Ryan Giggs has cast his verdict on Manchester United’s 15-year-old talent JJ Gabriel.
While it is hard not to get excited about some of the prospects in Manchester United’s academy, the club must try to contain some of the hype that surrounds its young players.
At the age of 15, JJ Gabriel has been tipped for a first-team debut this season. That would be a remarkable feat for the youngster, who continues to impress in the academy, performing like a player well beyond his years.
Gabriel was voted Premier League U18 Player of the Year last season and featured in Michael Carrick’s side during pre-season.
Ryan Giggs hails JJ Gabriel as potential ‘generational talent’
Ryan Giggs features as a special guest on Rio Ferdinand Presents, and he made a big comparison between Gabriel and United’s top scorer Wayne Rooney.
The conversation moved on to Gabriel as Ferdinand revealed what he noticed when watching the young midfielder train with Carrick’s side.
This was when Giggs made the comparison to Rooney.
“That sounds like Wayne, doesn’t it? Just give me the ball, give me the ball,” Giggs said.
“You know, just I don’t care who I’m training with.”
When asked what Gabriel needs to do in the first team right now, Giggs said: “You need to play. You need to play games and it’s difficult because if you’re in squads for the first team, you’re not going to sort of turn that down. But also you need minutes on the pitch.
“But he’s at the best club because the history of young players coming through and how they’re looked after. And he’s got good people around him, obviously, who’ve played at the club, you know, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans, all these players have been at the club. You know, a couple of them have come through. So he’s at the right club.”
Ferdinand queried whether it would be a good idea to send Gabriel on loan to gain experience at the senior level, but Giggs believes he is a generational talent who should be kept at United for his development rather than sent elsewhere.
“Well, I think he is sort of a generational talent,” Giggs added.
“He’s got to stay. There’s no point in going out on loan because he’s at the best place and he’d be dipping in and out of the first team. So that experience is invaluable. You know, not only the games and the training, but actually travelling with the team, seeing the expectation of Man United, you’re seeing all sort of, the focus is so huge on Manchester United. You need to get used to that.
“I think you go on loan when you’re 19, 20, not, you know, the next few years. You expect him to, if he’s going the same way, to be in the first team soon as a regular, not just dipping in and out.
“Sometimes you have to be patient. Sometimes it gets to a point where you just can’t not pick him and not have him train in the first team. You know, it gets to a stage where sometimes that might be in a month, might be six months, might be a year. It’s that in-between time where he thinks he should be in the first team. He thinks he should be in the squad every week. Well, actually, Michael sees it a different way that actually, no, you need to play games because it’s not really going to do you any good travelling here, there and everywhere and you’re getting five minutes here, ten minutes there.”
- ⚡️ KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Ryan Giggs believes JJ Gabriel could be a generational talent
- The former Manchester United captain compared Gabriel’s mentality to Wayne Rooney
- Rio Ferdinand was impressed by Gabriel after watching the 15-year-old train with United’s first team
Sir Alex Ferguson told Ryan Giggs to ‘calm down’ after tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo
There was no lack of competitiveness in the United dressing room when Sir Alex Ferguson was manager.
Giggs revealed that he was once told off by Ferguson after an aggressive training tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo.
Speaking about Ronaldo’s arrival at Old Trafford, he said: “Yeah, I don’t recall saying too much to him. I remember actually it was a real aggressive tackle in training on him. And the manager had a go at me. It was winter, and he’s come across and he’s running with the ball. And I slide tackled him and he went flying.
“And I remember the manager going to me, Ryan, calm down. I was like, no, he’s got to pass the ball. He’s got to pass the ball. He’s took too many touches.
“But Ronnie was tough. I knew that he could take it. And all of a sudden the penny dropped. You know, he wasn’t diving as much. He wasn’t taking too many touches. It’s obviously well documented, you know, Ruud just getting the hump because there was too many stepovers. He’s waiting for a cross. He’s making a run to the near post and the ball just wasn’t coming.
“Finally, those sort of things, the penny dropped, that actually touch out my feet, cross it next time, dribble. So them sort of changing the way that he approached the game rather than just dribbling every time, which in Portugal he was used to doing growing up. He was used to doing because he could beat everyone. But coming to Premier League and the Champions League is a little bit more difficult.”
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