Manchester United\u2019s teenage prospect JJ Gabriel will not be available for Premier League selection this season because of age restrictions, manager Michael Carrick confirmed.<\/p>\n
Born on Oct. 6, 2010, Gabriel began this school year as a 14-year-old and remains in Year 10. Carrick was clear on the limitations: “He is not allowed,” Carrick shrugged. “Too young.” Despite that, the 15-year-old GCSE student has generated significant attention after repeated involvement in senior training sessions.<\/p>\n
Carrick has praised Gabriel\u2019s progress while stressing careful management. “JJ\u2019s doing really well,” he told assembled media. “We\u2019ve got some really good players in the academy and we try and get the younger players up [with the main group] as much as we can.” He added: “We\u2019re always trying to give them that exposure,” and described Gabriel as “a big talent, it is pretty obvious and he has had a good season for U18s. We think an awful lot of him.” On timing and welfare he emphasised: “But patience is important in managing everything that comes with that and developing him and picking the right moment to step up, to leave them in a certain place. He\u2019s trained well and it is good to have young players up.”<\/p>\n
The situation mirrors recent cases in the Premier League. Arsenal\u2019s Max Dowman was in Year 10 last season and could not be rushed into a senior squad despite calls for his involvement. Ethan Nwaneri managed a brief appearance aged 15 years and 181 days in 2022, but that fleeting cameo was followed by a long wait; he did not receive another Premier League minute for 17 months and only began to feature regularly after he turned 18. Dowman\u2019s pathway was further delayed by a serious ankle injury sustained in a youth match.<\/p>\n
Manchester United figures have publicly praised Gabriel, contributing to the buzz around his development. “He\u2019s good, really good,” Mbeumo gushed during an interview with French streamer Zack Nani this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick says JJ Gabriel is too young for Premier League squads this season despite senior praise too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1264,179,172],"tags":[1446,1484],"class_list":["post-8413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-development","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-academy","tag-appearance-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8413","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=8413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}