I've been advocating him getting a chance since his first year with us, and have always found it strange how long it has taken for him to be involved. After a few shaky months, he was excellent for the 21s even in his first season, and with Rafael injured at times, I kept assuming it was only natural for him to play, but he never did. I recall Phil Neville name-checking him once, but nothing came of it - but it was clear he was a first team player to me.
He also cost us nearly £3m, so I always thought that we signed him to play him anyway. His journey to the first-team has been odd. I mean, signed for relatively big money, impresses in reserves, then loaned to fecking Real Madrid (not Scunthorpe!) all before his debut.
And despite him being slight, he's also an excellent defender, and will only get better at it. He's so tenacious, and has been amongst our best defenders in all of his games. Against Wolfsburg particularly, he bailed us out many times, and won many tackles.