There is a new fashion on social media, that when someone young in sport achieves something of note, those of us of a certain age rush to make a reference point linking the sportsperson’s date of birth with a cultural reference that our peers will understand.
You’ll instantly recognise an example: “Winner X was born after the launch of the PlayStation 3”.
What we’re really saying is: “Doesn’t the mind play tricks and oh god we’re all getting old, time is accelerating towards us like a speeding truck.”
Anyway, onto business: Lewis Miley was born after Alan Shearer’s last appearance for Newcastle United and he’s now apparently old enough to hold his own away to Paris Saint-Germain. I know, awful isn’t it.
Except that Miley isn’t old enough, obviously. He only signed his first professional contract six months ago. He has started four senior matches. He is a boy with a boy’s face. It’s a good job that Newcastle put him on the back row for their pre-match team photo in Paris, or you might have mistaken him for a mascot.
The most arresting aspect of watching excellent, extremely young footballers playing in first teams is the maturity of their decision making. To an extent, you expect the dashes of pace and twinkle-toed skill; every elite academy produces technical footballers because England has undergone a development revolution over the last decade.
But the intangible stuff – that’s a different beast entirely. Look at the way Miley drops back when Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton have both pushed up. See how his fake run, never in hope of receiving the ball, opened up space in the build-up to Alexander Isak’s goal in Paris. Watch how he has three passing options and tends to pick the right one every time.
This may all sound like overkill, unnecessarily reaching for praise. To which we would say: yes, you’re probably right. But did we mention that he’s 17 years old? What were you doing at 17, eh? Actually, don’t answer that.
If we try to process all this, it’s worth saying that there are few better teams out there to walk into as a young pup. There is a team spirit, resilience and general movement of good vibes around Newcastle United that makes a kid beg for a part in the party.
Around Miley, Joelinton runs like an enthusiastic Labrador and Guimaraes protects the ball as if it is his only possession. There is beauty and brains and brawn to help you settle in.
Little of this has come by design, and certainly not at this speed. Newcastle’s Champions League campaign has brought with it great promise of what they might achieve during future springs, but it has also meant overtime for club physios who are dealing with an unprecedented backlog. Eddie Howe is without 14 senior players and would evidently have preferred more at his reach.
Miley was always rated, one of those youngsters who gets academy coaches nattering to their senior colleagues over steaming cups of milky tea at the side of pitches.
There is a reason why he wasn’t loaned out this summer, and was withdrawn from England’s Under-17 European Championship campaign in May. Miley came on for his debut against Chelsea instead, Howe wanting him around. But it was never meant to come to this, not 90 minutes in Paris in November.
But is that not how distant dreams come true? Ask Marcus Rashford, who only got his debut because of an injury crisis exacerbated by Anthony Martial getting injured in the warm-up. Every academy player relies partly upon their talent and partly on happy happenstance and minor tweaks of fate. This could all have come too quickly for Miley. But when you prove yourself ready to welcome your chance as if it were the most natural step, you have merited fate falling your way.
There are no guarantees for Miley now. The list of the 15 youngest English appearance makers in the Champions League (with him at No 6) contains Stefan O’Connor (now a medical negligence paralegal and start-up investor) and Jude Bellingham (now at Real Madrid) and most things in between.
Potential is both everything and nothing all at once, a full cup and an empty shell depending on what comes next.
But boy, the boy has talent. They have known this for a while, first in Stanley and then at Darsley Park and now across Newcastle. And for all your billions and state owners, it is those bright-eyed academy kids like Miley who evaporate the concerns about the creep of homogeneity. That only makes him doubly special.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/93jKEDu
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