Manchester United starlet Ayden Heaven has thrown down the gauntlet to his rivals - without much evidence to back it up
Ayden Heaven
Ayden Heaven has thrown down the gauntlet to Manchester United's rivals
Heaven above - what was he thinking?
Because one comfortable win over the worst team in the Premier League doesn’t make Manchester United world beaters.
Nor will the result have the rest of United’s rivals running scared. But this didn’t stop Ayden Heaven from throwing down the gauntlet to the rest, in the wake of United’s 4-1 triumph at Molineux.
Perhaps it was the exuberance of youth? Heaven is only 19, after all.
Perhaps he got carried away, still high on the emotion of helping his team score four goals in a game for just the second time this season. Albeit against opponents who have conceded 40 of them in just 18 games in all competitions this season.
Or perhaps it was another example of how there is still that unjustified sense of entitlement and arrogance at a club where genuine success is expected - but cannot be achieved.
"I don't think anyone can stop us when we play like this,” said Heaven, with a straight face. “We’ve just got to do what we did in every game.
"Hopefully we can be in Europe next season, which I think we'll do. That's where Manchester United belong."
United don’t ‘belong’ in Europe. They don’t belong anywhere. Memo to Heaven. United are just like every other club, in the sense they have no divine right to be in the Champions League or at the top of the Premier League.
Most people bang on about Leeds United being a club which belongs in the top flight. But this didn’t stop them spending years in the Championship, did it?
The privilege of competing at the highest level at home and abroad has to be earned.
Which is why Heaven & Co are spending their midweeks this season with nothing better to do than watching games in the Champions and Europa League on TV - instead of playing in them.
Ayden Heaven
Ayden Heaven in action for United(Image: Getty Images)
For his sake, it can only be hoped that the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City have been too focused on more important matters this week, to miss what Heaven said.
For the record, the last time United beat someone by scoring goals, they failed to win their next three games. Heaven is still a teenager, feeling his way as a professional footballer at one of the world’s most high profile clubs.
He’s started just four league games for United.
In other words, he’s still got a long way to go, just like his team does, before being in a position of being able to make such bullish statements.
He’s still got a lot to learn - and might well have to do this the hard way.
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