Fulham have had a number of talented young players come through at Motspur Park in recent years.
Cody Drameh, Harvey Elliott and the Sessegnon twins are all England youth players tipped for big things in the future, having started their careers at Craven Cottage, and another man who was seen as a wonderkid once upon a time is Matt O’Riley.
The 6 ft 2 midfielder was tipped to be a first-teamer when he was just 17, and he was watched by both Manchester United and Arsenal back in 2017.
However, despite being watched by Borussia Dortmund last year, O’Riley’s career is faltering, and he’s still only 20.
Many a Fulham fan will have been devastated to hear that O’Riley left the club on a free transfer this summer, but here we are, almost six months down the line, and the 20-year-old still doesn’t have a club.
This is a young player who has reportedly been courted by some of Europe’s biggest clubs, and nobody has decided to take a punt on him six months after he left the Whites.
For lack of a better word, this situation is strange. There’s been no word on an injury, and he had the option to re-sign with Fulham in the summer, but he decided to leave.
That’s six months of O’Riley’s career that he will never get back, and at his age, he needs to be in an elite footballing environment, soaking up information from top coaches and playing competitive matches.
You hear all the time about young footballers released from their academies falling by the wayside and never making an impact again, but O’Riley isn’t one of those players, or at least he wasn’t supposed to be.
He’s played first-team football at Fulham and the Cottagers wanted him to stay, offering him a new deal before he left, but despite reportedly having interest from all over Europe, he’s not found another club.
Is he being too picky? Or has he just had no offers? Whatever the answer to this mystery is, the midfielder needs to buck up his ideas or his career could be over before it’s even properly started.
Perhaps he’d have been better off taking Fulham’s offer to stay at Craven Cottage.
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