Premier Ponderings: Handling young players
Nothing excites football fans
quite like a wunderkind. Those
magical teenagers who can take to
the pitch against full-grown men
and look not only undaunted, but
like they’ve been doing it for years.
Some of the sport’s biggest names began their careers the same way; Lionel Messi the most obvious example as he was tearing up La Liga defenses at the tender age of 17 and hasn’t looked back once.
But for every young man that hits the dizzying heights of stardom, there are just as many, if not more that have slipped up and fallen into obscurity, players like Bojan Kirkic who is now playing his trade at Stoke City after looking like Barcelona’s “next big thing,” or Michael Owen, who scored 100 goals by the time he was 21, but spent the last six years of his career stagnant, either on the treatment table or on the bench.
Which brings us to the big question, what is the best way to go about handling a young talent, in order to mold them into the worldclass players they clearly have the capability of being. Some of the more differing examples in the last season come in the form of Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling, and Manchester United’s Luke Shaw, two of the highest rated 19-year-olds in the Premier League, and two examples of the differing paths to stardom.
Beginning with Shaw, the left back made his name over the last two season playing for Southampton F.C., making 60 league appearances in total and contributing to The Saints’ impressive league season, which led to the team being somewhat dismantled at the hands of some of the league’s bigger teams.
These performances last season led Manchester United to lay out a staggering £30 million for his services, seeing him as a solution to their recent defensive woes, and he was promptly injured in preseason, recovering to make a single appearance before another knock sent him to the treatment table.
So there you have path one, make a name for yourself at a smaller team and wait for one of the big boys to come swoop for your services, and while it may not have worked out well for Shaw so far, there are many years left for this deal to bear fruit.
On the other hand, Raheem Sterling took a more traditional, yet also more uncommon journey to the first team, being signed by the Liverpool Academy at the age of 15 for the nominal fee of £600,000 and thrown in among the pool of like aged youth players, where he quickly made a name for himself as one of the best young players the club had.
A five-goal performance for the reserves quickly caused the supporters to take notice, but it would be over a year from then until he would be seen lining up among the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. When he did, however, he seemed right at home with his blistering pace and tricky feet proving to be a great asset to his team, and an eye for goal helped Liverpool in the team’s title challenge last year.
Now Sterling is rumoured to be being offered a contract worth hundreds of thousands a week, a just reward for his hard work and his incredible development, as he now finds himself as one of the first names on the Liverpool and England teamsheet, and representing the future of the nation, providing he’s handled with care.
Some of the sport’s biggest names began their careers the same way; Lionel Messi the most obvious example as he was tearing up La Liga defenses at the tender age of 17 and hasn’t looked back once.
But for every young man that hits the dizzying heights of stardom, there are just as many, if not more that have slipped up and fallen into obscurity, players like Bojan Kirkic who is now playing his trade at Stoke City after looking like Barcelona’s “next big thing,” or Michael Owen, who scored 100 goals by the time he was 21, but spent the last six years of his career stagnant, either on the treatment table or on the bench.
Which brings us to the big question, what is the best way to go about handling a young talent, in order to mold them into the worldclass players they clearly have the capability of being. Some of the more differing examples in the last season come in the form of Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling, and Manchester United’s Luke Shaw, two of the highest rated 19-year-olds in the Premier League, and two examples of the differing paths to stardom.
Beginning with Shaw, the left back made his name over the last two season playing for Southampton F.C., making 60 league appearances in total and contributing to The Saints’ impressive league season, which led to the team being somewhat dismantled at the hands of some of the league’s bigger teams.
These performances last season led Manchester United to lay out a staggering £30 million for his services, seeing him as a solution to their recent defensive woes, and he was promptly injured in preseason, recovering to make a single appearance before another knock sent him to the treatment table.
So there you have path one, make a name for yourself at a smaller team and wait for one of the big boys to come swoop for your services, and while it may not have worked out well for Shaw so far, there are many years left for this deal to bear fruit.
On the other hand, Raheem Sterling took a more traditional, yet also more uncommon journey to the first team, being signed by the Liverpool Academy at the age of 15 for the nominal fee of £600,000 and thrown in among the pool of like aged youth players, where he quickly made a name for himself as one of the best young players the club had.
A five-goal performance for the reserves quickly caused the supporters to take notice, but it would be over a year from then until he would be seen lining up among the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. When he did, however, he seemed right at home with his blistering pace and tricky feet proving to be a great asset to his team, and an eye for goal helped Liverpool in the team’s title challenge last year.
Now Sterling is rumoured to be being offered a contract worth hundreds of thousands a week, a just reward for his hard work and his incredible development, as he now finds himself as one of the first names on the Liverpool and England teamsheet, and representing the future of the nation, providing he’s handled with care.
