Lookman a solid bet if Southgate opts to gamble
Youngster’s rapid rise at Leipzig will have alerted England manager as he eyes World Cup squad
When Gareth Southgate selected Ruben Loftuscheek, Tammy Abraham and Joe Gomez in his November friendlies the England manager was acknowledging a certain restlessness about his playing resources, a condition common among his predecessors whatever their prior reputation.
Roy Hodgson tried to pick squads that looked forward to the next tournament, including Luke Shaw, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling in the 2014 World Cup and Marcus Rashford two years later at Euro 2016. Sven-goran Eriksson will always be remembered for taking Theo Walcott at 17 in his 2006 World Cup squad but he also selected the 19-year-old Aaron Lennon, whose contribution that summer hinted at a promising international future that never quite materialised.
When Southgate names his World Cup squad next week he will attempt what no club manager has to do, that being pick players on the basis of five weeks of their life – a fleeting window on a career.
Sign a player over five years and any manager is well-hedged, pick him for a single World Cup and the outcome can be dictated by anything as ephemeral as a bout of self-doubt, a sore ankle or a bad break-up. You can be the best team in the world for four years, but to be the world champions you have to be the best for most of June and half of July once every four years, and every coach is going to be drawn to those players who just happen to be burning strongest in holiday season.
Anyone who has tried to pick the England squad for Russia will know that is a case of creeping towards the final 23, rather than starting with 35 and whittling down those deserving cases. There are some on a late run of form tugging at Southgate’s sleeve, such as the recently-returned Loftuscheek, and Danny Welbeck, who looks as ready as ever to burst past a full-back and put his shot somewhere unexpected.
From among England’s generation-2000, Jadon Sancho logged another assist for Borussia Dortmund at the weekend with a change of direction that had a Mainz defender heading out to get a bratwurst. At 18, he has played 11 Bundesliga games this season, the past three of them starts, and there is something of the Brazilian about this carefree little Englishman who carries the flag for an exceptional group of home-grown players.
If taking Sancho to Russia feels like too much of an indulgence that may put more pressure on the player than is strictly necessary at this stage, then Ademola Lookman is a more solid bet. He is the 20-year-old Everton loanee who has eventually forced his way into the RB Leipzig team this season and has four goals and two assists in 10 games. His new club trust him ever more, with six starts now, and it will be telling if he gets his seventh away to Hertha Berlin on Saturday, the last game of the season, with a Europa League place still to be secured and the outside chance of Champions League qualification.
Lookman’s two goals against Wolfsburg on Saturday did not quite have the drama of his debut strike against Borussia Monchengladbach, but they were both well-taken finishes from a man who found himself in the right place at the right time. What will intrigue Southgate, who knows England’s junior teams as well as any of his predecessors, is the single-mindedness with which Lookman has pushed his way forward in his short career.
He was famously only discovered by Charlton Athletic at 16 and given a scholarship within weeks of having played for a London Sunday League representative side at the club’s training ground. Previously he had played for Waterloo FC, a community club in Kennington, south London, which at the time tended to retain their best boys rather than lose them to academies.
Lookman was a Charlton first-team player in just his second year as a scholar and he signed for Everton in January last year, a mind-spinning career trajectory.
Come this January he was defying the gloomy predictions for life in the Bundesliga made by Sam Allardyce, who described Lookman as “stubborn – and he got what he wanted”. Having voiced concerns about Lookman’s ability to deal with the language and his refusal to look at the loan options Everton suggested, Allardyce did wish him success.
Given Lookman’s three A-stars and five As at GCSE, one can only presume that he felt he could muddle through and so it has proved, an arresting story of career progression that one might assume strikes a chord with Southgate.
At each stage Lookman seems to have made the right choice rather than the obvious choice – even joining Everton when bigger clubs with less of a reputation for developing young players were interested. His agent is Emeka Obasi, who took Sancho to Dortmund and Mandela Egbo from Crystal Palace to Monchengladbach and clearly sees the benefits in Germany’s appetite for developing players.
But most of all, Lookman is in some form – a confident young footballer playing well in one of Europe’s top leagues with a World Cup finals just five weeks away.
Southgate is not trying to plot this young man’s career, or predict his long-term future – he just needs a man in form for five weeks of a summer that can shape a lifetime.
The manager just needs a man in form for five weeks of a summer that can shape a lifetime