Yes, he has to compete with Terry, Cahill, and Zouma. He also has to beat out all the defenders on their youth squads, plus on-loan defenders like Andreas Christiansen, Papy, Tomas Kalas. He’s not just automatically a first-team contender.

Yes, most players fail to develop into superstars. There are plenty of hyped European, South American, and African players who are hyped as teenagers and fail to make the grade - most of them play for Stoke. Just because some American prospects failed to cut it in Europe doesn’t mean that isn’t the path to take.…