Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Ryan Giggs has labelled JJ Gabriel as being a generational talent, but considering his own experiences, he should know to tone it down.
Manchester United face a challenge in the next 12 to 18 months of keeping JJ Gabriel grounded amid swelling attention across the footballing world.
But the efforts to do this are not being helped by the current media narrative around the 15-year-old from club legends.
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Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Ryan Giggs should know better than heaping superlatives at JJ Gabriel
Speaking on the latest episode of Rio Meets, Giggs hailed JJ Gabriel as being ‘generational’
“In my view, JJ is sort of a generational talent”, the legendary United winger declared.
This is, of course, high praise for the 15-year-old, but it won’t be what the club wants to hear.
Everyone knows Gabriel is a generational talent, but the club could do without having it discussed by two legends on arguably the most quoted and clipped United podcast in the world right now.
Both have good intentions, but United want to protect Gabriel from the publicity and attention, considering his age, with comments like this only serving to bolster the profile of the wonderkid.
United are keen to avoid pushing Gabriel too early into the media, allowing him to develop out of the spotlight as much as possible, which isn’t aided by ‘generational’ calls from Giggs.
The Welshman himself should also know better, having once been in the same shoes as Gabriel. But back then, Giggs didn’t face the pressures of social media and widespread media attention, such as Fabrizio Romano clearly taking an interest in everything to do with him, without really caring about the impact.
Giggs was protected by Sir Alex Ferguson early in his development, but right now, it doesn’t look as though Gabriel is getting the same treatment from anyone at the club to tell these voices to tone it down and not create an overwhelming pressure on the 15-year-old.
Of course, Gabriel appears to be mentally strong and has handled every pressure and step up with ease, taking it all in his stride so far. But it won’t make his hoped rise to the top any easier.
The hype needs to be quelled because he is still so young.
JJ Gabriel attention will soon be unavoidable for Manchester United
As much as club greats should be looking to help protect Gabriel, it will soon become unavoidable that he is heralded.
This is because Gabriel is shining for the U21s, which is currently making him impossible to ignore for Michael Carrick, with first-team opportunities being afforded to him more and more regularly.
The attention on Gabriel will be fever pitch when he makes his first senior appearance for the club either this month or further down the line.
So it makes sense for the club to protect him as long as possible, as soon the cat will be out of the bag for the whole sport to have eyes on him.