John Fleck is a name Rangers fans will be all to0 familiar with, but unfortunately for what might’ve been instead of what actually was.
It’s hard to remember a player who was as hyped as Fleck in the Murray Park/Auchenhowie/Hummel Training Centre era.
Billy Gilmour aside, who’s now strutting his stuff in the Chelsea first-team, Fleck was supposed to be the Rangers and Scottish wonderkid to beat all wonderkids.
But for whatever reason, Fleck never quite reached the heights of the hype which saw him make his Rangers debut as a 16-year-old.
Fleck – who remains the youngest player to play in a British cup final after a two-minute cameo in 2008 final against Queen of the South at 16 – placed 9th in the Times 50 rising stars of 2009.
England legend David Beckham even talked Fleck up amid comparisons with Wayne Rooney after Rangers played AC Milan in a friendly that year [Telegraph].
The nephew of former Rangers star Robert Fleck, things were all set up for Flecky to make a lasting, heroic impression at Ibrox.
For whatever reason, it never happened, and in the middle of Rangers’ financial collapse, Fleck moved down south.
Still only a teenager at 19, Fleck describes the move to Coventry as his own choice and describes it as the “right-call” [Scotsman].
Now, it’s certainly beginning to bear fruit.
Fleck moved to Sheffield United in 2016 and got the opener for Premier League Blades in the 3-3 draw with Manchester United at the weekend, a symbol of how far the reinvented midfielder has come.
He has also earned his first two caps for Scotland under Steve Clarke this season.
Now 28, Fleck is entering the peak of his powers and over the next four years, we should finally see the best of a settled, content player flourishing out of the high-pressure limelight.
Who knows, maybe he’ll finally fulfil the potential of 2008 which still leaves the memory, and hope, of a young John Fleck etched into the minds of bluenoses everywhere.
