Chris Smalling will join Manchester United at the beginning of next season.
If Chris Smalling ever decides to follow up his interest in studying business management, his future employers at Old Trafford should provide ideal material for a dissertation. The 20-year-old Fulham defender, who todayunderwent a medical ahead of his move to Manchester United in the summer, was planning to enrol on a degree course at Loughborough University before the letter he sent to Fulham requesting a trial took his career down a different path.
Smalling was playing for Maidstone United in the Isthmian League at the time, having failed to earn a full-time contract at Millwall, but his decision to have one last crack at breaking into the professional game was rewarded when Roy Hodgson liked what he saw. Eighteen months and 10 appearances for Fulham later and Smalling is on the verge of completing his journey from prospective student to central defender for English football's most famous club.
Remarkably, he has started only two Premier League games, against Chelsea last month, when he was unfortunate to score an own goal, and at White Hart Lane on Tuesday, where he enhanced his burgeoning reputation with an impressive performance despite Fulham suffering a 2-0 defeat. That display followed the distraction of reports that United had stolen a march on Arsenal and agreed to sign a player Hodgson has described as a "diamond".
Danny Murphy certainly expects Smalling to sparkle at Old Trafford. "I was fortunate enough to see players like Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard when they were young lads," the Fulham and former Liverpool midfielder said. "Being a defender, Chris is different and he is not quite on their level yet but he is potentially a wonderful player. He has great pace is calm on the ball and good in the air. What more do you need from a good centre-half? He'll be a great asset to his new club and he won't look out of place.
"He showed against Tottenham and he showed at Chelsea a few weeks ago that he's very capable already for a 20-year-old. I think the more you see of him as a player, and you deal with him as a person, you'll see he's very cool, calm and collected. He's obviously got a lot going on at the moment and it has been a big few days for him but he's handled it brilliantly. Considering what is going on in his life, his performance against Tottenham was very good."
Smalling would appear to be a future England international in the making. He has already impressed Stuart Pearce, whose own career started at non-league level, and made his first start for the Under-21 side against Portugal in November. "I like what I see," said Pearce after Smalling's full debut. "He doesn't mind mixing it. He just needs to learn the game now and the only way you do that is by playing matches. It's the only thing he's short of."
He may have to be patient at Old Trafford but spending time on the sidelines at Manchester United and observing Rio Ferdinand at close quarters should not be too much of a hardship for a player who was writing to clubs for trials at the start of last season. Fulham, to their credit, responded and after Barry Dunne, the club's youth scout, watched Smalling six times it took just 15 minutes of a reserve match to convince Hodgson to give him a professional contract.
The four B grade A-levels he picked up at Chatham Grammar School for Boys are now unlikely to be needed, with the 1.92m (6ft 3in) defender financially secure for life and tipped to become a star of the future. "You know when there's a good player coming along," added Murphy, who likened Smalling to a "quick Sami Hyypia", the former Liverpool defender. "I think the only thing that's been a little bit of a shock is how quickly he's progressed."