Manchester United’s nightmare over the future of JJ Gabriel has largely been orchestrated by one figure: his father, Joe O’Cearuill.
O’Cearuill, a former Ireland international who burns with ambition for his son’s career, is the capricious and demanding figure who United must satisfy if they are to hang on to their extraordinary academy talent.
Even in the lower age groups, there was an understanding that Gabriel was on his own schedule. His father would suddenly announce that the family was off on holiday, and United made room for that even if it meant him missing training and matches.
On one of those trips, Barcelona happened to facilitate a casual meeting between the youngster and Lamine Yamal. A photo of that encounter went viral online and may have set alarm bells off at Carrington, but that was the sort of allowance made by the club to appease the family managing this golden egg.
Football insiders have long feared that Gabriel’s potential could be hindered by the actions of his maverick father, whose behaviour appears increasingly ambitious, volatile and even paranoid.
This is the character United are dealing with. This is the context behind that almighty sucker punch on Tuesday: the jewel of their academy wants out.
Manchester United have been told their starlet JJ Gabriel wants to leave – and must win over his father if they are to keep him
Joe O’Cearuill, a former Ireland international footballer, is seen as an ambitious and unpredictable character
‘This has been a long-term project for his dad, going on since JJ was a kid,’ a coach who worked with Gabriel in his younger years tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘He was homeschooled. He moved to Manchester (from London). The dad is not messing around. He’s never wasted time. He wants him to be the best in the world. He’s very eager, very keen, very on it. He is OTT. But then most parents are.
‘If you look at academy football now, everyone is nicking each other’s players. That’s what happens now, it’s cut-throat. It happened with Chelsea losing Rio Ngumoha to Liverpool. JJ is one of the best in the world for his age.’
O’Cearuill, who was once in Arsenal’s academy, has become known for his erratic presence on social media, posting outlandish statements only to delete them shortly after.
In one he compared his son to Lionel Messi, Neymar and Yamal. In another, he leaked a photograph of a private meeting between the family and former United boss Ruben Amorim, prompting the club to have words with him. He regularly gets into arguments with fans.
Daily Mail Sport understands O’Cearuill takes a dim view of United’s coaching and has wanted his son’s development to be accelerated even faster – despite him playing for the Under 21s aged 15.
He was frustrated that his son missed out on the squad for United’s recent Premier League match against Ipswich Town, but it seems his exclusion from the game against Azerbaijani minnows Sabah in the Champions League last week is the straw that broke the camel’s back. His son had to settle for a hat-trick against the same team in the UEFA Youth League.
O’Cearuill looks out at a football landscape where Max Dowman and Yamal made their debuts for Arsenal and Barcelona respectively aged 15, and cannot understand why the same velvet carpet has not been rolled out for his son.
Gabriel’s dad would organise holidays mid-season when his son was playing in United’s lower age groups, leading him to miss matches. Gabriel met Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal during one such break
O’Cearuill (pictured battling West Ham’s Carlos Tevez during a 2007 FA Cup tie while at Brighton) left Chelsea bemused after failing to turn up for a meeting he had demanded
After all, even when he was 14, his former coach Alfie Brooks felt that he could walk into a Premier League dressing room and ‘stand head and shoulders above it technically’.
Since the age of 10, the boy dubbed ‘kid Messi’ has had deals with Nike, who see him as the heir to Cristiano Ronaldo. When your son is being lionised in such a way, it’s easy to buy into the hype.
But from United’s perspective, they have done everything they can to expedite the forward’s progression and appease his father. O’Cearuill has a direct line to director of football, Jason Wilcox, who is seen as a key figure in the family’s relationship with the club.
When United first signed Gabriel, they hooked him up on a call with Marcus Rashford, who answered his questions about how to develop in the academy.
The club have also introduced Gabriel to Sir Alex Ferguson, often invite the family into the directors’ box, and were due to include the youngster in the squad for the Carabao Cup clash with Brighton tonight. Daily Mail Sport understands that now won’t be the case.
It is worth stressing that no bad words are being said about the teenager caught up in the centre of this. Gabriel is seen as polite. He does not control his social media accounts – the decision to delete any reference to Manchester United a few days ago, which has gone down like a cup of cold sick, was his father’s. What message does that send to future suitors?
United are not the only club who have had issues with O’Cearuill, who even axed his son’s Irish surname to make him more marketable. Gabriel – whose real name is Joseph Junior Andreou O’Cearuill – was previously involved with the academies at Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham.
At the former two, there are claims that other parents almost pulled their children out of the team because of O’Cearuill Snr’s antics. When multiple clubs were trying to pin down his son, then under 10, it is said he insisted on a meeting with Neil Bath, who was in charge of Chelsea’s academy… only to fail to turn up and put off the Blues.
Gabriel – whose real name, Joseph Junior Andreou O’Cearuill, was axed by his father for marketability reasons – scored a hat-trick against Sabah on his UEFA Youth League debut
The youngster has trained with the first team but his father has been frustrated at his lack of match action, despite his tender age
Major agents in the game have long been in disbelief at his behaviour.
The dark cloud hanging over this situation is that United need to resolve it quickly. Gabriel’s contract is up at the end of the season. Because he has an Irish passport, he is permitted to play in the European Union from the age of 16 (which he turns in October), rather than waiting until 18 as he would have to under a British one.
He also has a Cypriot passport through his mother, about whom not much is known, and that availability has been encouraging the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
United still feel the situation is salvageable. Daily Mail Sport understands Sir Jim Ratcliffe is being kept in the loop, illustrating how serious they consider the matter.
One advantage may be the impulsiveness of Gabriel’s father. If he can be displeased so quickly, the inverse can apply. In January, after months of moaning privately about his son’s treatment, he posted about how he was ‘so glad’ his boy was with the club and that they were letting him ‘grow into himself, not a robot’.
Ultimately, it is hard to know O’Cearuill’s heart. The former defender, who played twice for the Republic of Ireland, clearly recognises his son’s luminous talent and wants him to shine on the biggest of stages. There is no shame in that.
He is also said to be cautious about his son being run into the ground. Gabriel is on a closely guarded diet and has an individual coach taking care of him away from club training.
The level of extreme control and brutal enterprise can go either way. So far it has elevated his son to the brink of stardom. One just hopes O’Cearuill doesn’t burn the bridges that lead to it.
