There has been a lot written about Manchester United’s youngster Mason Greenwood in the English media recently. It has all been in a very negative light as well. We are currently in a global pandemic and much has been made about mental health in younger people. Whilst it is given much thought and care, it seems to be lacking when it comes to young sports stars.
Greenwood has garnered much scrutiny, especially after his indiscretion during international duty for England with Manchester City’s Phil Foden un September. Questions have been raised with regards to his form, his attitude, and behaviour on and off the pitch. It just begs why the media are scrutinising him so much.
He is a young lad who’s made mistakes. We have all made mistakes in our own lives. But it how we learn from them that makes us better people.
Siege Mentality From The Media
Some of the English media seems to be on a siege mentality of late when it comes to Manchester United players. A headline by the Daily Mail on Saturday said, ‘Campaigning football star Marcus Rashford has bought five luxury homes worth more than £2million’.
The headline evokes that Rashford was doing something wrong for purchasing these homes, whilst he has been campaigning for free school meals. Rashford did respond on his twitter account with the following, “Ok, so let’s address this. I’m 23. I came from little. I need to protect not just my future but my family’s too. To do that I made a decision at the beg of 2020 to start investing more in property. Please don’t run stories like this alongside refs to ‘campaigning.”
Rashford’s has done nothing wrong in this case, he is right to invest in his future. A footballer’s career can either be very long or short. When Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge, he always on to his players to think about their futures after football and was encouraging them to take their coaching badges amongst other things.
Players’ Mental Health
Back to Mason Greenwood, he has had personal issues to deal with of late with as his good friend and fellow football player Jeremy Wisten sadly passed away last month after struggling with his own mental health. It just makes the intrusion by the media and their negativity towards him very wrong and a dangerous game to play with a young sportsperson’s mind and feelings.
I understand young sportspeople are held in high esteem and put out there as role models but the media are so easy to build someone up and then knock them down all to grab the headlines. These young players are not emotionless and do have feelings too. It seems some in the media are forgetting that.
Support From United
I know that Manchester United will be doing everything they can to protect Mason Greenwood from the media intrusion. I do hope Ole will address this in his press conference before the game against West Brom.
When Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge and the media would print something out of turn. He would then go into defensive mode protecting the club, himself, and the players. Notoriously from his time in charge, he had banned a few journalists from getting media access at the club.
Solskjaer has already batted away suggestions last month that Greenwood did not feature against Newcastle because of disciplinary issues. He told the media before the PSG that Mason is injured and that is why he is not featuring.
Greenwood Will Bounce Back
Greenwood made his breakthrough last season and hit some great form. It has not been the case this season so far as fellow United Devils’s contributor Asuzu mentioned in his article that Mason has only found the net on two occasions this season.
All great players suffer from dips in form but they found their way again. Mason Greenwood is an exceptional talent who is destined to do great things in the world of football. It has been a privilege to watch this young talent burst onto the scene and I cannot wait to see how Mason develops not only as a football player but as a person as well.
