What is football’s equivalent of an ugly duckling? Baby giraffe, perhaps? That was the impression evoked by Jarrad Branthwaite when Steven Pressley first clocked him in a reserve game at Oldham during his 11-month tenure as manager of Carlisle United. Lacking in balletic poise as the lanky teenager might have been that day five years ago, Branthwaite has acquired it now, a towering defender seemingly headed towards Manchester United and England.
Like all managers with thin resources, Pressley made the 250-mile round trip looking for a jewel. None of the staff had mentioned Branthwaite when Pressley took the Carlisle job in January 2019. He describes the Oldham Odyssey as a sliding doors moment in the career of a player who might have missed the high-speed train had the manager had something better to do that day.
It is worth stating at this point that Branthwaite had a difficult birth as a professional footballer, suffering with Osgood-Schlatter disease, a knee condition that often effects the rapidly growing bones of tyros. The condition disappears at full height, but at a crucial juncture in his youthful progression, Branthwaite thought he might not make it.
I had six weeks to prove I was good enough to get a scholarship,” he told Sky Sports. “That six weeks was hard work. My dad had me in the gym doing extra fitness stuff. If he didn’t do that for me, I don’t think I’d be where I am now. I’d have just given up. I think I wouldn’t be playing football.”
He passed that test but was by no means a banker to sign professional terms. He had been at the club’s academy since 2013 and at only 16-years-old had still to fill out his willowy frame. It took Pressley to spot the signs.
“No-one had spoken about him to me. But from the first moment he made a big impression. He had a really outstanding game. It’s one of those things, when the manager comes along and all of a sudden I take a fancy to him. That’s football,” Pressley told i.
“These moments shape a young player’s career. That timing. And it was very much like that for him. I phoned the director on my way home and said you need to sign this kid on a long-term contract. Within two or three days he had a three-year contract and we started working with him in the first team.”
So what was it about Branthwaite that stood out, other than his 6ft 5in silhouette?
“I felt he very much had the tools to be a high-level, modern defender. He had good aerial ability and the ability to defend off his left and right foot. Many can play out from the back but ultimately the best defenders to do basics well. I felt he had really good foundations.”
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