I think the reason people are excited for Amir is more the top line work rate and application mixed with a winning mentality than his skills. He is a talented boy and there a similarly skilled youngsters around however it’s drive that takes them to the top.
The Rooney comparison are based on those for me. If you saw Rooney at 14 you saw the similarities in tracking back, making the tackle then knocking it in the top corner. We can only hope their career paths align.
I think this is the correct answer. He seems, the operative word being seems, to have a first rate work ethic and that kind of passion and temperament on the field that you can’t teach. He seems fiery and driven to succeed, working both for the team and for himself. So there are reasons to be optimistic that he can go on to a first team career.
Of course, it’s incredibly hard to say.
I actually like that less and less youth games are being shown live. At first I hated it. I loved watching the young prospects and tracking their progress, but it’s also true that it inevitably led to an over exposure and over hyping of so many young talents, at a far too early point of their careers. I’m now of the opinion that as much of the youth talents as possible, should be protected from the glaring eyes of the media and wider audiences. So we can get on with developing these players quietly.
Players like Morrison and Gribbin became sensations before they even got close to the first team. Two of the most ridiculously talented players I’ve ever seen come through our academy, and two players who amounted to a big heap of nothing. I wonder how much of that was because of the hype going to their heads. What defeated them was in their head, not their feet, and both developed huge attitude problems. In Morrison’s case it was maybe more of his home life and people he was surrounded with, but maybe he’d have been more focused if he felt that he wasn’t a shoe in to “make it”. A sense only fueled by the hype around him. In Callum’s case, it was purely his attitude. He was all over socials at 16, with tons of highlights and endless hyping up of his brilliance. He just stopped working.
Players like Amir, you feel are cut from a different stock. But the more we can do to protect these young lads when they are 14, 15, 16, 17, the better. They shouldn’t be in the public gaze, and they shouldn’t be being touted as the next anything. We all should’ve learned by now that trying to predict how a youth player is going to develop is like trying to read tea leaves.
If we went back 20 years or so and United signed a 15 year old from Arsenal, very few people would actually know about it. Really only those who went to the youth games or had close connections to the club. It certainly wouldn’t be making headlines, and you wouldn’t have people assessing his performances and talking about fast tracking to the first team. There would be whispers and rumours of some prodigy perhaps but that would be about it. I genuinely can’t imagine it’s good for these kids, and they are kids, to be under such scrutiny.
Every generation, there are a handful of players worldwide, who are good enough to make an impact at the top level of men’s football at 16/17/18. Rooney, Fabregas, Messi, Ronaldo, Owen etc. But compare that against the tens of thousands of youth players out there, and it’s a ridiculously small percentage. The vast majority of talented young players aren’t ready to come into a first team environment, in a meaningful, impactful way, until 19, 20, 21 or even 22. But because of our obsession and over exposure to youth football, 22 is almost considered too old for players to make it now. Which is bizarre, when you consider that players like Scholes and Iniesta - all time greats - didn’t even become starting XI regulars until they were 22.
Take for example RVN, he didn’t even start scoring regular goals at a high clip, until he signed for PSV at 22. He moved to a top league for the first time at United at 25. Albeit a year late because of a serious knee injury. Compare that to Hojlund, who is 21, and many are questioning if he’s good enough. He might be, he might not be. But he’s certainly show enough raw material at his age to suggest he’ll end up being a very good striker. Even if he doesn’t hit the heights hoped, it’s sure as shit far too early to tell that now. But because he’s not another Haaland, who was one of this generations outliers, like Lamal, people are ready to write him off. It’s why I think we’d have been better off signing a more experienced CF this summer, to take the pressure off him.
