Ambitious Cunningham wants to be a big shot

SOCCER:THE BIG money-buying season is weeks away yet, but it seems Manchester City are set to acquire their first new senior international of the summer. Step forward Greg Cunningham, a 19-year-old Galway man recruited by the free-spending Eastlands outfit three years ago for something short of €40,000.

Almost half of that, as it happens, had to be dragged out of the English Premier League outfit only last week when Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber ordered the billionaire Sheikh Mansour’s underlings to cut a cheque for €15,000 to Cregmore, the club Cunningham played from the age of six until he was 13 or so.

The young Irishman then spent a couple of seasons at Mervue United and City officials said they had sorted compensation out with them (the initial payment is rumoured to have been just €6,000 with various bonuses to follow) on the understanding any money owed to Cregmore under the game’s regulations relating to compensation for the development of young players would be passed on out of the cash Mervue received.

Such arrangements are prohibited by Fifa and Cregmore got in touch to claim the €20,000 they felt they were due under the regulations. City stood firm and though they were ordered to pay up after last week’s hearing, something in their case appears to have saved them €5,000. Perhaps they’ll put towards their reported €60 million bid for Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguerio.

Asked about the controversy last week, Cunningham, a quiet spoken but confident and articulate teenager, happily pleaded ignorance. The young left-back clearly knows it will be some time yet before he can risk any reports of negativity towards his employers filtering back from trips home for international duty.

Whether he ever gets to act the big shot at a club already jammed with them remains to be seen. Happily, he doesn’t seem the type but the reality is that even if that changes he still faces some steep challenges if he is make it at a club estimated by some to have a transfer budget of up to €200 million this summer.

Wayne Bridge, the man currently in possession of the club’s number three shirt, is a very good left-back and will take some dislodging by a promising youngster 10 years his junior. However, Cunningham’s bigger problem could be that Bridge was not considered to be top-notch by Chelsea who addressed the situation by bringing in Ashley Cole and selling him to City, then in the early stages of team-building.

The fact that manager Roberto Mancini gave Cunningham a couple of run-outs this season is highly encouraging, but if he, or whoever the next man in the job might be, decides the club needs somebody better than Bridge then the Irishman may find himself nudged back down the pecking order.

Of course, it’s possible he’ll make it at the club, but the fate of many others who have reached the same point at other Premier clubs is not encouraging with managers reluctant to take a chance on youth when their own futures are on the line.

When talking last week, Cunningham suggested that his ambition was to establish himself as the City left-back, the Irish left-back and then “push on from there”. There was not a hint of arrogance as he said it, just the cheerful tone of a young, highly likeable professional setting the bar high.

His ambitions from an international perspective may prove significantly more straightforward with nobody staking a convincing claim to succeed the 33-year-old Kevin Kilbane.

So far, Cunningham has certainly looked the part and his inclination to push forward and a talent for identifying players in good positions ahead of him are certainly attributes which are likely to appeal to Trapattoni.

“He (Mancini) has told me that he’s a good player; clever, young and fast, and I have seen that for myself over the last week,” said the Italian yesterday. “He is someone who plays well with the ball at his feet and looks to play a pass forward immediately. That is important because when the strikers get the ball quickly, it can give them maybe a yard or second of an advantage and that can make all the difference.”

There have been signs of late that Trapattoni is considering switching John O’Shea to left-back as Kilbane’s ability to cope, particularly against the better teams, wanes but the Manchester United man would be quickly redeployed elsewhere again if a genuine alternative emerged.

Cunningham could well establish himself as that alternative within a short space of time, but he is unlikely to do it while playing reserve team football and he may yet have to decide which one of his ambitions is going to take priority.