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Nicky Butt has identified the most promising player at Manchester United’s academy, and he certainly looks like a star in the making.
Angel Gomes is the youngest player to ever score a hat-trick for United’s U-18 side, and only recently turned 16. According Butt, the former United midfielder who is currently the head of coaching at the club’s academy, Gomes is the brightest of a talented bunch at Butt’s disposal.
“It’s ridiculous. I look at the kids and they’re miles better than I was at their age – technically, ” Butt said in a wide-ranging interview in The Times.
“We’ve got some unbelievable players. Angel Gomes [a 16-year-old midfielder] is a young talented player we’ve massive hopes for.”
Gomes, wearing number 10, does Butt’s prediction justice in this clip, although there’s no guarantee the most promising player at 16 will be a world-beater at 20.
ICYMI: Our U18s are flying! Ten goals in two games, including this effort from Angel Gomes… #MUFC https://t.co/kfqGcOdSgd
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 6, 2016
Butt also offered insight into his own time at United, and picked out Juan Sebastian Veron as being, other than Eric Cantona, the best footballer he played alongside at United.
Veron joined United from Lazio in 2001 for £28.1m, but struggled to live-up to expectations at Old Trafford and left for Chelsea just two seasons later.
Butt claims his struggles at United were due to a culture clash, with fans preferring a more direct style rather than Veron’s more measured passing style and that the Argentine couldn’t hack the pace of the Premier League.
“There have been superstars who’ve come to this club and can’t live with it,” the former midfielder said.
“Juan Veron comes to mind. Veron was the best player I’ve ever seen, except Cantona. In training he was like something I’d never seen. I was suspended against Everton [in 2001], he played and I sat there and thought: ‘I’ll never play for United again, that’s me done. I’ll have to get a move’.
“But as much as Veron was a great lad, and an unbelievable footballer, he didn’t know what it meant to be a United player. He didn’t know the feeling of the club. He couldn’t handle the pace, the tempo. The fans didn’t want the little rollovers, the technical outside of the foot passes.
“They wanted blood and thunder, give it to Peter Schemeichel, throw it out to (Ryan) Giggs, attack, attack, attack. Players need to know that.”
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