‘Baby giraffe’ has matured into an outstanding defender
What is football’s equivalent of an ugly duckling? Baby giraffe, perhaps? That was the impression evoked by Jarrad Branthwaite when Steven Pressley first clocked him in a reserve game at Oldham Athletic during his 11-month tenure as manager of Carlisle United. Lacking in balletic poise as the lanky teenager might have been five years ago, Branthwaite has acquired it now, a towering defender seemingly bound for Manchester United and England.
Like all managers with thin resources, Pressley made the 250-mile round trip looking for a jewel. None of the staff had mentioned Branthwaite when Pressley took the Carlisle job in January 2019. He describes the Oldham odyssey as a sliding doors moment in the career of a player who might have missed the highspeed train had the manager something better to do that day.
Branthwaite had a difficult birth as a professional footballer, suffering with Osgood-Schlatter disease, a knee condition that often affects the rapidly growing bones of tyros. The condition disappears at full height, but at a crucial juncture in his youthful progression, Branthwaite thought he might not make it.
“I had six weeks to prove I was good enough to get a scholarship,” he told Sky Sports. “That six weeks was hard work. My dad had me in the gym doing extra fitness stuff. If he didn’t do that for me, I don’t think I’d be where I am now. I wouldn’t be playing football.”
He passed that test but was by no means a banker to sign pro. He had been at the club’s academy since 2013 and at 16 had still to fill out his willowy frame. It took Pressley to spot the signs. “No one had spoken about him to me,” Pressley told i. “But he made a big impression. He had a really outstanding game. It’s one of those things, when the manager comes along and all of a sudden I take a fancy to him. That’s football. “These moments shape a young player’s career. That timing. And it was very much like that for him. I phoned the director on my way home and said, ‘you need to sign this kid on a long-term contract’. Within two or three days he had a three-year contract and we started working with him in the first team. “He handled League Two at 17 particularly well. To do that at as a central defender you need to be equipped with the basics, that ability to head and defend. If you can’t do that in that division, you would be found out very quickly.” What we are seeing now is a physically mature specimen if not yet the fully-matured footballer. After joining Everton in January 2020, he spent a season on loan at Blackburn followed by a year at PSV Eindhoven, where he began to fill out his 6ft 5in frame.
“The one thing that was obvious was he still had to grow into his body,” Pressley said. “He was like a baby giraffe in many respects. Although he was quick, he wasn’t so quick in his first few yards. That was going to come with growth, time in the gym, strength and conditioning. All of those components would eventually come together.”
So what would United be getting for the reported £70m?
“He is outstanding with both feet,” Pressley says. “No criticism of Everton, because I really like Sean Dyche, but within that style you are not seeing him build the game in a manner he can. He passes well on both sides. That is not natural with many defenders. There are more layers to him. You are not going to see the best of him for six to seven years.”
Which begs the question of how he might cope at Old Trafford?
“You can sign a player with the appropriate skill set, but without the mindset it is not going to work. That is what defines a Man United player. Jarrad still has to prove that, but he certainly has the capabilities. That resilience, the ability to handle pressure and disappointment are so key. The players at elite clubs have that.
“There is a pressure you don’t experience at other places. You have to win. You are going to be in the spotlight like never before, constantly analysed and criticised. It is difficult to say anyone will cope until he has been exposed to it. But looking at the stages so far – 17-year-old in League Two, going to play at a big club in Holland, Premier League club at a young age – he handled the pressure really well, so that would indicate he can.”