Jermaine Pennant has come out to warn Birmingham youngster, Jude Bellingham to not join Manchester United because the club will only halt his development as a player.
Pennant believes a brilliant talent like Jude should take his time to develop and should ignore all interests from top clubs.
Jermaine himself made an early move to Arsenal at the age of 15 so he is sure it would be a mistake if the youngster treads the same path.
He, however, added that he knows it would be hard for Jude to reject a top club like Manchester United.
His words, “It’s difficult, it will be so hard for Jude to turn down a move to Manchester United,”
“But is it going to halt his career, at 16? Ole is not going to be throwing him into the starting line-up, he will be in the squad but he won’t be starting. How many games is he going to play?
“Now he is a regular at Birmingham. Birmingham is in the Championship, not League One, not League Two, the Championship, it’s good football.
“The Championship is a very difficult league, more demanding than the Premier League – and he’s 16 and he’s holding his weight, he is putting in tackles, he’s strong.
“When I saw him, I was thinking ‘No way is he 16, what has he been taking, can I have some of that?’.
“He is skilful, he is box to box, he puts in challenges. You have either got one or the other, skilful players don’t want to tackle, I didn’t tackle.
“He is 16, he is diving in, he is putting his foot in and he’s not scared – and he’s got skill as well.
“He has got ability as well, he is both footed, scoring goals, creating goals, he is a fantastic talent and he’s only going to get bigger.
“He is tall now but he has still got to grow to 21 so he is going to get bigger, wiser, quicker, stronger, he is a fantastic talent.
“I am surprised that no other teams are looking at him as well.
“My advice would be to stay at Birmingham for a season, at least for the rest of this season, continue playing, learning more, the trade of demanding first-team football in the Championship and it will do wonders for his career moving forward.”
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