It’s the hype that kills you! This emerging talent must be treated with kid gloves
IT’S never easy to predict with accuracy how far a young footballer will go in the game.
Think of Ben Woodburn, who in 2016 became Liverpool’s youngest-ever scorer at 17 years and 45 days.
The following year he hit a 25-yard screamer for Wales against Austria in a Euros qualifier, earning comparisons with Gareth Bale.
Bale himself was so in awe of the boy wonder he pressed Real Madrid to sign him before his price got ludicrous. This week Woodburn was on the bench for
Oxford United in their League
One play-off semi-final.
Young Mason Greenwood is currently being told he has the world at his feet, but his Manchester United team-mate Jesse Lingard heard the same travelling back from Russia two years ago.
Where is he now?
As Phil Foden shows he has all the raw materials to become the complete player, another Manchester City youth sensation who was spoken of in the same terms, Michael Johnson, has opened up on how the pressure finished him by the age of 24. And there was a horrible silence in a recent Everton press conference when coach Carlo Ancelotti was asked for his reaction to Luke Garbutt leaving the club and he replied: “Who?” Clearly the Italian hadn’t been checking out his on-loan players or even the Under-17s Euros Final 10 years ago, when
England’s defeat of Portugal led to talk about a special group of kids coming through.
Garbutt was one of them. As was Jack Butland, Bruno Pilatos, Nathaniel Chalobah, Andre Wisdom, Will Keane, Conor Coady, Josh Mceachran, Ross Barkley, Benik Afobe and Connor Wickham. But only Butland and Barkley went on to win full England caps.
Three summers ago England beat Portugal in another Euros final, this time the Under-19s. Of the highlyrated crop only Mason Mount and his Chelsea team-mate Reece James are playing Premier League football. Ryan Sessegnon, who joined Spurs for £25million, now faces being sent out on loan.
We’ve learned in that it pays to be cautious about young talent, especially when, as now, a few show promise at the same time and a feeling grows that an exceptional generation is coming through.
Following superb recent performances from Foden, Greenwood and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, and a cameo from Liverpool’s Curtis Jones, some pundits are throwing them in with other youngsters such as Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-arnold, Joe Gomez, Callum Hudson-odoi and Mount and concluding that Gareth Southgate has a side of young world-beaters on his hands.
It will be surprising if
Foden and
Greenwood don’t become big stars, but it is extremely premature to think there is a special generation coming through that could gel into a team of world-beaters.
England have done it at youth level in recent years but it’s a big step-up to the full international side made even harder by a hype machine that anoints them kings before their time.
Frank Lampard this week reminded Tammy Abraham and Hudson-odoi how vital it is to forget the noises around them and concentrate solely on fulfilling their potential. “I know how hard it is to break through but when you do, it’s possibly harder to sustain it and move on to the different level,” was his accurate assessment.
And thinking “they have cracked it”, is the biggest mistake a young player can make.
It’s a lesson Lampard, more than most, has learnt. As part of England’s midfield with David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes, he knows all about being hailed as part of a golden generation which turned out to be fool’s gold. Let’s not put any more pressure on these young lads than they already have or we’ll only get fooled again.