BEST OF THE WEST
Scouts queue up to watch battle of teen starlets
THE Premier League’s big guns will descend on Craven Cottage today to run the rule over two of the Championship’s brightest prospects.
Ryan Sessegnon’s head-tohead with Rico Henry will be one of the sub-plots in promotion-chasing Fulham’s west London derby clash with Brentford, with the Cottagers hoping to seal a play-off place.
Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Arsenal will all have representatives at the game, and Sessegnon, 16, and Henry, 19, in their sights.
And the battle of the teen starlets has added intrigue due to the similarities between the two.
Both are flying left-backs who are just a year apart in England’s youth set-up – London-born Sessegnon with the under-19s and Birminghamborn Henry with the under-20s.
Sessegnon was named in the Championship team of the year and has been hugely influential in Fulham’s bid for a top-six finish.
He has scored five goal in 24 appearances, becoming the youngest-ever scorer in second-tier history along the way.
Boss Slavisa Jokanovic reckons Sessegnon should stay at Fulham while he’s still developing but believes he can be anything he wants.
“He is definitely going to be a good player in the future,” said the Serb (below). “But now it depends on whether he wants to be merely a good player or the best. “His future is in his hands.” Henry has been described as a young Ashley Cole by Griffin Park boss Dean Smith and Bees fans are now seeing what the fuss is all about.
He arrived from Walsall, where he also played under Smith, last summer but didn’t make his debut until February due to a shoulder problem.
But he has played a big part in Brentford’s end-of-season upturn in form.
They have won eight of the 12 games Henry has played in since his bow, a run that has come too late for the play-offs but lifted them up from 15th to ninth.
Smith said: “I hold him in high regard.
“He’s a very good footballer and so far we’ve only had a small glimpse of what we can expect.”