CROSS He’s still a bit Green
UNITED’S MASON AT CROSSROADS
IT MIGHT be a well-worn anecdote in the sporting world, but it’s also one that has stood the test of time.
Back in 2004, golfer John Daly was sitting in a clubhouse bar drinking and telling stories when Tiger Woods walked past heading for the gym and another brutal workout session.
“Come and have a beer with us,” recalls Daly, “you don’t need to work out, you need to drink a little bit with us”
With a response that is now the stuff of legend, Woods replied: “If I had your talent John, I I’d d be doing the same thing ing you’re doing”.
Daly (right) thought Woods was “crazy” - and who can blame him?
Nobody has ever been blessed with more golfing talent than Woods, who has s won 15 Majors, a historic oric
82 PGA Tour wins and almost
£1billion in career earnings.
But nobody has had the same work ethic as Woods, either.
Daly could play a bit himself and has two Majors of his own to boast about, but who knows how much more the American could have achieved had he spent as much time working on his game as he did munching through M&Ms, smoking cigarettes and downing whisky and cokes?
And so we come to Man United’s Mason Greenwood.
Having talent is no guarantee of success, but combine it with hard work and discipline and there is no limit to what a person can achieve.
Like another golfing legend once said, “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”.
Gary Player will turn 85 next week but still does 1,000 sit-ups every morning when he gets out of bed. Acco According to reports Gree Greenwood, 18, can’t ev even get out of his own b bed to make team meetings on time.
The suggestion is that the teenage sensation has been warned about his ‘tardiness’ which, coming less than a month after he was thrown out of an England squad in shame following his debut – for bringing women into the team hotel in Iceland, no less – is alarming to say the least.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has denied this, but he would do, wouldn’t he? He is trying to shield his precocious star.
The world has been watching the youngster like never before, but at a time when he has to do everything right, he is in danger of doing things wrong.
Greenwood should be the first to training and the last one to leave. Like David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo once were.
All went on to become legends at United. Have you worked out the connection yet, Mason?
Greenwood must think he’s bulletproof.
Perhaps this is the problem? Perhaps the gilded and closeted world of a Premier League academy has created a great footballer, but also a sheltered human being unprepared for the disciplined demands of a man’s world in elite sport?
The starlet appears to be at a crossroads.
But he shouldn’t be, not at his age. He should be freewheeling, revelling in the privilege of having such wonderful opportunities thrust in his direction.
He’s done nothing yet – but the first thing he does need to start doing is showing his club and team-mates a bit more respect.