From The Times
April 21, 2007
McCarthy takes talk of Chelsea and Celtic in his young stride
Graham McColl
There are few signs in the demeanour of James McCarthy that he could be on the brink of becoming the most illustrious player produced by Hamilton Academical.
As he wanders around the club in sweatshirt and shorts after a morning training session, the 16-year-old appears like any other well-disciplined, slightly bashful young hopeful taking their first tentative steps in an unpredictable game. A grazed knee only emphasises the suggestion of ordinariness.
The prowess and potential of McCarthy, though, has already attracted interest from, among others, Barcelona, Chelsea, Deportivo La Coruña, Celta Vigo, Liverpool, Reading and Celtic. That is despite it still being less than six months since his debut for the club and with him having only 22 first-team appearances to his name — almost half of them as a substitute.
Such interesting destinations are not currently at the fore-front of McCarthy’s mind — a greater preoccupation for him is the spasmodic thigh strain that kept him out of last Saturday’s home match with Gretna and that he hopes will have eased enough to enable him to participate in Hamilton’s match at Dens Park today, where they face Dundee.
“Sometimes I just block it out and just get on with it,” McCarthy says of dealing with the variety of options concerning his next potential club. “Sometimes I have to sit down and talk about it and I do that but then I just get back to my football afterwards and don’t think about it.
“At the start of the season, I was hoping I could break into the first-team but I didn’t think I’d have come this far; to have played near-enough 25 games. I’m very happy about that.
“I’ve trained with Reading, Celtic and Liverpool. I trained with the first-team at Celtic and at Reading and I felt comfortable at all three clubs and enjoyed it but I’m not sure I’d rush to sign with Reading or sign with anybody, like Celtic or Liverpool, because I wouldn’t go right into their first-team; I don’t think.
“I’m really not sure yet whether I’ll be moving in the summer; I don’t know. I’ll need to sit down and talk about it with my parents and my family. I’m really enjoying it here at Hamilton and I wouldn’t mind staying for another season but we’ll see what happens.”
It is a big help to McCarthy that he is in a supportive environment at Hamilton. He is one of several first-team youngsters being nurtured gently by Billy Reid, the manager, while Braveheart Promotions, the player’s representatives, are also mindful of his youth and of the necessity to tread carefully with the talent entrusted to them.
“It is entirely up to the boy what he does,” George Gray, of Braveheart Promotions, says. “He is a bit of a homebird, so he may decide to remain at Hamilton and, to give credit to the club, they have turned down good offers from clubs and are not pushing to sell him. I will sit down with the boy in the next week or two to discuss it.”
A midfield player blessed with vision and good passing ability, McCarthy, from Castlemilk in Glasgow, made an immediate impression on his teammates because of a level of technique rarely seen in a player of his age. He became the youngest goalscorer in Hamilton’s history when he scored against Livingston in January at the age of 16 years and 55 days and it says much about McCarthy that he found it difficult to celebrate the feat too greatly because Hamilton went on to lose that Tennent’s Scottish Cup tie 4-2.
In an era in which a dearth of naturally talented players is lamented widely in Scotland, he is also special in being almost entirely self-taught. “Since I was four, I’ve been playing football,” McCarthy says. “There used to be a pitch across the road from my street and I would always be playing football when I was young.
“My two big brothers played football. Brian used to play for Partick Thistle and Paul played Junior football. My dad, Willie, used to be with Kilmarnock. My mum, Marie, was always driving me to games when I played boys’ club and if it hadn’t been for my mum and dad supporting me and taking me to football, I wouldn’t be in this position.”
An under17 international with Ireland, McCarthy recently impressed in the European Championships for that age level, in matches with Germany, Greece and Scotland. Victory over the latter emphasised the sharpness of the Irish in spotting McCarthy’s talent and bringing him into their set-up — he qualifies for them through a grandfather from Donegal. Scotland had failed to offer him international football.
Hamilton are currently encouraging McCarthy to attend weight-training sessions in the gym to develop his upper-body strength. He finds it a grind at times — but while he may require extra muscle for the bustle of modern football, this slightly-built youngster has ability in bulk.
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Originally Posted by OwlsFan
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