Nigel Pearson is doing his utmost, but it’s hard to dampen the increasing hype around Alex Scott as the Bristol City teenager prepares for England European Under-19 Championship semi-final against Italy.
Scott has delivered three eye-catching displays for the Young Lions in Slovakia after entering the tournament as a 60th-minute substitute against Austria in England’s opening game. Since then he’s not missed a minute as Ian Foster’s team have progressed into the final four with a 100 per cent record and seven goals without response from the opposition.
Perhaps what has stood out the most has been how comfortable, assured and mature he’s looked, in and out of possession, running the midfield amongst peers nearly all drawn from Premier League academies.
England take on Italy tomorrow (kick-off: 4pm) with the secret very much out - if it wasn’t already - regarding Scott’s talent and ceiling, but Pearson increasingly wants to manage expectations around the midfielder, accepting what he’s capable of but also not wanting to place unrealistic demands on his shoulders, given he’s only been a professional for 15 months.
Scott started 35 of City’s 46 league games last term, in his first senior season, playing a variety of roles across midfield and at right wing-back, but for 2022/23 is expected to be fixed in a central role - where he has shone for England.
“He’s just a talented lad,” Pearson said at the High Performance Centre before City embarked on their pre-season trip to the Alps. “His breakthrough season was pretty exceptional; to play 38 games in a Championship season is quite impressive.
“He was on the periphery on the back-end of the season before. I think he only came to us in March of 2021, so he’s only really been a professional footballer for a short period of time.
“I think it’s also important to try and manage people’s expectations on young players. My expectation of younger players is that second seasons can be more difficult sometimes.
“I don’t want people all of a sudden to expect him to be better and better all the time, but there is a possibility he will be better all the time, which is why people are talking about him.”
Pearson wasn’t speaking about Scott specifically when he said there’s been no “concrete interest” in anyone so far this summer, but the midfielder’s future will remain a talking point until the window closes on September 1. Because he’s just that good.
Antoine Semenyo’s shin injury has all but removed any chance of the striker being sold, while there was a definite air of confidence at the HPC on Friday that the prospect of Han-Noah Massengo staying and signing a new contract remains, albeit with an understanding that time will very soon not be on the club’s side.
Given City’s £38.4m losses for the financial year ending 2021, making a substantial sale in this window would be beneficial on a number of levels and, by process of elimination, Scott’s position in that conversation becomes increasingly relevant.
Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United appear the most interested of his top-flight suitors but liking the look of a player and actually bidding for them are two very different things. City, at present, have a price point that far exceeds what even some of the Premier League’s most financially-equipped clubs deem “too expensive”.
That though taps into some of what else Pearson said about “a shift in where we are”. In the sense that he doesn’t want to develop players simply for the means of making money - he wants their value to be judged by what they do for the Robins on the pitch.
“If there’s been interest, there’s nothing concrete,” Pearson added, when asked to speak generally if any bids have been received for Robins players. “So, for me, that just remains speculation and I don’t comment too much on speculation.
"What we would like to do here is develop a squad; so, keep your best players. I think we have got a squad with value now. We have players who other people would quite like. But their value to us is what they do out there, on that green rectangle, not on how much somebody is going to pay.
"That's a shift in where we are. We want to retain our best players, we want to develop the team so that when we are successful and get into the Premier League, we're not changing it all again.”
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