Opinion: Harding’s Attitude Is Faultless

Having personally watched a lot of youth football, it is often the attitude that sets players about at the older age groups. In the younger teams, the players that have developed the fastest will be the ones to stand out but as the teams get older, this becomes less of a factor.

A couple of years ago I watched Jack Barmby play for Manchester United. His skills were the best on the pitch that day and he had every trick in the book to beat his man. But as soon as United started losing, he just seemed to give up rather than really get the team going again which is what you need. Leicester signed Barmby due to his skill but he has been sent out on loan 4 times now, scoring once in 22 appearances and 0 in the English league. His attitude has unfortunately ruined his chances of becoming the player that he could have been.

But why do I mention this when it has nothing to do with Birmingham City? It’s because I’ve been really impressed with Wes Harding’s attitude in the development squad and it is really shining through. Last season he made the most appearances out of everyone for the development side and this was mainly in the centre half position where he looks like a real talent. But the manager, Beale, decided in one game to move him to right back due to an injury. Not only was Harding very competent in that role, he also really grabbed the bull by the horns. He was constantly checking along the line for the offside trap and he was communicating really well with the other defenders.

For me, this showed a lot of things. Firstly, that he is versatile. The body positioning of a full back is very different to those in the centre of the park but he adapted superbly to this. But is also showed that he is willing to learn. He was talking to the centre halves and the winger in front of him to make sure he was doing the role correctly at first and as he got more and more confident, it showed that he was taking these ideas on board.

You can’t teach a player to have a good attitude. Ravel Morrison is one of the most technically gifted players that we have had in the squad in a long time and many said he was better than Pogba at youth level. But his bad attitude has meant that Pogba has just won the European Championships with France and a record breaking move to United where as Ravel isn’t even getting into Cardiff City’s team. He has the potential to do more but he didn’t have the attitude.

For me, it was great when Harding joined up with the first team squad for pre-season as it shows Rowett’s intent to keep him amongst the squad. He will have learned a lot from training alongside the likes of Morrison every day as he will have listened to the advice. Knowing that he will have really thrived under that atmosphere shows what a special young man he is and I believe that he will be the future of our club.