It’s not easy being a young prodigy in modern football.
After all, if you think you’re good enough to play regular first-team football at 17, why should you have to wait?
Take Jadon Sancho for example.
The now former Manchester City youth product wanted to feature now, but knew this would be difficult under Pep Guardiola, what with all the options at his disposal, leading to him moving to Borussia Dortmund, where he was given the number seven shirt, hinting he is set to become an important part of the Bundesliga club.
The problem is, because this decision seems to have paid off for Sancho (only time will tell if it actually does), this means that every time a talented youngster at an English club doesn’t sign a deal when he was ‘supposed to’, the media will be all over it.
The latest happens to be yet another Manchester based talent, but this time at United: Angel Gomes.
Making his Old Trafford debut last season against Crystal Palace during the final game of the season by replacing Wayne Rooney, the 17-year-old is widely seen as one of the brightest youngsters at Manchester United’s academy, much like a certain Paul Pogba was when he was in a similar situation.
The Frenchman is another fine example of what could happen if the Red Devils don’t manage to get Angel Gomes to sign a new contract, which is why The Sun, in their latest exclusive, use him as the reason why the Premier League side are ‘panicking’ about Gomes.
However, the situations are currently a bit different.
Pogba wanted to play, and there was certainly reason for him to believe he should be given a shot considering Sir Alex Ferguson’s reluctance to sign midfielders left a gaping hole in his squad for someone like the now France international.
As for Gomes, while undeniably talented, players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata stand in his way to the first-team.
What’s also very interesting in all of this is the fact Barcelona are said to be tracking the situation, yet the Catalan media, like Mundo Deportivo, are only just learning about it via The Sun’s article.
We say this because when Paul Pogba was being linked with a move to Juventus when his situation arose back in 2012, it was the Italian press pushing the story.
Surely if Barcelona were indeed tracking Gomes enough to instil fear in the Manchester United board, someone at Sport or the aforementioned Mundo, who love nothing more than talk about La Masia, would have heard about it?
Of course, this could also be someone in the player’s entourage using The Sun to promote ‘Barcelona interest’ in hope of pressuring the club into more money.
Who knows?
While it can be seen as worrying that the young attacking midfielder hasn’t signed a new contract, there’s also a lot of football to be played in the coming months, and there’s every chance he’ll get more than one opportunity over the course of the season.
José Mourinho already showed his admiration for his talent by bringing him on against Crystal Palace back in May, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was also part of the squad to face Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
