Is 15-year-old Gabriel set to become Man Utd's youngest ever player?

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Is 15-year-old Gabriel set to become Man Utd's youngest ever player?
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When Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick was asked about 15-year-old JJ Gabriel last month, he navigated the narrow path between high praise for a young player of immense talent and the knowledge he will ultimately be the one who decides when it is time for first-team exposure.
"JJ is one of the boys," he said. "He's obviously got a really big talent. He's trained with us quite a bit and is getting experience all the time.
"He's physically adapting to each step, and we're just continuing his development."
Carrick was at Leigh Sports Village four days earlier when Gabriel, making his Premier League 2 debut against Ipswich, ran on to Jack Fletcher's through ball and after taking the pace off the pass with his left foot, scooped the ball over an advancing keeper from the edge of the area with his right.
It was an audacious finish, one that highlighted Gabriel's thought process given the most obvious route to goal was either a low shot or sprinting round the keeper.
Seven days later, Gabriel followed up with a completely different, but even better effort.
Taking Tynan Thompson's short pass in a central position, with his back to goal just inside the area, Gabriel's first touch was a drag back with his left foot that allowed him to spin round so he was facing the right way.
Then, showing strength to keep his balance after being nudged by an opponent, he nicked the ball to his left with his right foot, gliding past a second defender.
He took another touch to steady himself before rifling a low shot into the net from just inside the six-yard box.
From start to finish the manoeuvre took less than five seconds.
It was impossible not to be impressed. The goal itself has been viewed on various social media accounts millions of times.
'Sometimes it gets to a point where you can't not pick him'
Ryan Giggs, United's record appearance holder, was 17 when he made his United debut in 1991.
Like Carrick with Gabriel, Sir Alex Ferguson saw Giggs playing youth football in the flesh, initially in a trial game at the Cliff training ground.
In his first autobiography, Managing My Life, he recounts the experience like this:
"A gold miner who has searched every part of the river or mountain and then suddenly finds himself staring at a nugget could not feel more exhilaration than I did watching Giggs that day.
"I shall always remember my first sight of him, floating over the pitch so effortlessly you would have sworn his feet weren't touching the ground. He carried his head high and looked as relaxed and natural on the park as a dog chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind."
Giggs can't assess what he looked like. But he knows what it felt like and in an insightful chat with his former United team-mate on Rio Ferdinand Presents: The Debrief,, external Giggs offered this assessment:
"Sometimes you have to be patient. Sometimes it gets to a point where you can't not pick him and not have him train in the first team; 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 when 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, 10 minutes there."
Plotting the right path
It feels as though Gabriel is at that 'in-between' point Giggs mentions just now.
Aside from the first game in Helsinki, Gabriel was a feature of all United's pre-season trips this summer.
Yet he played just once, as a late substitute against Atletico Madrid in Stockholm when his first involvement led to him being clattered from behind by Uruguay skipper Jose Maria Gimenez, who, at 31, is twice Gabriel's age.
United have posted plenty of footage of Gabriel training with the first team this season and having a joke with fellow forward Benjamin Sesko. As Carrick says, the youngster is "one of the boys".
There was a view Gabriel may be given his first-team debut in the EFL Cup third round, which would make him Manchester United's youngest ever player, beating goalkeeper David Gaskell, who was 16 years and 19 days when he made his senior bow. Gabriel is not 16 until 6 October.
However, as United have had a tricky start to the season results wise, and play Premier League opposition in Brighton at Old Trafford on 16 September, is that practical?
Champions League games offer 11 substitute places, rather than nine in domestic competition. Does that mean he could be involved against Sabah FK on Thursday? Given he did not train with the first team on Wednesday, possibly not.
Is the Under-19 Uefa Youth League - a competition United's academy is prioritising after pulling out of the EFL Trophy and National League Cup this season, and for which last season's FA Youth Cup final squad are eligible - a more appropriate stage?
Gabriel would have been looking to a Premier League 2 Manchester derby at City on Saturday evening, but that game has been postponed because of United's various Thursday European commitments.
Thirty-five years ago, Giggs was content when Ferguson blocked media from talking to him.
There was no social media or digital forums. Expectation, discussion and demands now are huge and cannot be silenced.
Those close to Gabriel clearly have their own idea of what his future should look like.
United's last Premier League 2 game before the international break is against Brentford at Leigh on 18 September. After that, England's various age group teams have their matches to play.
Gabriel's own abilities are creating the pathway. The big question is, where does it lead?
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