Being the star player in Manchester United’s historic academy does not guarantee success at the club, with several glaring examples throughout recent history.
In fact, throughout the past 20 years often the most exciting talents to be coming up through the ranks end up struggling to live up to their billing.
One of the biggest examples of this was Ravell Morrison who was tipped as being a future Manchester United legend, and the next great academy graduate.
He emerged in a group with names like Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba, which shows just how good he was to stand out among these names. However, due to off-the-field issues, his career never had a liftoff.
Another United graduate who never reached the heights expected was Callum Gribbin, who suffered due to injuries along with his own off-the-field problems. The issues for Gribbin have persisted as he has had to battle to save his career.
Now, he has been speaking about the current United academy crop – picking out one player for some praise.
Callum Gribbin raves over Shea Lacey talent
Speaking on the More Than A Match podcast, Gribbin discussed his struggles with injury and gave advice to current academy players. Gribbin then launched into discussing U18 phenomenon, Shea Lacey.
“Do you watch much of the academy?”, Gribbin asked. Before explaining what he thinks of Lacey.
“I’ve not seen much of him, but every time I’ve gone back, they’ve always mentioned Shea Lacey. Do you know him? Mate, I went in [to watch one game] and I thought ‘he’s decent him’.
“It’s like they’ve put Gribbo in a lab, I swear it’s like they’ve burnt me on a disc. All these clips come up on my Twitter, so I always see him, he is good him.”
Adding to this, podcast host Ryan Hopper added: “He’s like you but smaller. Fantastic talent.”
“Very good player”, added former United academy graduate D’Mani Mellor.
The pair have similarities beyond just style. Gribbin was in Lacey’s situation a decade ago in terms of being uber-talented but struggling through injuries, which means his advice is something Lacey should take note of.
Lacey is back to his best for United and will be hoping that he can get a consistent run in the team going forward.
Callum Gribbin was expected to become a world-beater
When he was coming through the academy, Gribbin was considered the best youth player to come through the ranks since Ryan Giggs and was widely expected to be a superstar in football.
Gribbin wowed Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton during part of Edwin van der Sar’s testimonial in 2011, making Matthijs de Ligt look clueless at the same time against Ajax’s U13 side in front of 53,000 fans at Old Trafford.
Gribbin was likened to Giggs for his technical quality, creativity and dribbling. This was a player who should right now be 25 and in the United first team.
Instead, he has most recently been playing in the seventh tier of English football. In the podcast, Gribbin claimed he was motivated to get his head down and get back to playing in the EFL or better.
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