JJ Gabriel

Gabriel seems pretty clearly on the Greenwood/Pogba level of freaky academy talent. It'll be interesting to see how his game changes as he grows/matures physically, I really see the Neymar comparisons which is scary to say. The ability to comfortably use both feet both dribbling and shooting and combining that with flair and imagination... phew.
 
Anyone got any insights into how the club are feeling in terms of him staying long term,I know before last summer it seemed like he was linked with barca alot and we somehow convinced him to stay. Did we just delay the eventual move or is there hope that he will actually be part of our senior team in five years time.
 
crackers0seven said:
Anyone got any insights into how the club are feeling in terms of him staying long term,I know before last summer it seemed like he was linked with barca alot and we somehow convinced him to stay. Did we just delay the eventual move or is there hope that he will actually be part of our senior team in five years time.
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No insights as such, but I think the signs look good now that he’ll end up in the first team eventually. He’s trained with them a few times and apparently he’s been made all kinds of promises.. I think if he was going to go he would have before last summer when it would have made more sense
 
big_jeffstar said:
No insights as such, but I think the signs look good now that he’ll end up in the first team eventually. He’s trained with them a few times and apparently he’s been made all kinds of promises.. I think if he was going to go he would have before last summer when it would have made more sense.
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I think it's likely he'll get tour minutes and maybe even some cup minutes next year. A similar pathway as Dowman and Nwaneri.
 
I'd like everyone to shut the feck up about him for 12 months or so. Chances are slim.
 
big_jeffstar said:
No insights as such, but I think the signs look good now that he’ll end up in the first team eventually. He’s trained with them a few times and apparently he’s been made all kinds of promises.. I think if he was going to go he would have before last summer when it would have made more sense
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dubplate warrior said:
I think it's likely he'll get tour minutes and maybe even some cup minutes next year. A similar pathway as Dowman and Nwaneri.
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Fingers crossed. Hope he develops to a very high standard and in ten years time we've a academy player wearing number seven and the poster boy of Manchester utd. New stadium,world class Number seven and title charges. One can dream and hope.
 
Still ill said:
I'd like everyone to shut the feck up about him for 12 months or so. Chances are slim.
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Strange thing to post in his thread on a United forum.

we all know there's no certainty he stays this good vs men, but surely you can understand why people are excited to have a potential top tier talent.

I hope he does well and gets his chance.
 
he'll get minutes next year in cup matches....have to give him a taste of the first team so he doesn't get shopped around by his father
 
It’s unfortunate the way football has gone that clubs have to tread carefully about keeping a player rather than what’s doing what’s best for the players development. At 15 he deservedly has huge hype around him and with us not able to offer him a contract we essentially will be put into a bidding war to keep him and could be told we have to put him in the first team next season when he’s probably not ready for it.

Then you have clubs like Dortmund who can and will offer first team football with a view of selling him on for a huge fee and can tell the family and their agent that they will get a cut of it. Not picking on any club. We're no angels either because we took Chido. It's just a sad state of where football is that the development of the player is least prioritised and money comes first.
 
Barring injuries and mentality issues he's going right to the top. Has to be up there, at least in terms of talent, with the best youth players we've ever had.
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
First of all we are talking youth players. Young trainees who were well thought of, had a reputation in the footballing world at a young age and were getting people talking. There were probably 10-12 players who I thought were fabulous to watch, exciting, scored goals, dynamic, different, x-factor type players. 4-5 I just knew (with luck, no injuries etc) were dead certs. They were:

Norman Whiteside, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Wes Brown and Mason Greenwood.

Others were almost dead certs but I thought they lacked something. This is purely personal opinion and others may have seen things differently. I often changed my mind about them from week to week.

Mark Hughes - physical with a magic first touch, he seemed slower and would often be inconsistent for long periods
Paul Scholes - he was very small at first, got bullied a little, had asthma problems. He wasn't part of the 1992 team because of that.
Darren Fletcher - technically brilliant, extraordinary passing game but lacked pace
Guiseppe Rossi - quick, natural goalscorer but seemed one footed and often marked out of games by bigger players
Danny Welbeck - quick, direct, physical but he was like bambi on ice at times and would sulk
Ravel Morrison - had it all in bucketloads but his emotional intelligence off the pitch was always going to be an issue (probably the most naturally talented player I've ever seen at that level).

I am probably missing a player or two here.

The other things that can help/hinder your viewpoint is how strong the others in the team are. If you play in a good team, that can help you as your flaws are covered up by other players but you don't stand out as there are other good players too. Other prospects can look brilliant but that's because they are stand-outs in an average team. Your viewpoint is influenced by making comparisons. The players listed above were all 'standouts' in good/very good teams. A lot of them made their first team debuts early too.

Then there were others where I believed had a chance but certain facets of their game might hold them back so I was never too sure. Players in this category were P. Neville, Pogba, Evans, Pique, Gomes, O'Kane, Curtis, Lingard. Some still had good/great careers but I always had doubts as far as United were concerned. David Beckham is an interesting example in this group. Up until 19/20 he wasn't that special but was a late developer. So as a youth player not really on my radar.

Ones who made it, but I didn't think they would, were the likes of Clayton Blackmore, Lee Martin, Gary Neville, John O'Shea, Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay. I guess the defensive players don't stand out as much in terms of flair, skill etc. Scott was extremely left-field as he was so small at 15-18. I never saw him coming through and it's a testimony to his professionalism and attitude that he's had such a good career. Marcus was the same. He was the type of player who made the difficult transition from reserves to first team look easy. Sometimes you don't know unless you give them a chance.

There have also been plenty of players who I thought would go on to have good careers and they didn't. That has taught me to wait and see before making predictions. Gabriel looks the real deal but I don't think I see him as a 'dead cert'...at least not yet.

But those top five players were obvious to me from the start.
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I don't pop around threads much at all but it's always good to find you around
 
He's definitely better than any other youth prospect I've ever seen at United
 
KM said:
He's definitely better than any other youth prospect I've ever seen at United
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I started following United in the early 90s when Giggs was breaking through so I don't really remember how he was in the youth team but I'd imagine he also had a lot of hype around him.

You then of course have Scholes and Beckham but it feels more like they really came into their own around 20 years old.

Other than that you of course have Ravel Morrison and Greenwood. Even though both were crazy talented I don't think they had such an impact as Gabriel considering his age.

Obviously as mentioned in a previous post we have to be careful with him as injuries or fame going to his head are genuine potential pitfalls, but he definitely feels like he could be a genuinely top player in a few years.
 
Young players sign first pro contract with the age of 18. So, before that any club has a free run to sign him. They only need to pay some small fee for development.

Am i right?
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Young players sign first pro contract with the age of 18. So, before that any club has a free run to sign him. They only need to pay some small fee for development.

Am i right?
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I asked this a while ago but didn't get an answer so did some digging

youth players can be offered a professional contract as part of their scholarship contract at the age of 16, but they can't legally sign the contract until they are 17. I don't know what that means in legal terms though in the sense that if they sign the scholar contract, with the agreement to sign to pro contract, but then the player pulls out and doesn't sign the pro contract they agreed to.

They can also only be offered a 3 year contract at the most when they turn 17. Obviously the way around that is to offer them a new one when they hit 18 for longer terms.

But to answer your other question - yes. If JJ were not to sign a scholar contract with the agreement to a pro-contract, then he'd be able to walk away when his current academy contract runs out for whatever fee the court decides.
 
We need an rvn said:
But to answer your other question - yes. If JJ were not to sign a scholar contract with the agreement to a pro-contract, then he'd be able to walk away when his current academy contract runs out for whatever fee the court decides.
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That's only if he moves to a club in this country, which I think is quite unlikely at this stage. If he were to leave it'd more likely be abroad & that would be for a small amount of training compensation, something like 200k.
 
What’s particularly impressive in those clips is he’s being bounced and buffeted all over the place, but not only maintaining his balance and composure, but using it to his advantage. Only elite dribblers are capable of doing that, both in instinct and understanding of their spatials. It bodes extremely well for him in the adult game - you either foul him, or he’s going to execute what he has in mind. There are handfuls of players per generation who can do this.

Don’t know how we secure him, but we really better do.
 
criticalanalysis said:
Need to fast track no 4 left footed (?) Maguire Jr to the first team soon.
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Dan Armer, great with the ball at his feet, but not blessed with speed or agility, which will most likely stop him from making the step up.
 
Gungerz said:
That's only if he moves to a club in this country, which I think is quite unlikely at this stage. If he were to leave it'd more likely be abroad & that would be for a small amount of training compensation, something like 200k
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Yeah I'd imagine Barca/Real would be frontrunners.

The figure would change to clubs in the UK and dependent on firs team appearances, wouldn't it?
 
pascell said:
Yeah I'd imagine Barca/Real would be frontrunners.

The figure would change to clubs in the UK and dependent on firs team appearances, wouldn't it?
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Not if he moves abroad. Domestically the figure would change depending on his assessed potential so first team experience may increase it

Barcelona definitely are pushing for him.
He met Yamal at the Nou Camp a couple of years ago
 
euv2 said:
Dan Armer, great with the ball at his feet, but not blessed with speed or agility, which will most likely stop him from making the step up.
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I was being facetious but it's hard watching clips and ignore someone with that height, size and deftness on the ball.

 
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