West Ham striker Michail Antonio is considered a Premier League veteran these days.
Nowadays the 33-year-old records as many podcasts as he makes Premier League appearances, but on a recent show he waxed lyrical over Manchester United academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo.
Speaking on fellow Premier League star Callum Wilson on the Footballer’s Football Podcast, Antonio explained why Mainoo stands out amongst other youngsters in the game. He plays without nerves!
“What’s crazy about him is that I saw a clip of him last season playing for the academy or the reserves.
“Literally he was bossing the game. He was an absolute joke.
“I have seen a couple of games he has played in and he is treating it like he is playing with the youth team or the reserve team.
“He is controlling the tempo, he has so much confidence, he just believes in everything he is doing.
“He is playing like he’s had years in the game. That’s difficult, for youngsters coming through normally you see nerves.”
The breakthrough of Mainoo is thus far been the silver lining in what has been a terrible campaign for United. It remains to be seen if it can be topped by winning the FA Cup, but I’d argue that United fans have every reason to be getting excited about the prospect of Mainoo.
As fans we hope that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is about to oversee a whole new era of success for the club – on and off the pitch – but there is a lot of work that needs to be done first.
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Why the Antonio shade?
Huh?