Michael Carrick has stressed that the priority in the JJ Gabriel situation must be the teenager\u2019s welfare, wellbeing and exposure, as the debate around the 15-year-old intensifies.<\/p>\n
The latest twist is believed to stem from Gabriel\u2019s frustration over limited first-team involvement. He made an unofficial appearance from the bench in preseason, but that remains his only senior involvement so far. The forward is regarded as a major talent, while attention has also turned to his father, Joe O\u2019Cearuill, after allegations of difficult behaviour resurfaced this week. One claim is that Gabriel\u2019s name was changed to make him more marketable.<\/p>\n
When it emerged that Gabriel wanted to leave Manchester United, it was suggested Carrick had intended to give him a record-breaking debut against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup. That did not materialise, and it would have been difficult for the manager to do so anyway after United let a 2-0 lead slip and were forced into a frantic search for an equaliser.<\/p>\n
Carrick had already spoken to the media before the game, so his post-match comments at Old Trafford were the first chance to address the sudden attention around Gabriel. He avoided discussing the player\u2019s quality or whether his future may lie elsewhere, instead focusing on the fact that the boy\u2019s image has now spread widely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve got to be really careful of the whole situation,\u201d Carrick, whose own son, Jacey, is in the United academy and a year older than Gabriel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a young boy, and the biggest thing for me, and for the club, is his welfare, wellbeing and exposure. I think all of us have to be really conscious of that in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The safeguarding concerns are real. Gabriel requires separate changing facilities from senior players, and his age places him among only three players to have featured in 34 Premier League seasons at 15.<\/p>\n
United can still delay matters by refusing to cancel his registration, though his academy deal runs until the end of the season. From next season, the usual route would be a first-year scholar place, with professional terms available when he turns 17 in the second year. A move abroad could come sooner, however, because Irish and Cypriot heritage may allow him access to EU passports. That gives Real Madrid a notable advantage, should he head to Spain when he turns 16 next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick says Gabriel\u2019s welfare comes first as United weigh a 15-year-old\u2019s uncertain future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067,179,987],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-19636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carabao-cup","category-manchester-united","category-real-madrid","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}