Manchester United deserve credit, not criticism, for ‘kid gloves’ handling of JJ Gabriel

There is one line in the breathless, stunningly catastrophised Daily Telegraph coverage of the JJ Gabriel situation which stands out the most:

‘…he was treated with kid gloves and wondered if he was as highly rated as he and his family had been told.’

While the natural instinct in 2026 is to point and kick and laugh at Manchester United for being a painfully unserious institution, it is difficult to conjure much more than a shrug at them handling a 15-year-old – an individual whose entourage has leaned heavily into the ‘Kid Messi’ moniker around which his entire reputation has been built – “with kid gloves”.

If that shames and embarrasses and taints Manchester United, as the latest narrative dictates, then they should wear the humiliation like a badge of honour.

The alternative, that they throw a physically immature and naturally mentally unprepared actual child into competitive sport against grown men – in an unsettled, struggling team, no less – seems sub-optimal. For Manchester United. For Gabriel.

There is talk of broken promises, of pathway pledges, promotions, agreed development plans and the seemingly intermittent threat of seeking greener academy pastures.

When dealing with a 15-year-old who has already flitted between the youth set-ups of Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham, and whose surname was changed from O’Cearuill to make him more marketable, it doesn’t require a microscope to read between the lines and identify a potential common denominator.

The idea it reflects poorly on Manchester United that a 15-year-old wishes to force his way out because he only played a few minutes in pre-season, wasn’t made eligible for their Champions League squad and was only going to become the youngest debutant in their history this week, is fanciful.

The notion that valuing their duty of care for someone so precocious is worthy of criticism, that it ‘raises serious questions about the running of United’, that they should be chastised for having ‘treated with kid gloves’ an actual 15-year-old, is laughable.

The claim that those optics are ‘the stuff of nightmares’ and somehow representative of a post-Ferguson fall from grace, as put forth by a Telegraph Northern Football correspondent perhaps annoyed at his efforts in building a relationship with Team Gabriel going to waste, is hilariously absurd.

When a ‘source’ is allowed to compare it to being “like Barcelona losing Messi before he had played for them” completely unchallenged, it is time to stop and realise that heads are being lost for no good reason.

This summer alone: Manchester City signed Mishel Nduka from Arsenal; who signed Vincent Joseph from Liverpool and Elijah Upson from Spurs; who signed George Jobling from Chelsea, who have only not retaliated because they are serving a youth transfer ban until December.

Manchester United themselves have poached Isaac Konde (Liverpool), David Eze and Karim Cassim (both Manchester City), and lost James Scanlon and Habeeb Ogunneye to Arsenal.

Gabriel might be the most touted of all those players, but his potential exit is a mere by-product of a shift in the academy recruitment landscape, rather than a damning indictment of Manchester United and proof that no-one likes them and they smell.

Ruben Amorim did not have much right at Old Trafford but his castigation of “the feeling of entitlement” in young players at Manchester United feels particularly apt if 15-year-olds demand to leave in disgust at being treated like 15-year-olds.

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