The 16-year-old forward made his Aston Villa debut v Sunderland.
At Tottenham Hotspur, Tim Sherwood developed a reputation for giving young talent a go in the first team. The likes of Nabil Bentaleb and Harry Kane.
It seems to be a philosophy he is taking with him to new club Aston Villa.
He appears to be a big fan of Jack Grealish and today he really did bring on a kid. He sent 16-year-old Rushian Hepburn-Murphy onto the field as Villa were comfortably 4-0 up against Sunderland at The Stadium of Light.
The centre-forward entered the match at the 83-minute mark, replacing man of the match performer Christian Benteke.
His introduction certainly caused a mini-stir on Twitter, including a reaction from a current England international.
Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge, whose team are in action on Monday night, was clearly pleased to see the young lad get seven minutes of action – as this Tweet shows:
Of course Sturridge may play for Liverpool now, but the England striker is a Birmingham lad. He was on the books at Villa from 1996 to 2000, before heading to Coventry City and eventually finding his way to where he is now.
Hepburn-Murphy will certainly hope to follow in his footsteps. Villa fans won’t mind, as long as he stays at Villa Park.
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