Sadly for Solskjaer, potential wins you nothing
Football is littered with players who failed to live up to promise like that shown by United, writes Jim White
Nobody can be sure any of Solskjaer’s striplings will graduate to be fully fledged internationals
At Bramall Lane on Sunday, we were granted a vision of a possible future. In a seven-minute sequence as electrifying as it was unexpected, Manchester United’s young players carved apart a resolute Sheffield United defence, scoring three superb goals in the process.
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was keen to talk up the glories of that second-half spell (as he might, given the hopelessness of the rest of the performance). The freedom, ambition and bravery of the play that delivered a point which had seemed wholly unlikely at half-time was, he reckoned, a pointer to what may lie ahead. A team of verve, spice and endeavour was coming together. And for those not inclined to celebrate any hint of revival at Old Trafford, it should be pointed out that it is one made up of youngsters who are largely qualified to play for England.
We could all be smiling if this collective matures as Solskjaer hopes. There is just one problem with such an analysis: in football, the future holds no guarantee. Nobody can be sure Brandon Williams, Mason Greenwood, James Garner and the rest of Solskjaer’s striplings will graduate from promising teenagers to fully fledged internationals. After all, the comically inept Phil Jones, the man who these days seems incapable of remaining in a vertical position when an opponent ventures into his defensible space, was the future once.
Indeed, a good way to elicit a laugh on a grey November day is to search back through the predictions of future England line-ups that occasionally fill in the space after international tournaments. Just after the 2014 World Cup, for instance, the BBC website ran this as its potential England line-up for Euro 2020: Joe Hart;
Nathaniel Clyne, Eric Dier, John Stones, Luke Shaw; Jordan Henderson, Jack Wilshere, Ross Barkley; Nathan Redmond, Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling. As a bit of crystal ball-gazing, it was not wholly useless. Except at least four of those players have failed to live up to the assumptions implicit in their early displays and are about as likely to play in next summer’s tournament as Jones.
But what was perhaps more entertaining were the outraged comments under the article demanding to know why Saido Berahino had been left out. In fairness to Berahino, he is far from the only talent to self-implode well before reaching his potential. Check back on any assumed England line-up for 2020 written some 10 years ago and they would, without fail, include such long-diminished reputations as Ravel Morrison, Jack Rodwell and Nedum Onuoha.
A quick rundown of the list of winners of the
Fifa Golden Boy award suggests it is not just an English failing. Sure, since the prize for the world’s most promising youngster was introduced in 2003, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero have all picked up the trophy. But so, too, have Anderson, Alexandre Pato and Mario Balotelli. The 2016 winner, Renato Sanches, now looks to be joining the list of those who have failed to live up to anticipated promise.
There is a reason why experience is valued to the point of being fetishised in Italian football: it is a far more predictable commodity than potential. The hope for all involved is that Williams, Greenwood and Garner manage to follow the precedent of their team-mate, Marcus Rashford, and deliver on their promise. But at the moment, instead of lauding what lies ahead, Solskjaer might be better concentrating on why so many of those required by him to deliver in the here and now are routinely failing to do so.