Inside Track: In the words of ‘The Voice’, Gabriel is “ pulling up trees” at Old Trafford

It wasn’t news to one of the latest generation when I told him about JJ Gabriel. He’s a Man U fanatic. Watches all their games on telly, and has been to Old Trafford a couple of times.

It’s a great day for him when the Red Devils win, but when they lose, best to keep out of his path. I’ve been doing quite a bit of that since the beginning of the season.

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He’s often on his mobile, looking for the latest coming out from the OT camp. It was on one of his visits that he latched on to Joseph Junior Gabriel. He was surprised when I told him that I once met JJ’s father, Joe Ó Cearúill, in Oriel Park.

He wanted to know all about it, in particular, what was Joe doing up there. Better still, what was I doing at the Carrick Road venue.

He knew I was born up around there, and took in a game most Sundays in my youth, the senior side one week, the ‘B’ team the next. But “are you not in the GAA”?

(I must tell him about the times I played in Oriel. It was when the field ran from north to south. The reason I put it that way, rather than south to north, is because there was a slope towards the Railway End goals.)

Before readers who frequently take a glance at these pages yawn and go ‘here we go again for about the fortieth time’, I promise to keep this next bit to the minimum.

I was alerted to Joe on reading about his exploits in a Sunday newspaper. He was on the Arsenal books when Arsene Wenger was in charge.

Probably his biggest achievement was playing in the testimonial for Dennis Bergkamp. Still, he was good enough for Stephen Staunton, who gave him a couple of caps in the Dundalk man’s time as Republic of Ireland manager.

Joe had many clubs, including St Patrick’s, after leaving Highbury. It was on the Inchicore team’s visit to Oriel for a pre-season friendly that I met him.

Photographer Mick Slevin told me about it and suggested coming up to stand in for the picture. End of that part of the story.

Joe was back in the news recently. He’s the father of JJ Gabriel, who, to borrow from the Voice of Oriel, John Murphy, is ‘pulling up trees’ at Old Trafford. They’ve even given him the nickname, ‘Kid Messi’.

So, where did the surname Gabriel come from? Apparently, they – maybe Joe among them – thought it would be a good idea to drop the Ó Cearúill bit (probably wise) and instead give him a name that would be ‘more marketable’.

Could you imagine a Man U line-up of the future reading something like this with the usual foreign influence?: Breshnev, Takenoff, Maguire, Trinindade, Jimohara, Orderedoff, Rayasunshine, Dansocool, Ó Cearúill, Diaduit, Endo’theday.

Anyway, the young man was mentioned here last week, and it was suggested that, given the way United had begun the campaign, it might soon happen that he’s pulled into the Premier League squad.

Because he’d been signed by United in 2021, the belief was that JJ must be around 17 or 18. Wrong – he’s just 14. In other words, he signed on the Old Trafford dotted line before reaching his teenage years. And bear in mind, he was linked with two other clubs before that.

It’s going to soon happen, someone being snatched from the cot, the parents told they can have the child back if they promise to get him/her to sign up.

Back to Jack, he who reads up on all things United, and shouts for them. He told me JJ scored a hat-trick against Derby the weekend before last. It was in an under-18 league match. However, he won’t be allowed to play for United in the prestigious Youth Cup.

Sixteen is the cut-off, and that rules him out. All of which doesn’t make sense since there are several under-16s who have played in the Premier League, among them Max Dorman, who lined out for Arsenal against Leeds recently.

It will be a big day for Junior when he blows out the 16 candles; it’s then when he can sign professional forms, maybe already have made his senior team debut.