There used to be a time when we would gawk in wide eyed wonder as a precocious teenager burst onto the scene shredding experienced defenders and delivering a finish that belied their tender years. Now we seem to expect it.
There was talk recently of Theo Walcott not fulfilling his early promise and that perhaps Wenger had misjudged the extent of his ability. An uninformed observer would have been forgiven for thinking that the little wing wizard was now well into his twenties but the reality is that he is still a teenager and won't turn twenty until next march. An insatiable demand for success of course is nothing new to the football world. We have been placing that requiement on managerial appointments for years and it's a condition that only becomes more chronic by the season but as this lack of patience (and arguably lack of foresight) reaches epidemic proportions, is it damaging the development of our brightest talents?
Already at Manchester United this season we have seen a steady yet increasingly vociferous chorus of criticism lambasting some of the clubs younger and higher profile imports. Nani in particular has been singled out with many seeing his inconsistent performances as being nothing short of an affront to the club and its fanbase. But when the player in question is twenty two years old and hasn't been given anything like a consistent run in the first team, whilst playing only his second season in a foreign division, is it not the criticism itself that is an affront to the good reputation of the club? A reputation after all that is built on the very thing we are in danger of killing.
Some of the best players in the history of this illustrious football club have only gone on to be recognised as such because of the vision and patience of their manager. Would Paul Scholes be the old trafford legend he is today had Sir Alex Ferguson gone with popular opinion and discarded him based on his early performances? Many United fans seem to think that the double winning year which marked the breakthrough of 'Fergie's Fledglings', after a summer marked in memory by the contentious sales of Kanchelskis, Ince and Hughes, was the first we saw of those young players. Reality however paints a different picture. A certin young red headed man with a soft touch and short build had already made many appearances for United, mainly as a substitiute, and despite winning plaudits on occasion by the more informed of united observers, he was by and large vilified by most of the United faithful who were appalled at the thought of this lad becoming a first team regular. "Buy, buy, buy" was the call. A call repeated even more fervently the following summer. Yet what the manager saw in training and what he had seen in this youngsters' development told him that he had a star in the making. Why is it therefore that a club with a history of embracing youth development and molding it into a successful team, a club that truly revels in the development of its own players more than any other in a proud tradition that stems back to the legacy of the Busby babes, is still showing such petty minded impetuosuness for some of its current young talents? Perhaps it is because they are foreign.
Then again, maybe not. Just look at the abuse suffered by the likes of Darren Fletcher and John O'shea in recent years from an alarming large section of the United 'faithful'. Faithful they may be but enlightened they are not. One of the things that defines a club like United and has been an essential ingredient in the building and maintaining of a winning dynasty, has been the reinforcement and passing on of it's identity from squad generation to squad generation. Home grown players who not only understand what it means to be 'United' through and through but who are also willing to be a selfless part of the team have been critical to Sir Alex Ferguson's success. These are the players who are willing to put their own ambition and prospect of first team football on the back seat in order to make a selfless contribution towards the success of the club. Neither Fletcher nor O'shea will be spoken of in revential tones once their time has passed but their role as squad players, and very capable ones at that, has been grossly underestimated by some of the more reactionary and less analytical members of our fan base. One only needs to go to a message board after a galling defeat to see the nonsensical scapegoatism that takes place. Predictably it is always the same victims.
And now we have a new one. Nani. According to one blog I read in the last few days he is fit to be "thrown out on his ear and is a disgrace to the club". But why? Because by now he should be putting in world class performances? At what point though are we actually going to step back and temper our expectations by framing them within a more humanistic context? When are we going to remind ourselves that these are human beings with all the personal foibles that that entails rather than just statistics in Championship Manager or a set of revelatory clips on Youtube? Take Nani fir example. Here is a young man who recieved little formal education and came from an excrutiatingly poor background. The sort of poverty most of us in Western Europe are lucky enough to never have to experience or likely even witness. Most in his situation would have ened in a dead end job (if he was lucky), no job or worse jail. Yet Nani, by walking miles every day (as there was no car) was supporting his entire family at age 15 once he signed papers with Sporting Lisbon. His family was blighted by racism having emigrated to Portugal from Cape Verde but yet by the age of 20 and with only one and a half seasons of first team football under his belt he was swept off to a foreign land and into the most competitive and media hyped club environments in the world. He didn't speak the language and the man who brought him there, a man whom he quickly identifed as being a father figure and the only senior member of the club he signed for who spoke his native language, left merely a year after his arrival. Are we really therefore, in all our arrogance, that surpised that he is finding going a little tough?
In a football world where youth is constantly forced to perform immediately or wilt away in reserves or on a lesser stage, can United and their fans not stand up once again for rationality, progress and decency? Nani may never blossom into the player we hope him to be but isn't it still far too early to be making any sort of a judgement to the contrary not least because it adds to the already significant pressure placed on his development. It really does a disservice to ourselves, the player, the legacy of the Busby youth policy and our collective club ambitions.
Thankfully there is one man amongst us who has shown the patience, wisdom and pedigree to identify and nurture young players, as well as know when it is time to move them on. Thankfully for us he, and not 'Joe united' is still in charge.
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