Premier League prepares for kick-off with young talent waiting to shine

Long before it arrives you can hear the Premier League approach.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho gives some advice to young striker Marcus Rashford. Picture: AFP

Long before it arrives you can hear the Premier League approach. The voice is Jose Mourinho’s and 4800km of Atlantic Ocean couldn’t take the edge off his words. Antonio Valencia had ­returned for pre-season training carrying “too much holiday”. Jose always had a way with words.

Before this, Valencia had been considered the model professional, the human embodiment of George Orwell’s horse Boxer in Animal Farm. “I will work harder, Napoleon is always right,” Boxer used to say. Now it seems United’s Boxer is struggling with his inner Luke Shaw. He will indeed be working harder.

Mourinho was at his most raspish in his dismissal of the 4-1 loss to Liverpool in last weekend’s friendly in Michigan. Injuries and the late return of many World Cup players had forced the manager to field too many academy players. “The majority of the players who played are not going to play [this season] — some of them are not going to belong to the squad,” he said.

What did that say about the game? “I wouldn’t have come,” Mourinho said. “I wouldn’t spend my money to see these teams.”

That seemed a fair enough point and downright funny when set against the 101,254 people who had paid to watch it.

As for Liverpool, Mourinho ruefully remarked upon Jurgen Klopp’s change of heart over paying huge transfer fees for top players. Scrooge has become a big spender but that’s OK, said Jose, we’re all entitled to change. Now, though, Klopp’s team need to win.

“You have to demand and say the team — with the investments you are making last season and you make now, that will probably be the record of the Premier League this season, a team that was a finalist in the Champions League — you have to say you are a big candidate. You have to win,” said Mourinho.

The part that’s most loveable about Mourinho is the selectivity. Everything that is self-serving is embraced. All that is unhelpful is ignored. So there can be no reference to what Manchester United have spent on players during the two years of the Portuguese’s reign. It amounts to £382.5 million ($673m) and when income from players sold is taken into account, United’s net spend since the summer of 2016 is £302m. In the same period Liverpool’s net spend was £114m.

Ah well, Jose reminds us that the circus is about to roll into town again. Chelsea’s Willian says he loves London and has no wish to leave the club. He missed the deadline for his return to the club by five days only because he’d failed to notice his passport was out of date. That’s not the same as the dog ate his passport, but it’s up there.

If that wasn’t enough, there was the allegation that an unnamed party had forged a letter of consent allowing Willian to be transferred from Chelsea. The player said he would sue. As much as you admired the way Eden Hazard played at the World Cup, it was a disappointment that barely had the Belgium side he captained beaten England in the third-place playoff game than he was angling for a move to Real Madrid. Time and a place for everything. That wasn’t the moment. He will be missed when/if he goes.

The best reason to savour the coming of the new season is the hope that more managers will trust young, home-produced players.

Gareth Southgate’s England side in Russia restored the faith of a disaffected public in their team and did so through their youth and enthusiasm. We liked them also because they weren’t cynical and hadn’t been put so high on football’s pedestal that they could no longer see the ground.

There was a point about John Stones’ performances at the World Cup that was unmissable. Partly through injury and then hesitant performances on his ­return from injury, Stones did not have a good season with Manchester City. At a critical point Pep Guardiola didn’t trust him and in the hierarchy of the team’s centre-backs Stones slipped to fourth. Southgate, you might have thought, had a decision to make about his centre-back. That’s not how England’s manager saw it. From the moment the squad ­assembled, it was clear his faith in Stones was absolute. He was to Southgate what Nicolas Otamendi has been to Guardiola, the rock upon which he built his defence.

Just as Otamendi did at City, Stones became the heart of ­England’s defence. On the pitch he was the side’s most impressive leader and close to its best player. Without Guardiola’s influence, Otamendi was unsure and unimpressive at the centre of Argentina’s defence. The point here is not difficult to fathom: players thrive when they have their manager’s full backing.

Stones started more games for England last season than he did Premier League games for his club. If this is to be an ideal Premier League season, Marcus Rashford will start more games for Manchester United and, when he does, he won’t be looking towards the technical area trying to gauge Mourinho’s level of disapproval. Rashford needs to protect the ball better and has to show more awareness when defending, but most all he needs opportunity and his manager’s trust.

So, too, Ruben Loftus-Cheek needs Maurizio Sarri on his side, seeing what he can do and not just the bits he still has to master. Loftus-Cheek has said that if he’s not going to be playing, he’d rather go to a club where he would. That’s the attitude young players need. Sarri’s got two 17-year-olds who may be special, the forward Callum Hudson-Odoi and the central defender Ethan Ampadu.

Ampadu is already a Wales international and made 12 appearances for Chelsea last season. Next month he turns 18. Sari says Chelsea fans shouldn’t expect to see much of them this season and while that’s realistic, it would be nice if the manager showed more enthusiasm for the club’s best young players.

Luke Amos and Oliver Skipp will get opportunities this season because Mauricio Pochettino enjoys seeing what happens when young, inexperienced players are promoted. Skipp is only 17 but many at Tottenham expect him to develop into a first-teamer. As for 21-year-old Amos, Pochettino insists he would have no worries about starting him against Newcastle at St James’ Park in the team’s opening Premier League game.

There are so many out there. Trent Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool, Phil Foden at Manchester City, Ryan Sessegnon at Fulham, Emile Smith Rowe and Ainsley Maitland-Niles at Arsenal to name but a few. Southgate and ­Pochettino have shown that young players will rise to challenge. ­Others need to follow their lead.

The Sunday Times