Wonderkid Stefan Bajcetic has burst onto the scene at Liverpool by scoring the win-sealing goal against Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
The midfielder has been around Jurgen Klopp's senior squad for much of the season having impressed in the younger age groups. But his rise has not been all smooth, with the 18-year-old coming close to picking up a fine for a touch of forgetfulness.
Veteran star James Milner is the man in charge of the club's fine system as the 'chairman of the fines committee'. Players have to follow a raft of strict rules, but Nat Phillips decided to take advantage of Bajcetic's unfamiliarity with the system.
Milner revealed earlier this week that Bajcetic was punished after leaving his phone on the team bus. Phillips decided to stitch up the youngster at dinner later that day, with the fine for having a phone out during that period as much as £500.
"We had a funny one the other day. Stefan left his phone on the bus. Nat Phillips brought it off and he pulled me at dinner. He's like 'Get on this,'" Milner told the We Are Liverpool podcast.
"He set an alarm every five minutes to go off during dinner. The first one goes off and I'm like 'Are you joking you? 17 years old and your phone's going off'. Everybody's kicking off.
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"I've got it on the watch and the next five minutes is up and it's going off again. He's like 'No! no! no!' panicking like anything. He cottoned on after the second one."
Bajcetic came on for Jordan Henderson with 11 minutes to play against Villa on Monday. And just two minutes later he had wrapped up the three points for the Reds by scoring their third goal.
Darwin Nunez raced onto a long ball over the top with the ball falling to Bajcetic after Robin Olsen parried it back into the box. Rather than shoot, Bajcetic chipped the ball over the onrushing Olsen before firing it into the net through Tyrone Mings' legs.
His cameo performance delighted boss Klopp, who has steadily handed Bajcetic more game-time over the course of the campaign. And the German believes it signifies a bright future for the Reds.
"I think he showed it today, he's just cheeky as hell, he’s not worried about anything, he just plays football and he can do that exceptionally well. A football-playing father, the genes are there," he told Amazon Prime.
"But the attitude, awareness, the football intelligence is really big, it's a big pleasure to have these boys. The future is bright but these boys fit in when everything is going well, that's what they showed tonight.
"We knew if we told the boys at half-time where we could go better, the only problem in the second half was a little bit the last step and Aston Villa was pushing hard. You have to get through these periods, the third goal, we could’ve scored earlier - that’s fine.
"The situation around the third goal I love it so much how Darwin takes the ball down cuts it back and Stefan… it's incredible, an incredible situation. You think about the story of the game, football as it is now, when it's loud outside so it was really cool we could finish it off."
