From schools’ cup final to the global stage, Trippier excels
Pressure matches have always brought out the best in the ‘Bury Beckham’, Sam Dean discovers
Kieran Trippier, or the “Bury Beckham” as he has been christened on social media, has always had a taste for the big occasion, an ability to elevate his level when the pressure is highest. He showed it on Monday night, when he was one of England’s standout performers in their opening match, and he showed it 11 years ago, in the Bury Schools’ Cup final.
Different stages, certainly, but for a teenaged, shaven-headed Trippier, a final against the local school rivals was as important as anything.
“He would take those games really seriously,” remembers Lee Garcka, Trippier’s PE teacher at Woodhey High School. “His family were watching, and those were the games when he really shone. He scored a hat-trick, the best hat-trick I have ever seen from any player, at any level.”
For his first goal, the 16-year-old Trippier ran from his own half, beating four defenders, and slotted the ball into the corner. The second was a volley from 35 yards, and the third was a curling effort from the edge of the box.
At the time, Trippier was progressing through the ranks at Manchester City’s academy and was not even supposed to be playing school football.
Garcka would often leave for games thinking that Trippier was training with City but then find him half a mile down the road, having rushed home from City, waiting for the school minibus to pick him up.
Jim Cassell, the former youth academy director at City, was all too aware of a teenage Trippier’s appetite for simply playing as often as he could. “There was a period of time where the boys at the academy were stopped from playing for their school,” Cassell says.
“But I knew Kieran played, and I never bothered [trying to stop him] because he would play anywhere. I would go to watch my son playing fivea-side, and Kieran would be there.”
Trippier, the youngest of four brothers from the market town of Ramsbottom, had been scouted by Manchester United when he was eight but joined City soon after.
“The thing I remember was that, even as a nine-year-old, Kieran was an absolutely beautiful striker of the ball,” Cassell says.
“I would say he is probably England’s best crosser since David Beckham. He was also a chirpy character, which is what you want to see in kids.”
As he grew older, still shining at City, that “chirpiness” threatened to become a problem. At the age of 14 or 15, Garcka says Trippier had developed a “bit of an edge” and there was concern that he might turn down the wrong path.
He was helped by the close mentoring of the school’s former head teacher, Martin Braidley, and by Cassell.
“We lived near each other,” Cassell says, “so I used to give him a lift home. I would constantly tell him: ‘Kieran, if you live right you will make it, big time.’”
The message sunk in, and Trippier matured in his final years of school as he continued to hone his natural ability at City. He was part of the City team who won the FA Youth Cup in 2008 and in 2010, aged 19, was loaned to Barnsley for his first experience of senior football.
The early impressions were good. Trippier arrived with confidence, which bordered on cockiness and also with resilience. “He was a young kid at the time but he went straight into the team,” says David Preece, the former Barnsley goalkeeper.
“He is one of the best players I have ever seen at crossing the ball on the run – that’s the one thing that really stood out.”
Preece, who changed next to Trippier in the dressing room, used to joke that the slender lad alongside him looked like Stewie Griffin, the cartoon baby from comedy series Family Guy, but there were no issues with physical robustness. “He was tough,” Preece says. “He was never a pushover.”
Trippier’s excellent performances, including a penchant for scoring free-kicks, earned him a move to Burnley where the arrival of Sean Dyche added defensive solidity to his technical talents. Trippier’s gratitude to his former manager was evident in December, when he was spotted at the darts with a sign saying “Ginger Mourinho = Sean Dyche”.
Trippier’s £3.5million move to Tottenham Hotspur in 2015 remains one of the best Premier League bargains of recent years. Under Mauricio Pochettino, and particularly following the departure of Kyle Walker to City last summer, he has become more consistent and creative. He adapted again and then adapted to England, where a wingback role clearly suits his abilities.
“Every time he has to step up, he has been able to do it,” Garcka says. “He has done it again and again. Each time he is asked to go up a level, he meets that challenge.”
‘Every time Kieran has to step up, he has been able to do it. He meets the challenge’