Manchester United academy coaches are level-headed when they speak about young players. They want to temper expectations, but the mask slips when a lad from Liverpool is mentioned. "Listen, everybody in the world knows about Shea Lacey," Travis Binnion effused in September. It may have sounded exaggerated, but Lacey has been the talk of academy circles since he was a boy.

Adam Lawrence discussed Lacey earlier this week before pausing for a moment to consider his words. "Shea can do things with the ball that, without getting too carried away... are genuinely first-team level," he said. Those admissions alone are enough to tell you that Lacey is a wonderfully gifted footballer, but any fan who watched his first-team cameos against Burnley and Brighton should already know that.

Lacey came close to scoring a winner against Burnley at Turf Moor in January, striking the crossbar from the edge of the box. “Where has he been?” Gary Neville quipped on commentary.

Darren Fletcher turned to Lacey on the bench in the closing stages against Brighton in the FA Cup third round. His fearlessness on the wing was a breath of...