Our best young player?

[Cutch]

Just interested in who of all our outstanding young players would you say has the greatest potential?

As its difficult to compare those who play in different positions perhaps it can be re-phrased, who is most likely to become one of the best players in the world in their position and a mainstay of the club for many years to come?

For this exercise i've only included those born in 1989 or later. The candidates:

David De Gea
Rafael Da Silva
Fabio Da Silva
Chris Smalling
Phil Jones
Tom Cleverley
Danny Welbeck

Or if you wanna be really bold, a couple who havn't made their competitive debut yet:

Paul Pogba
Ravel Morrison

Any chance of a poll?

Edit: So far (i think)

Jones 31.83
Smalling 14.33
De Gea 5.5
Welbeck 4.5
Morrison 3.83
Rafael 3.5
Cleverley 2.5
Fabio 1.5
Pogba 0.5

 

[Harold_Giles]

Phil Jones

 

[BAMSOLA]

Danny Welbeck. for me.

 

[Red_Aaron]

'nother for Welbeck

 

[Richter]

Phil Jones.

 

[ha_rooney]

Jones.

 

[Carl]

Fabio.

 

[Roy]

Smalling.

 

[Cal?]

David De Gea

Not shown it yet, but I think he'd be Schmeichel-esque in a few years.

 

[MacMUFC]

Smalling.

 

[MadDogg]

Pure potential - Smalling. Basically has all the strengths of Rio and Vidic in one (huge) man. To such an extent I honestly can't see him achieving that potential as it would mean he'd be one of the greatest central defenders of all time.

 

[Anduin]

That's incredibly hard to say, all of them are outstanding talents, especially the twins, Smalling and Jones.

My vote goes to either Jones and Smalling; Jones just been absolutely amazing so far, far exceeding my expectations. And Smalling played non-league football less than two years ago, and now looks like he'll be a world beater in 1-2 years.

 

[Anderson15]

I rate all our young players but Phil Jones is another level

 

[bergen]

Age-to-impressiveness ratio at the moment has to go to Jones. He's not only playing well but he has that aura and commanding presence that you can never ever manufacture on the training ground.

De Gea will be fantastic soon. I think he'll be solid this year but I could see him really settling next year, and I have no doubts we'll see him look a lot more developed physically next August.

Smalling is pure class and he's the perfect partner for Jones but I think Jones has a bit more of a "grab-the-game-by-it-balls" thing about him.

By the way, we possibly have our first choice back 5 for the next 10 years in that group... How fecking sexy.

 

[kouroux]

It's a toss up between Smalling and Jones

 

[Cutch]

Quite a few different answers already.

Jones 5
Smalling 4
Welbeck 2
Fabio 1
De Gea 1

 

[charlenefan]

Jones

 

[Striker10]

Just interested in who of all our outstanding young players would you say has the greatest potential?

As its difficult to compare those who play in different positions perhaps it can be re-phrased, who is most likely to become one of the best players in the world in their position and a mainstay of the club for many years to come?

For this exercise i've only included those born in 1989 or later. The candidates:

David De Gea
Rafael Da Silva
Fabio Da Silva
Chris Smalling
Phil Jones
Tom Cleverley
Danny Welbeck

Or if you wanna be really bold, a couple who havn't made their competitive debut yet:

Paul Pogba
Ravel Morrison

Any chance of a poll?

There's no right or wrong answer obviously but I think you've missed out a few. It doesn't just stop at Pogba and Morrison when it comes to youth but I think Phil Jones has the potential to be England/Manchester United captain. I like the way he tells people to calm down with gestures on the pitch. I like that he gets stuck in but can drive forward with the ball like Tunnicliffe who is ,for me, cut from the same cloth. I think right now Jones but that shows part of the potential in depth

 

[Big-Red]

Jones

 

[Cutch]

There's no right or wrong answer obviously but I think you've missed out a few. It doesn't just stop at Pogba and Morrison when it comes to youth but I think Phil Jones has the potential to be England/Manchester United captain. I like the way he tells people to calm down with gestures on the pitch. I like that he gets stuck in but can drive forward with the ball like Tunnicliffe who is ,for me, cut from the same cloth. I think right now Jones but that shows part of the potential in depth

I only named a couple because i thought it was unlikely anyone would opt for someone outside of those 9. If i started listing every young player i'd have had to go down as far as the Under 10s!

 

[Makki]

I would say that it's extremely hard to judge players in different positions, because when Rafael and Fabio are fit and on form they look like they could be the best in the world at their respective positions, as do Jones and Smalling. De Gea looks like he could be awesome and his quick and accurate distribution gives us yet another threat, so he has to be judged on his overall contribution. Welbeck has just come into the team and his general play was absolutely fantastic, but Hernandez will surely displace him when both are fit. Cleverley is extremely intelligent in his play and will be a great asset to our new quick passing football.

We also need to remember that two players who just about didn't make the cut (as it seems players born in -89 are the oldest) are Anderson and Hernandez who both have been absolutely brilliant when playing this season.

If I have to choose, it has to be Jones. We need to remember that Jones is three (!) years younger than Smalling, and two years younger than the Da Silvas, who are the youngest in that list after him, and performs the way he does.

Edit: feck me, what a squad we have. This could be the best team of their generation in only a couple of years if they're allowed to stick together and don't suffer from any major injuries.

 

[bergen]

There's no right or wrong answer obviously but I think you've missed out a few. It doesn't just stop at Pogba and Morrison when it comes to youth but I think Phil Jones has the potential to be England/Manchester United captain. I like the way he tells people to calm down with gestures on the pitch. I like that he gets stuck in but can drive forward with the ball like Tunnicliffe who is ,for me, cut from the same cloth. I think right now Jones but that shows part of the potential in depth

I loved Jones reaction after Rooney's second goal yesterday. It felt like a "I'm glad the team scored, I should have done better though, next time I'll score or make a direct assist and won't have to rely on a bad parry from the effin' keeper"

 

[Striker10]

I only named a couple because i thought it was unlikely anyone would opt for someone outside of those 9. If i started listing every young player i'd have had to go down as far as the Under 10s!

No harm in that is there? After all, you do what an accurate point of view?

 

[Berlinknives]

De Gea

 

[Zarlak]

Jones.

Jones is 3 years younger than Smalling, so to anyone saying Smalling, in 3 years time will Jones be better than Smalling is today? In my opinion I think so, so I'd have to say Jones.

 

[Anderson8]

The fact that this is so hard, really proves just in how good stead we are, any club in the world would love to have these youngsters.

I'll say Smalling, but only because I've seen him perform consistently for us for over a season now.

 

[Cutch]

I loved Jones reaction after Rooney's second goal yesterday. It felt like a "I'm glad the team scored, I should have done better though, next time I'll score or make a direct assist and won't have to rely on a bad parry from the effin' keeper"

It was like ''Here everybody, did you just see that run? I'm the fecking man!''

No harm in that is there? After all, you do what an accurate point of view?

You can send me an updated list sure

 

[rotherham_red]

Morrison - hasn't changed one bit from the 15 year old tyro he was in the FA Youth Cup, and still is on the verge of the first team...

 

[Raven Blade]

I'd really like to see what Pogba and Morrison can do in addition to the brilliance of the youngsters at the moment. I believe they would make this question more difficult to answer in due time.

For now i've got to say what Jones is doing at his age is the most impressive thing of them all. Smalling would be a close second for me because he hasn't had the same footballing experience, but his rise has been meteoric.

 

[decorativeed]

I'm going to go with Smalling, mainly because of how good he was last season and also because he has had a good number of games under his belt now that I feel confident to judge his ability. He just seems so confident and assured.

 

[Diabo_Sam]

Jones

 

[RedRonaldo]

Jones

 

[Snow]

This season I've been most impressed by Jones and Cleverley. So I'm going to say Tom Jones. Or just Cleverley.

Got a feeling that in a few years our main asset of them all will be De Gea though.

 

[kouroux]

I would say that it's extremely hard to judge players in different positions, because when Rafael and Fabio are fit and on form they look like they could be the best in the world at their respective positions, as do Jones and Smalling. De Gea looks like he could be awesome and his quick and accurate distribution gives us yet another threat, so he has to be judged on his overall contribution. Welbeck has just come into the team and his general play was absolutely fantastic, but Hernandez will surely displace him when both are fit. Cleverley is extremely intelligent in his play and will be a great asset to our new quick passing football.

We also need to remember that two players who just about didn't make the cut (as it seems players born in -89 are the oldest) are Anderson and Hernandez who both have been absolutely brilliant when playing this season.

If I have to choose, it has to be Jones. We need to remember that Jones is three (!) years younger than Smalling, and two years younger than the Da Silvas, who are the youngest in that list after him, and performs the way he does.

Edit: feck me, what a squad we have. This could be the best team of their generation in only a couple of years if they're allowed to stick together and don't suffer from any major injuries.

Huge overestimation of them

 

[Cutch]

Surprised theres so few votes for De Gea and Rafael. If this was asked about 6 months ago i think Rafael would have the most votes and has done nothing wrong since except being injured. In De Geas case he would appear to have the least obstructed path to first team football where the rest all have world class players to shift inorder to get a game.

 

[711]

Smalling. Not Welbeck.

 

[Drainy]

This season I've been most impressed by Jones and Cleverley. So I'm going to say Tom Jones. Or just Cleverley.

Got a feeling that in a few years our main asset of them all will be De Gea though.

What's new pussycat?

But yeah, Phil Jones seems like an exceptional talent and is probably the one you can say is best at the moment.

 

[Brwned]

Morrisson as potentially the best, Jones is the safest bet of all of them to make it at the top level I think. So Jones.

 

[Erictheking7]

Potentially De Gea, Jones and Pogba will be world class. Smalling could be and the Da Silvas, Welbeck and Cleverly will be in a group of players somewhere between International class and world class.
For me either De Gea or Jones will become our most important player for the future.

 

[Excal]

David De Gea
Rafael Da Silva
Fabio Da Silva
Chris Smalling
Phil Jones
Tom Cleverley
Danny Welbeck

Trying to pick the best of that lot is trying to figure which of Giggs, Scholes, Becks, the Nevilles et cetera would come out best. I just love that we're going to have these players for so long. Those seven names plus the group of age 23-26 players Anderson, Nani, Young, Valencia, Rooney and Hernandez. This is our own private Golden Generation.