Liverpool’s Academy director Alex Inglethorpe has claimed that youngster Harry Wilson will follow in Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane’s footsteps and make a big impact at Anfield in the future.
The 21-year-old has been starring on loan at Championship side Derby County this season, and Inglethorpe feels it’s inevitable that he will find success on Merseyside at some point.
“There are two different ways of doing it. You can take the elevator or you can take the stairs,” he told the Liverpool Echo. “Trent Alexander-Arnold has taken the elevator. If you are looking at Harry, he might have to get closer to a hundred games elsewhere before he’s ready but there’s no shame in that.
“Mo Salah or Sadio Mane had to have a couple of hundred games under their belt before they were ready to play for Liverpool. Why shouldn’t Harry Wilson? He might have to do the same. He might have to accumulate experience. There’s undoubted quality and talent there. I have no doubts that at some point Harry will be ready to take his opportunity.”
OPINION
This is hugely encouraging stuff for Wilson, here. Inglethorpe makes some decent points here, too. Salah and Mane weren’t finished products at 21 years of age. Salah famously couldn’t cut the mustard at Chelsea, for whatever reason, while Mane took a roundabout route to a club the size of Liverpool. As Inglethorpe says, they had the cut their teeth elsewhere before they were ready to make an impact for Liverpool. Wilson is doing the same thing, albeit out on loan. He’s doing incredibly well, too. Derby are having a great season and he is one of the main reasons why. He has consistently risen to the plate for the Rams, be it in league or cup competitions. The technical brilliance that he has shown in the Championship this season suggests that he could be good enough to make an impact for Liverpool. Whether that’s next season or not remains to be seen, but he’s certainly on the right track.
