26d
26d
When a young player wants to leave a football club‚ it is a default mechanism in the culture of
English football to blame the kid for being a prima donna with ideas above his station or‚ more often‚ point the finger at a pushy parent or an unscrupulous agent for putting dollar signs ahead of development. And so it has been with JJ
Gabriel. When the news broke on Tuesday afternoon that
Gabriel‚ who is 15-years-old and perhaps the most feted young player at
Manchester United since
Ryan Giggs‚ had asked to leave the club ahead of his 16th birthday next month‚ it was greeted with a mixture of dismay and horror at
Old Trafford. But instead of blaming the kid or his parents or an intermediary‚ or all three‚ the breakdown in r
elations between
Gabriel and the club feels more like yet the latest symbol of the decline of a club that is learning the hard way that more than a decade of mismanagement at the top of the organisation comes with consequences.