THE BOY WONDERS
Why big clubs can’t stop signing players from Moston Tigers Under Eights
THREE young boys are haring around a barbershop in Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter filled with zest and a constant buzz.
And so they should. Meet a third of Moston Tigers Under Eights, such an exceptional group that nine of the team’s 10 members have been snapped up by professional academies for next season.
What happened to the 10th, the goalkeeper? Well, he is ‘only’ on trial — at Manchester United
This is clearly a special group of young players from the north of a city renowned for developing the stars of tomorrow.
The trio are bundles of energy, livewires who do not stop enthusing about football. They dart around the shop, shout about this goal and that, bouncing on the big leather chairs and playing on an old Nintendo console. Two — Amari Moses and New Boy Blue: the young striker signs for Goodison boss Ronald Koeman Mekhi McLeod — are just back from Marseille, starring for Everton in a competition which pitted them against Barcelona and AC Milan. The other, Saul Griffiths, is at Accrington Stanley.
As for the rest, Stoke City signed one, Oldham another. Two more are with Everton. From September, Manchester City and Manchester United’s Under Nine captains, Dante Headley and Jay McEvoy, will hail from this team — and they are not the first Tigers to make such astonishing progress.
Harley O’Grady now captains Manchester United Under 13s, despite playing a year above his age group. Charlie Veevers is also doing well at Carrington while Nico O’Reilly is excelling at Manchester City.
‘The Tigers have only been going for seven years,’ coach Adrian Griffiths tells Sports
mail. ‘We’ve probably had about 30 go into academies in that time.
‘It’s mad how much success they have had because it is such a small area, such a small club. We don’t cherry-pick, we don’t say we’re only taking a certain number of kids.’
In 2015-16 the Tigers won 90 per cent of their fixtures — one by 20-0 — so in the season just finished they tested themselves by moving up a level and playing against sides a year older.
They did not win quite so often but made enormous strides in their development.
Moston Tigers now feels like a north
Manchester version of f Fletcher Moss, the club b that produced Marcusus Rashford and Dannyny Welbeck for United.
‘They’re all from toughh areas. The kids are very tough,’,’ Griffiths adds. ‘They’re already quite streetwise. Surprisingly, none are at the same school.
‘They have been playing teams who were a year older. They were Under Sixes but played in the Under Sevens. This helped them — they have always been a bit of a rough, boisterous set.
‘The other kids will be sitting when the manager is talking to them while I’ll have one on my back, one jumping over this way and that.
‘These have been all over the country to play academies — Chelsea, Stoke, Liverpool.’ And that is where little Saul interjects. ‘Yeah, and we’ve beaten them all.’
It transpires Chelsea were hammered 15-5 down at Cobham before Griffiths Snr admits: ‘We’ve not played City. That’d be a bridge too far. They’ve got the best of the best.’
Regardless, this is an uplifting tale of children from deprived areas handed a start. Kids as young as two, from Harpurhey, Beswick, Chadderton and Bury, are encouraged to attend a soccer school at Moston.
‘They’re allowed to go out there and have fufun. That’s how they’ve been nonoticed,’ Amari’s father, Phil MoMoses, says. ‘Put them in the kit anda go have fun. They take care ofo the rest really. ‘It’s youryo role as a parent to make sure they hhave a fulfilling life. He’s been to places I’ve never been to before. He’s probably done more in the last two years than I have in 10.
‘Why would you want to deny them that? If they didn’t want to do it, we wouldn’t force them.’
Things started to become very real for Amari and his three team-mates at Everton very quickly, however.
‘Basically, they trained with the first team in the morning and later went into Ronald Koeman’s office and signed,’ Moses smiles, just as his anecdote is briefly interrupted as Mekhi and Amari belt out an Everton terrace chant.
‘The first team did their normal session and when they had done they came across to the boys and mingled with the different age groups.
‘They did little games, had a little chat and a laugh. They’re all talking about, “Oh, I was playing with Romelu Lukaku”, or “I nutmegged Phil Jagielka!”’