Brian Glanville: Promising Time For Young English Attacking Talent
So glad to see the belated return to the Liverpool team of that gifted attacker, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, ruled out by serious injury for so many dreary months. He returned to action at long last as a substitute against an overwhelmed Huddersfield Town to the delight of his manager Jurgen Klopp.
Making his mark initially at Arsenal as a right winger he showed at Liverpool before his injury that he could operate centrally and incisively as well. His father of course preceded him as a right winger of pace, control and skill. Off the pitch, a man of charm. Many a long year ago I remember having breakfast with him in a Santiago hotel after an England match on tour against Chile. He had pace, fluency and the skills to get to the byline to deliver the most dangerous of passes back into the goalmouth.
This is a very good time for English young attacking talent, and the best of it is that England have a young manager in Gareth Southgate who is not afraid to put them in his teams, even as a teenager.
Sadly, one of the most promising of those young wingers, Chelsea’s Hudson-Odoi, has just been gravely injured and will be out of action for weeks to come.
It was noted that Chelsea allowed him to hobble around the ground to find refuge when he might surely have expected to be escorted by the quickest possible route. He has already expressed the wish to leave the club, with Bayern Munich reportedly interested and the treatment will hardly incite him to stay.
But Chelsea, despite their array of gifted wingers, would surely be most reluctant to lose him.
Another young winger of high promise is Leicester City’s Harvey Barnes, 21, whom Leicester have recently recalled from a loan at West Bromwich Albion. His debut for Leicester was made as far back as December 2016. He was only nine years when Leicester signed him as a schoolboy. A bright future.
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