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I’m not sure what Angel Gomes thinks he’s entitled to, but his ridiculous contract dispute that has been delayed this season seems to be finally coming to an end. Gomes reportedly rejected a new contract with Manchester United and now looks like he will join Chelsea.
Gomes has some valid (and some invalid too) reasons to be upset with Manchester United, but this latest news, if true, tells us all about him and why United shouldn’t lose sleep over losing him.
Chelsea believe they are close to signing Angel Gomes. His agent, Pini Zahavi, is understood to have had conversations with Chelsea manager Marina Granovskaia. #mufc He hopes to tie him to a new contract, but the player wants regular first-team soccer. #mulive [mirror]
– utdreport (@utdreport) May 12, 2020
Sorry, you want more first team football, so you’re going to … Chelsea?
Chelsea, the team that doesn’t give young players opportunities and instead borrows them everywhere, is your way to more first-team football? Are you crazy?
Even if the coronavirus means Chelsea can’t be very active on the transfer market this summer, don’t you think they will as soon as they can?
Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been Chelsea’s “next great midfielder” for about five years and has never started more than six games in a Premier League campaign. This is a team that spent £ 65 million on Christian Pulisic last summer and has even struggled to get a consistent look (with three and a half seasons of first-team experience under its belt).
Along with Pulisic, Chelsea also possesses the attack talents of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount, Ross Barkley and, starting next season, Hakim Ziyech. With all the uncertainty in the market, I would not rule out that they bring at least one of Pedro or Willian.
Now are we supposed to wait for Frank Lampard to roll out the first team red carpet for a 19 year old who couldn’t beat Jesse Lingard or Andreas Pereira?
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been desperate drop Lingard and Pereira this season. If Gomes had acted in the few opportunities he had, or was beating those two in training, he would have been on the team.
Marcus Rashford couldn’t even take a look in 2015/16. It was only after Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Will freaking out Keane He picked up injuries that gave Rashford a chance. Had Rashford come out against Midtjylland and Arsenal and just “he played well and looked promising “ they would have dropped it as soon as Rooney or Martial were ready to return. Instead, he scored two goals in each game, securing a place on the team the following week. When that flash in the pan seemed to be over, he scored in the derby. The done himself unstoppable, so much so that he forced Roy Hodgson to take him to Euro 2016.
This is how promising young people make their way. You have an opportunity and you take it with both hands.
Not that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did not have a high opinion of Gomes. United took 21 field players on their preseason tour last summer. The formula was quite simple: 11 players would play half and the other 11 would play the other. When James Garner proved to be the exception, fortunate to come for just 10-15 minutes, if so, it was an early sign that he was probably still a year away. But Gomes was right there with everyone else. In fact, Gomes was one of only two players (Mason Greenwood being the other) to receive “improved” squad numbers this season, a telltale sign that he was very much in Solskjaer’s plans.
Brandon Williams was not on that tour. He had a chance to play for a few minutes because Luke Shaw had been injured. He impressed and had another chance. He impressed again. He impressed so much that he forced a selection dilemma on the left side and Solskjaer allowed Ashley Young to leave the club.
You have an opportunity and you take it with both hands.
Gomes played well in the preseason. He showed glimpses of his talent and potential, but he did not set the world on fire and certainly did not force himself on the team in the opening games. But as soon as United played an out-of-league game, guess who was in XI?
I thought Gomes was the best player on the field in United’s September game against Astana, but when the score came out it was still 0-0. Despite all his talent, how much was the game affecting him?
I have few cameos of Gomes in the Premier League against him. Those are difficult situations to deal with and often you weren’t on the field long enough to make an impact. But he played two other Europa League games against AZ Alkmaar and Astana where He did. Nothing.
Okay, it’s just the Europa League, but that’s the point. If you’re not dominating the Europa League, how can you say you deserve Premier League opportunities? Harry Kane had to score six goals in five Europa League games before Mauricio Pochettino gave him a Premier League start.
Gomes also participated in two EFL Trophy games for the U23 against Rotherham and Tranmere, where he did little. Those are lower league teams that may not be as good as U23 Premier League skills, but they are men. The kind of big, physical men you would have to play with in the Premier League.
That’s what all this is about. Size. It has nothing to do with Gomes’ ability. He has that in spades. Gomes is 5’3 “and 115 pounds. That’s small. He just isn’t ready to handle the physicality of the Premier League.
Jesse Lingard wrote in the Players Tribune about Sir Alex Ferguson telling him when he was 16 that he wasn’t going to be ready until 22 or 23. He was too young.
“Oh, but what about Messi? People said it was too small and they looked at it. ”
Two things to keep in mind here:
- Messi has four inches at Gomes.
- That’s leo going crazy We are talking about Messi. The best player to play. The largest outlier, the largest exception among all exceptions to the rule. And frankly, when Messi was 19, he had already played in a World Cup.
There is certainly a list of other great players who were not blessed with size but are generally the exception. You have to have a lot more talent to overcompensate for the lack of size. There is a much longer list of players who had the talent to play at the top level, but did not grow enough.
We have all seen what Gomes has done in the reserves, or in the England youth team, but none of that is a guarantee of success at the next level. The list of players who were brilliant stars at 19 and did not end up doing so is also long.
Gomes got a draw this year. It should have been borrowed, but the size of our squad did not allow it. There were hopes that he would achieve accelerated growth and thus be able to have more opportunities in the first team, but that has not happened either. And yes, there were probably times when he was overlooked due to this contractual dispute, but that also depends on him.
Gomes has far exceeded the U23 Premier League 2 level (second division), but that does not prepare him for the Premier League. The leap from U23 to the Premier League is substantial. The Premier League is not necessarily the next level for a player in Gomes’ position, it is simply the next available level. That is the problem with English football: there is nothing in between.
I understand that Gomes wants to play, but to tell me that you will go to Chelsea for more opportunities for the first team is to bother me and tell me that it is raining.
Gomes is already at the club with the clearest path to the first team in England. It is a club that prides itself on promoting youth. It is a club with the youngest team in the league. He has two teenagers who become regular (won) minutes from the first team.
Considering that this contract dispute has lasted the entire season, I can’t help but think it’s about money. United gave him the standard contract they would give to academy players his age and he turned it down.
If that’s the case, don’t let the door knock you out.
Doubling Gomes’ contract demands would go against the whole culture that Solskjaer is trying to build. We are no longer just handing over big salaries to anyone. They need to be earned.
Gomes may have great potential, but I won’t lose sleep when he leaves. There are players who had even more potential than through the Manchester United academy who have not worked. How many players have we regretted letting them leave our academy because they have become superstars?
Only one. And Angel Gomes is not Paul Pogba.
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