Liverpool starlet Bobby Duncan has played with fire and shown how quickly a young hotshot’s star can fall.
Last season they couldn’t get enough of him, banging in goals for fun – the comparisons with Steven Gerrard and the hopes of a homegrown hero were like catnip to eager fans.
And now, there is but darkness.
Because Duncan has dared to dream, dared to have confidence in his own ability and dared to seek first team opportunities. Now all you can find online is hundreds of individual pieces of hate, they no longer have time for the ex-next best thing.
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That’s right, if you haven’t heard, Duncan wants first team football and he doesn’t think the Reds will give that to him. He’s probably right. Italian side Fiorentina have heard the rumbles and are ready to swoop.
You’d think that would make a few people sad. He’s Stevie’s cousin, after all, a Mersey lad and an Academy grad. Those three things should insulated his reputation.
Not when the maelstrom of disgust can be kicked up at the very mention that someone might not want to be at Liverpool until their dying day – Duncan has kicked the hornets nest and will come off worse for it.
Maybe this anger is coming from a place of hurt. Of course we want to see the best youngsters given a chance to shine in the first team – but that’s genuinely difficult, ask Harry Wilson.
The most ideal solution would be a few years out on loan at increasingly difficult leagues before getting ready to replace one of the back-up players – maybe Divock Origi. But it doesn’t seem like that’ll happen now.
And so Duncan will probably leave Liverpool, with his ears ringing and as another example of how quickly a star can fall.