Which Premier League wonderkids would make it into a dream five-a-side team? 3 Added Minutes' Fantasy Five-A-Side works it all out as Wayne Rooney takes on Francis Jeffers and Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fabregas and James Milner all battle for places.
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00:00 Also of course a social media superstar,
00:02 Rootme purveyor of some of the finest moments in Twitter history.
00:05 His in-memoriam for Whitney Houston will go down as one of football's greatest moments,
00:10 you know, right up there with his goal against David Seaman.
00:13 And the only thing I can say to anyone who wants to argue for anyone
00:17 other than Rootme and his team is shut it you egg.
00:19 [Whistle]
00:26 Hello, I'm Jason Jones. Welcome to another episode of Three Added Minutes Fantasy Five Aside,
00:31 the program in which we put together the best possible five-man team based on some
00:35 extremely specific requirements. This week we're going to make a dream team
00:39 made up of the greatest former Premier League Wunderkids and Matthew Gregory is here to help me.
00:43 Here's how this works. Jason and I will take it in turns to propose a former Wunderkid for our team
00:48 and then we debate which one we want in our ideal squad until we've got ourselves a proper
00:52 five-man team. I'm going to kick things off in net by suggesting Chris Kirkland.
00:56 Now, Chris Kirkland was, I believe, 19 when he made his debut for Coventry City
01:03 and became their first choice keeper in the Premier League around the 2000-2001 season.
01:08 He was really, really good. I mean, this teenage keeper, he was tall, he was good in the air,
01:14 made a lot of great saves, he was a really good shot stopper, had a fantastic season,
01:19 under-moved to Liverpool off the back of it. Obviously, that sort of kind of half-panned
01:24 out. He became second choice for most of the time he was there, made quite a few appearances. He was
01:27 there, what, four years, I think? And he did play a decent number of games for a reserve keeper and
01:32 played pretty well. You know, and he sort of eventually, he didn't really become a proper
01:36 first choice again when he moved to Wigan. But yeah, he was just, he's a proper sort of
01:41 goalkeeping Wunderkid. There was a lot of hype about him when he was this teenager coming through.
01:45 Obviously, he played that one game for England. I think when he was 11, his dad placed a bet,
01:50 or his dad and his family as a whole, placed a £100 bet at odds of 100 to 1 that he would one
01:55 day play for England. And he did. Just the once. Never sort of really sort of panned out to be the
01:59 top-class goalkeeper a lot of us thought he would be when he first came through. But he was just
02:03 very precocious. You know, if you're 11 years old and your dad's betting £100 that you're going to
02:07 play for England one day, you've obviously got something about you as a little nipper.
02:10 And he still had a lot about him at the age of 19. He's just probably just a really early
02:13 developer. And I think a slightly undervalued goalkeeper in the grand scheme of the Premier
02:17 League. I think, you know, he's one of, I don't think he quite gets the respect he deserves now
02:21 that he, you know, is that he earned across his career. And yeah, just a very good goalkeeper.
02:26 He started very young and impressed very young as well.
02:28 I often wonder how many Chris Kirkland-esque bets don't come off. I reckon for every Chris
02:34 Kirkland bet that comes off, there's probably about 5,000 that don't from hubristic parents.
02:42 Yeah, I'm going to go with Kasper Schmeichel. Now, it's a bit of an interesting one, this,
02:47 because it depends on whether we're deciding a player should be in the team based on what
02:51 they achieved when they were young, or what they went on to achieve over the course of their career.
02:56 Because I think you could probably argue that Kasper Schmeichel had a slightly slower start
03:01 than Chris Kirkland. Obviously, he was in and around that Manchester City squad, but he spent
03:05 a lot of time out on loan. And it only really felt as if he properly came into his own a little bit
03:11 later in his career. Obviously, we know what he went on to achieve with Leicester City, that
03:15 incredible improbable title win. And I think for that reason alone, he and the rest of that side
03:22 are absolute Premier League legends and always will be. It's obviously a little bit interesting
03:27 as well when you consider Schmeichel, because there was so much hype surrounding him based
03:32 on the fact that he was the son of the greatest Premier League goalkeeper of all time. And I think
03:38 that that probably brought a certain amount of attention to him. I think that on the one hand,
03:42 you could argue might not have been the worst thing in the world. I think on the other, he did
03:45 remarkably well to go on and achieve what he did, while ultimately constantly trying to live in his
03:52 dad's shadow, you know. So yeah, so I'd be interested to see which way you sort of want
03:57 to go with this one. I'm tempted to go with Schmeichel just because of what he went on to
04:01 achieve, even if he maybe wasn't the quickest out of the blocks, but I'd be interested to see what
04:06 you think. Well, I think he was pretty quick out of the blocks because he had those games. He didn't
04:11 have a long run in the team under Svengur and Eriksson in Manchester City, but he didn't just
04:15 generate hype because he was Peter's son. It was also because he played really well for a while.
04:19 And there was obviously a drop off after that. He went to Notts County and so on. But you know,
04:23 the hype was based on his performances. And look, I probably should have sorted this out before we
04:28 started recording maybe, but I'm sort of going to suggest that, you know, we go with what they
04:33 were like as a kid, the wonder kid version of themselves rather than what they became later.
04:37 Because then we're just determining, you know, who's the best player and full stop rather than
04:40 the best wonder kid. But I'd say even on that basis, I'm actually happy to go with Kasper
04:44 Schmeichel as well because he really was brilliant for that little spell as a young man, as a City
04:49 goalkeeper. And you know, obviously went on to achieve the top, but he was fantastic as a kid
04:53 for that little while as well. And the hype was huge. So I'm happy to go with Kasper.
04:57 Right, next up, we're going to need someone to protect our goalkeeper. I'm going to go for
05:08 Micah Richards. Now, Richards was 17 when he broke into the Manchester City football team.
05:13 And he was really, really good straight away. He was so big and strong and fast and physically
05:20 outstanding that he stood out right away whether he's playing centre back or right back, you knew
05:25 you were watching someone who could, despite his younger years, he could bully opposing attackers.
05:29 But he was also just, he was a better player than just his physical elements, a lot better player
05:34 than that. He was really good with the ball at his feet. He was obviously very good in the air.
05:38 He was sort of a very smart defender, which I think is something people don't sort of
05:42 appreciate about him. He wasn't just like this battering ram running around. His movement was
05:47 very, very smart. He was very good at sort of both dribbling with the ball going forward and
05:51 beating people on the outside, but also good at matching runs coming back the other way.
05:55 He went on many years later to win the FA Cup in the Premier League with Manchester City before
06:01 that sort of injury-induced slide, really, you know, Aston Villa and Fiorentina and it all kind
06:07 of, the wheels kind of came off. But I think a lot of people, they sort of, they see the sort
06:12 of the super chirpy, chappy presenter that he's become, who I like a lot, by the way, I'm a big
06:16 fan of his work on TV. And forget that he was a heck of a good defender from a very young age.
06:21 Yeah, just a fabulous player from his teenage years and just a great wonder kid who, you know,
06:28 I think deserves a bit more credit for what he was as a kid than he got.
06:30 Yeah, yeah, I'm tempted to absolutely agree with you. I think that there is maybe an element of,
06:36 of, you know, there's a lack of recognition for just how good Micah Richards was. And I think
06:42 that, you know, maybe there's a little bit of revisionism coming into play now that he's,
06:46 you know, we've seen his, he sort of crows his own merits, doesn't he, every now and again on
06:51 the punditry panel and justifiably so, because he was a fantastic player who was unfortunate with
06:56 his injury record. Ultimately, that was the thing that hamstrung him, so to speak. I'm going to go
07:01 with Phil Jones, who I think way more than Richards is perhaps a player who is sort of unfairly
07:09 maligned for the player that he became. You know, there is this very sort of memefied view
07:16 of Phil Jones now with his silly faces and his unorthodox tackles. But there was a good long
07:23 while where he was the future of English defending, you know, Sir Alex Ferguson,
07:28 famously suggested that he could go on to become one of the best defenders in the world,
07:34 one of the best defenders, you know, to play for Manchester United. And I think that the fact that
07:38 Ferguson, who knew a thing or two, by the way, showed such faith in him at such a young age is
07:44 testament to just how good he was. Now, obviously, you know, again, you could sort of copy and paste
07:50 largely what you said about Richards. It hasn't always been fantastic for him, injuries having
07:56 been kind, his form dip drastically, and now obviously, you know, he's sort of searching
08:01 for a club at a time when he should really be a stalwart somewhere, if perhaps things have been
08:06 kind to him. But I do think that it is only fair that he does get a little tip of the cup because
08:12 he was a fantastic young football. Yeah. I like, you know, I'm a Blackburn Rovers fan. I remember
08:19 his debut against Chelsea and, you know, sort of this 18 year old kid coming into the back line
08:22 against Anelka and Drogba. And I was assuming we were going to get an absolute battery at the start
08:27 of that game. And he was brilliant. He was mad at the match by a mile, you know, picked up
08:32 particularly in Elkery, but practically picked him up and put in his pocket, his 18 year old
08:35 making his Premier League debut. He was everywhere. It was fantastic. And I think, you know, with both
08:39 Richards and Jones, they're really great players, or we're really great kids, I should say, who just
08:45 had such a long, slow decline because of injuries that people sort of remember the crocked version
08:52 of them, not what they were and indeed what they could have been. I'm going to sort of stick up
08:56 for Richards, I think a little bit just because I think maybe he got a little bit further down
09:00 that developmental pathway and sort of, you know, the level he hit as a teenager was so high.
09:06 But yeah, I think that they both be worthy inclusions in the squad. I think they're both
09:10 unfairly maligned. But I mean, if you want to argue for Jones, go for it. But I think I'd
09:16 rather have Richards on the team. Let's go Michael Richards.
09:26 Right, next up, I'm going to name one of the most versatile players in Premier League history,
09:31 still going, James Milner. He was the second youngest Premier League player ever when he
09:36 made his debut at 16. He was the youngest player ever to score a Premier League goal when he banged
09:40 one in against Sunderland on just about 10 days, I think before his 17th birthday, younger than
09:45 Rooney by a few days, he'd obviously scored that goal, you know, a few years earlier. Just a hugely
09:52 gifted player. And I think when people think about Milner, they think of the industry,
09:56 the hard work, you know, the brains behind the football, they probably think about the boring
10:01 James Milner account and don't really get very excited about it. But remember, when he came
10:05 through, he was this really thrilling attacking player who's sort of, you know, dropping in the
10:08 pocket behind his main striker or playing down the wings. He's really fast. That's something I think
10:14 people have forgotten. He isn't that quick anymore, but he was quick. I think he was a school
10:19 sprint and cross country champion. He was sort of an all distances athletic legend, sort of growing
10:24 up and yeah, just physically very impressive, really mature from a very young age, like in
10:29 terms of the way he played the game and just, yeah, the hype about him at the time was through
10:34 the roof and he was pretty unlucky to sort of, to sort of play in that weird lead side where they
10:39 got relegated to by having a team that on paper probably should have been pushing for Europe or
10:43 something. That was probably the best team ever to get relegated from the league, man for man.
10:48 And yeah, we're all just the wheels fell off for sort of all sorts of reasons. I didn't really have
10:52 anything to do certainly with James Milner or indeed most of the players. And just, yeah,
10:56 he's a fantastic player. Now he's obviously won absolutely everything across an incredible career.
11:01 But as a kid, just the young James Milner was so exciting. He was so smart, scored some really nice
11:08 goals and just, yeah, he was a ton of fun and, you know, maybe not ton of fun as a person,
11:13 but ton of fun as a player, ton of fun to watch. And yeah, just someone I'd love to have in my team.
11:19 Yeah, I absolutely agree with everything you just said. I think as I've gotten older,
11:25 I've sort of come to appreciate James Milner more and more. I think that you are right. There is a
11:31 certain school of thought on him that, you know, if you take out the sort of earlier years of his
11:36 career, that he is just an industrial hard work player. My argument was always, if you give me
11:41 £60,000 a week, I'll run everywhere. We're halfway through picking our ultimate five-a-side
11:53 team of Premier League wonder kids. Join us again after these adverts.
11:56 Welcome back to three added minutes of Fantasy Five-a-side, where we are halfway through
12:05 picking our Premier League wonder kid starting line. My argument was always, if you give me £60,000
12:17 a week, I'll run everywhere. It doesn't matter if I'm on a football field or not, I'll do anything
12:20 for £60,000, you know what I mean? So on that basis, I think the sort of perception of him
12:27 has shifted quite a bit, but I do think he's a worthy shout for sure. I'm going to go with
12:32 Cesc Fabregas. You know, what he did as a youngster for Arsenal was just magical at times,
12:38 you know, he came into that side and he just looked so assured, you know, just his quality
12:45 on the ball has always been there. His ability to dictate the tempo of matches has always been
12:51 there. It obviously got better as he got older and he went on to become one of the best midfielders
12:57 in world football for a very, very long time. But I think even as a youngster, you could definitely
13:01 see that it was there, it was always there. And I think that, you know, as good as Milner was,
13:10 if we're talking about, you know, who was the better footballer, like out and out technical,
13:16 better footballer at a young age, it's really, really hard to look past Fabregas. And that's
13:22 not anything against Milner, it would be the case with most footballers because Fabregas was such
13:26 a special case, even at a young age, that I think it's really hard to look past him. And of course,
13:34 it's pretty handy when it comes to Prisby and a pizza as well, isn't it?
13:37 So, you know, I'm actually going to agree with you on this one, not because I necessarily feel
13:44 that Milner is so much worse or anything like that, just because I actually owe, or my younger
13:49 self owes Cesc Fabregas an apology. Because when I was, you know, probably a teenager myself still,
13:54 when Fabregas was first breaking through, I very vociferously told all my mates that I thought
14:00 Fabregas was massively overrated, that he wasn't actually that good, all he did was pass sideways,
14:04 I didn't see it, etc. It's probably the worst football opinion I've ever had. Certainly the
14:09 wrongest football opinion I've ever had, as it turns out. Yeah, brilliant player. I was an idiot
14:14 as a child. Fabregas was tearing up the Premier League as a child while I badmouthed him for no
14:18 reason. So by way of an apology, Cesc Fabregas can go in our team. Right, next up, we're going
14:31 to need someone who's going to be a bit more of a goal threat. And I'm going to go with one of the
14:34 most extraordinary young players I've ever watched, certainly in the Premier League, Jack Wilshire.
14:38 I think you've got to cast your mind back a little bit. But again, we talked about players
14:42 like Richards and Jones earlier, who sort of had so many injuries that people forgot just how good
14:47 they were. Wilshire's the same. If he had not had that endless run of just crocs and knocks and his
14:54 legs practically falling off half the time, he would have been I think one of the best players
14:58 ever to have pulled an England shirt. I think he had all the talent of players like, you know,
15:01 that's like Gascoigne level of talent. Unbelievably good technically, had such great feet. He was the
15:07 youngest ever Arsenal debutant when he was 16 years old, which actually beating Cesc Fabregas'
15:12 record just a little while earlier. Scored his first goal 10 days later, I think made him the
15:17 youngest ever Arsenal scorer, at least came very close. Made his England debut at 18. When he was
15:22 19, he was the PFA player of the year and in the team of the year and Arsenal's player of the year.
15:28 19 years old, and that was a heck of a good Arsenal team as well. He was just astonishing.
15:34 The way he could move the ball between his feet, the speed his feet could go at. He wasn't like
15:38 quick in a straight line particularly, but you just couldn't get near him. He could just bring
15:41 the ball away from you. His passing was fabulous and his control was exceptional. He was dangerous
15:47 in front of goal as well. He scored a few some pretty good goals. I think he won gold of the
15:50 season one year or at least came close to it. Just a wonderful, wonderful attacking midfielder.
15:56 And I think his sort of injury related decline is one of the saddest stories in sort of modern
16:01 English football because he was just exceptional. I think if he had been lucky with injuries,
16:06 if he'd gone through his whole career fit and firing the whole time, he'd be talked about
16:10 as head of Lampard Gerrard's goals. He's just an unbelievable talent. He's just brought me and a
16:18 lot of other people a lot of joy as a teenager watching him play. Quite brilliant. Yeah, I
16:22 couldn't really agree any more. I kind of put him in the same bracket as a Ledley King. Like a real
16:30 cry in shame. Not just at club level, but definitely at international level where I think
16:34 that if they'd been, I say fortunate, and it's not even fortunate, is it? Because it's kind of just
16:39 the baseline that you get through your career and you're able to play it to an extent. Obviously
16:45 players get injured, but you're able to play enough football to do yourself justice. And
16:49 neither one of them was ever really able to do that. I know Wilshere played a lot of football,
16:54 but he missed even more. And it was such a shame because I do genuinely, genuinely don't think
17:01 it's hyperbole to suggest that he would be considered one of the greatest English midfielders,
17:06 maybe one of the greatest English players of all time, had he been given a fair crack and it was
17:11 just might as well be on his control. On that basis, I do think he should go in the team. I
17:16 am going to give an honourable mention to Raheem Sterling though. Obviously we know Raheem has gone
17:22 on to achieve so, so much and has arguably been one of the greatest English players of his generation.
17:29 And you know, that being said, he was already doing it when he was a teenager, you know,
17:35 he was hugely impactful for Liverpool and came really, really close to winning the Premier League
17:41 title as well. Let's not forget during that season where C Gerrard slipped and that sort of infamous
17:47 collapse at the end of the campaign. But yeah, he was always special, Raheem Sterling, you know,
17:53 he can run defenders ragged, he can go at you, he can go past you, he can score a goal as well.
17:58 I don't think there's been too many out and out wingers who have been, you know, as sort of
18:03 consistently productive in front of goal in recent years in the Premier League. So yeah, I think
18:09 Raheem Sterling absolutely deserves a bit of a nod, but I think if it comes down to it, it's surely
18:15 got to be Jaffa. Yeah, I'm happy having Wilshere in the team, but Sterling was special as a teenager,
18:21 he's been special for years and like, it feels like he's been around for decades, he's still
18:25 only what 28, 29 or something like that. He's had an extraordinary career and had an extraordinary
18:30 start to his career. But yeah, I mean, Wilshere, I think if we're talking about one of the kids,
18:34 Wilshere was just what could have been and what was was pretty special. So yeah,
18:39 let's have Wilshere in the team. Right, finally, we need one more player for our five man squad,
18:50 and I'm going to nominate the ultimate Premier League one, Wade Rooney. We all remember the
18:56 name and we remember the name from the moment he sent that incredible goal arcing over David Seaman,
19:01 you know, when he was just 16 years old. And none of us has ever forgotten it. It's not often that
19:07 that the level of hype you get as a 16 year old or as a 17 year old translates into a nonstop
19:13 world class career. There was just no point to which he really dipped. It wasn't you, you get a
19:17 lot of kids who sort of sparkle for a little bit like someone like James Milner who sparkled and
19:21 then, you know, sort of fell back into the background for a few years before sort of, you
19:25 know, coming back and turning into the player we all know and love today. Wade Rooney was just
19:31 extraordinary from the get go. He was extraordinary as a teenager, extraordinary through his 20s,
19:35 right out the way, really to sort of, you know, the end of his career. Yeah, I mean, he did score
19:40 one of that goal against sort of Arsenal over David Seaman. That was the he was the youngest
19:44 goal scorer in the time for a little while before Milner took it over. Just a little while later,
19:50 at 17, he became the youngest ever England player when he played that friendly against Australia,
19:54 scored just half goals for Everton, then United. Let's be forgetting, he was still pretty young
20:00 when he moved to United and for England as well. And just so quickly became one of the best strikers
20:06 in the Premier League, one of the best strikers for England in the national team while he was
20:10 still a teenager. Just I can't remember ever really watching a player in the Premier League
20:15 who had that amount of talent and was just so in command of it and so in control of it
20:20 as you know, as at such a young age. Also, of course, a social media superstar,
20:27 purveyor of some of the finest moments in Twitter history. His, you know, his in memoriam for
20:32 Whitney Houston will go down as one of football's greatest moments, you know, right up there with
20:36 his goal against David Seaman. And the only thing I can say to anyone who wants to argue for anyone
20:41 other than Rooney in this team is shut it you egg. I think you sort of touched on it there.
20:47 The best thing about Rooney at that age was that he had this wonderful arrogance. He belonged and
20:53 he knew he belonged from the moment he stepped onto that field, from the moment he scored that
20:57 goal by Seaman. Wayne Rooney, players grow into Premier League footballers. Wayne Rooney was a
21:04 Premier League footballer from the get go. It was as simple as that. He was special, undeniable,
21:11 inevitable. And I agree. He has to go on the team. That being said, I want to give a little nod to
21:17 the thinking man's Wayne Rooney, a man who was arguably Wayne Rooney before Wayne Rooney.
21:23 And he actually made his England debut on the same night as Wayne Rooney, which is Francis Jeffers.
21:28 Now, obviously, again, started at Everton in the late nineties, unbelievably high. He was going to
21:34 be the next one. He was going to be the England centre forward for years to come. Francis Jeffers
21:39 made his debut as a 16 year old, all this sort of stuff. Went to Arsenal, went to Arsenal as well,
21:43 by the way, for an initial 8 million pounds, which was, you know, that's quite a thing,
21:47 quite a thing in the late nineties, sort of turn of the millennium. So, you know, he,
21:52 he was really, really hyped. Obviously never really worked out. And he had a sort of slow and
21:59 sort of quite unceremonial decline through the divisions. I think he ended his career,
22:05 might mean Akron Stanley or something. That's no disrespect to Akron Stanley, but it's certainly
22:09 not Champions League football with Arsene Wenger, is it? You know? So, yeah. So I think on the basis
22:15 of how hyped he was and then sort of what became of him, you can't deny that he was a wonder kid.
22:23 And it obviously didn't work out for him. That being said, like you say, it has to be Wayne
22:28 Rooney because if it wasn't Wayne Rooney, then neither of us would deserve to work in football
22:32 journalism ever again. So it has to be Wayne Rooney. But, you know. Yeah. I think it's worth
22:38 saying again, you know, Jeffers, he's kind of become a little bit of a meme, he sort of, thanks
22:43 to his sort of decline. But he was really good as a kid. He was precocious. He was a fantastic player.
22:49 All that hype was, it wasn't completely baseless. But, you know, I mean, the hype for Rooney was
22:55 even higher. What Rooney became was even better, obviously. And just, yeah, Rooney is one of those
23:01 players that deserves to be in basically any five-a-side team we talk about that he could
23:04 possibly qualify for. So, yeah, Wayne Rooney's the man.
23:14 So that settles it then. Our five-a-side team of Premier League wonder kids is
23:18 Kaspersh Michael, Michael Richards, Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere and of course,
23:23 Wayne Rooney. That's also all we've got time for on this week's episode of Three Added Minutes
23:26 is Fantasy Five-a-Side. We'll be back with another episode next week. But until then,
23:30 you can read all the latest football news from one of the finest writing and insight on the internet,
23:34 www.3addedminutes.com. And enjoy even more spot on Insight and Shots TV,
23:40 freebrew channel 276. This program was produced by Mark Wilson.
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