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Reported Manchester United target Ryan Sessegnon was supposed to be the next Golden Boy of English football.
The versatile Fulham wide-man is just 18 and had a breakthrough season in the Championship in 2017-18.
Deployed in three different positions – left-back, left midfield and high up on the left wing – Sessegnon was a key member of a swashbuckling promotion-winning team, scoring 15 times in the second-tier and laying on six assists. That tally included a hat-trick against Sheffield United in November as Fulham won 5-4.
The performances naturally led to interest from the Premier League. The Telegraph reported in February of last year that Tottenham Hotspur were preparing a £35million bid. Fulham, they claimed, valued him at closer to £50m. Sessegnon was 17.
In July, then-manager Slaviska Jokanovic claimed that Sessegnon was a mix of Real Madrid stars Marcelo and Gareth Bale, per the Evening Standard.
He said: “He is an incredible player project, with a fantastic physical capacity. People compare him to Bale, for me it’s a mix between Marcelo and Bale.
“I’ve used him lately in a more offensive role, but he’s ready to be left-back of a big team that constantly attacks. He still has a lot of room for improvement.”
Promotion came and went and Sessegnon stayed at Craven Cottage, though he has not committed his future to the club. His current contract expires in 18 months and the Evening Standard report that talks are dragging on. He is said to be aware of interest from Manchester United and Spurs. Indeed, the Daily Express claim that United are ready to match that aforementioned £50m asking price.
Yet, at the same time, there is a feeling that Sessegnon is stagnating. Jokanovic, the man who touted Sessegnon as some sort of freak of nature, a player combining the attacking talents of Bale with the defensive assiduity of Marcelo, was sacked in November. Fulham had picked up five points from 12 games when he was relieved of his duties and replaced by Premier League title winner Claudio Ranieri.
But the Italian does not appear to have the same amount of trust in Sessegnon as Jokanovic. Since his appointment on November 14th, Sessegnon has played the full 90 minutes four times. Ranieri has taken charge of 14 games. Fulham are 19th, eight points behind 17th-placed Cardiff City.
Sessegnon made two assists in his first game under Ranieri, a 3-2 win over Southampton, but his playing time has swiftly waned. In Fulham’s last five games – against Burnley, Tottenham, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Manchester United – Sessegnon has played a maximum of 45 minutes. He was on the bench against Palace and did not come on as a substitute.
United’s apparent pursuit, then, appears to make little sense. Ranieri had time to get to know Sessegnon, to watch what he can do in training. After doing just that, he opted to sign Ryan Babel in January. Babel, by comparison, has started Fulham’s last four outings.
There is an easy parallel to draw with the United squad. After seeing Luke Shaw explode onto the scene at Southampton under Mauricio Pochettino, United paid £27m to secure his signature in 2014. He became one of the world’s most expensive teenagers once the deal was completed, as he was signed at the age of 18.
It quickly became evident, however, that Shaw did not possess the qualities needed to make the grade at United immediately. He was too weak physically, too positionally rash, too defensively naive.
It has taken Shaw a total of five years to become a genuine first-team option at the club and, even now, he is occasionally kept out of the team by a 33-year-old Ashley Young. That is not to mention the fact that Anthony Martial, on the left wing, has unlocked his potential and appears primed to become a world-beater under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Sessegnon appeared to have the world at his feet in the second-tier but the jump to the Premier League has been monumental. His statistics, still, are solid. He has scored two goals and laid on five assists this season.
But the possibility of a move to United sets alarm bells ringing. Ranieri believes Babel is more deserving of a first-team spot after 12 years away from English football and that is about as far from a transfer recommendation as a club can get.
Sessegnon can still make the very top. He is young and he clearly has talent in spades but he needs time to develop and stepping into the cauldron of Old Trafford would not bring out the Gareth Bale-Marcelo hybrid so hyped by Jokanovic – certainly not instantly, anyway.
Instead, it would see him sitting on the bench yet again, watching more accomplished alternatives maraud up and down the left flank.
