Tom Cleverley enjoyed an impressive Olympic Tournament for Team GB, playing an instrumental role in their journey to the quarter-finals. Manchester United will now be looking to take advantage of the experience gained by the 22-year-old as they aim to wrestle their title back from rivals Manchester City.
Tom Cleverley broke into the Manchester United first team at the beginning of last season, after loan spells with Leicester City, Watford and Wigan Athletic. Paul Scholes had just retired and Sir Alex Ferguson touted Cleverley as a possible replacement for the former England legend.
The Team GB star has always been a player with great potential but unfortunately he has also been one who has had his fair share of injury troubles. Whilst on loan at at Leicester back in 2009, Cleverley suffered a shoulder injury; an injury which brought his spell there to an premature end. Then, exactly a year later in 2010, on loan at Watford, injury yet again brought Cleverley’s time there to an abrupt conclusion; this time, it was his knee ligaments. Despite this disappointment though, Cleverley was named as Watford’s Player of the Season award after scoring 11 goals in 35 appearances for the Hertfordshire club.
After excelling at Championship level, perhaps the most useful and character-building experience of all Cleverley’s loan spells came at Wigan. It was predicted, after impressing during Manchester United’s 2010 summer tour of America that Cleverley was going to stay with the Red Devils but Sir Alex knows best and it was Roberto Martinez and Wigan who would reap the rewards as the youngster proved he could score and create goals at the top level, notching up four goals and two assists in 25 outings during his time at the DW.
Another strong pre-season followed and after giving an outstanding display against the then European Champions Barcelona and then an impressive 45 minutes in the Community Shield against Manchester City, the time for Cleverley to make his mark in the Manchester United first team was now.
Ferguson, in the wake of these performances, gave Cleverley the chance to prove his worth and show what he could do from the word go against West Bromich Albion. The midfielder did not fail to disappoint and kept his place in the side for the side’s next three games, against Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Bolton Wanderers. It was against the latter that injury would strike again – again it was ligament damage but this time to the foot, coming as a result of a Kevin Davies special.
After seven weeks out and during only the second game of his comeback, a Premier League game against Everton at Goodison Park, Cleverley could not even complete an hour before an ankle injury would mean another three and a half months on the sidelines- his time on the pitch however, was enough to provoke yet more praise from his manager.
Returning to action in the Europa League against Ajax in February, Cleverley went on to make a further seven appearances for United as they finished runners-up to neighbours City in the league. Five games for Team GB then followed and Cleverley showed after an injury-interrupted season, that he had grown stronger as a midfielder, earning the respect of pundits and fans alike. His performances would have also attracted the attention of England manager, Roy Hodgson and surely it must only be a matter of time before Cleverley wins his first cap for the senior side.
Sir Alex Ferguson must realise Cleverley has never failed to deliver when given the opportunity to do so and that if it wasn’t for his two injury setbacks, he could have been the missing ingredient which saw his team fall just short of defending their title. Ferguson must stand by the player he has openly praised on more than one occasion in the past and make him an integral part of United’s title-charge next season.
Tom Cleverley is a talented player who will not let a game pass him by but will always create something going forward and with Paul Scholes hanging around for the time-being, this can only be a good thing for young Cleverley – a real case of the master and the apprentice which must have Manchester United fans licking their lips.
image: © eschipul
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