparisons that have been thrown at him as his nation cries out for a genuinely world-class creative talent.
He’s been what he’s been: Jack Wilshere. Just as James Maddison and, after him, Phil Foden will be what they will be. Justthemselves.
Drop the comparisons and let them grow, eh?