Martin has eye on teen wonder Maddison
JAMES MADDISON’S highlight reel free-kick against Rangers brought him hero status forever at Aberdeen, an SPFL Goal of the Month award and another glowing report filed back to his parent club Norwich.
That dramatic, dazzling Pittodrie winner might have been the obvious feature of the exciting 19-year-old’s Aberdeen loan career to date, but Russell Martin was just as elated to learn the forward savoured and survived a bruising afternoon at Rugby Park.
As Carrow Road club captain, Martin checks in regularly with the fortunes of the players Norwich boss Alex Neil packs off on loan spells. This season in Scotland that means updates on Remi Matthews at Hamilton and Dundee United’s Tony Andreu.
And with a Betfred Cup semi-final against Morton at Hampden looming, teenage sensation Maddison is going to be the focus of considerable attention from Martin and the Canaries’ scouting staff next weekend.
The challenges presented by that date against Jim Duffy’s Championship side is just one of the aspects that delights Martin about Maddison spending until January with one of Scotland’s top clubs.
The £3million signing from Coventry City always possessed an envious touch and sublime skills. Dealing with some of the hardest knocks in the game with Aberdeen will now toughen up Maddison for a career that the Scotland defender is convinced will soar to the highest level.
‘Physically, James isn’t the biggest, so I thought he would learn to protect himself a little bit playing in Scotland,’ said Martin. ‘I spoke to one of our coaches who went to watch him against Kilmarnock. He told me he got kicked all over the pitch but dealt with it really well. So this spell will be good for him.
‘Looking at him and his frame, he is tiny. But he still protects the ball well. He has got really good awareness of where the defender is coming from. He keeps the ball close to him. I think his biggest quality is his first touch and, for his age, is really good at finding space. He moves the ball well.
‘He is a fantastic footballer who is really, really gifted. The free-kick goal against Rangers was not a coincidence because he’s out there practising them in training every day. The quality was great.
‘Aberdeen should enjoy him while they have got him. It was a fantastic signing for Aberdeen because, as the season goes on, he will continue to show his quality. Derek McInnes has a good record with younger players and he will help develop him. But he’ll have a big career ahead, don’t worry about that.’
Maddison was immediately loaned back to League One strugglers Coventry after Norwich, then in a relegation battle in the English top flight, made the attacking midfielder a deadline-day signing in January.
He was not prepared for the perilous position Neil’s Norwich found themselves in last season and not required for the first half of their 46-game effort to clamber straight back into the Premier League.
However, Martin expects regular football and revelling in the responsibility of being one of the star men for McInnes to be the keys to the success of his spending four months with the Dons.
Martin noted: ‘I think he will be a big player for them and relish that. He’ll relish the occasion of a semifinal. That’s all good for us because he will come back a better player. It would get great if he came back with a League Cup winners’ medal.
‘Aberdeen are doing well, he will enjoy playing week in, week out because when he came to us he was told he had Wes Hoolihan in front of him, Steven Naismith and Alex Pritchard, people like that. He went back on loan to Coventry and came in every couple of weeks to get to know the lads and the way we do things. He fitted in very well.
‘He could’ve gone to another club in England but decided to go up to Scotland. I said to him when he went to Aberdeen that he’d have a real chance to show what he is all about — and he’s doing that.
‘I stay in touch with a lot of the young lads who are out on loan. It’s part of the role. James is a really good one, I text him a lot. He is really enjoying it at Aberdeen and so he should — long may it continue. I really like the lad because of his work ethic.
‘The most important thing is he is a really good lad, a grounded lad.’