Long-term goal can help keep Blades in safe hands

George Long is by no means the finished article when it comes to interviews.

The 19-year-old is nervous and unsure of himself, and to the relief of a select press pack, unaware of the usual cliches a seasoned footballer might throw into an answer.

But he is eager to please. “How did I do?” he asks as the recorders are switched off.

His innocence is infectious and his desire to improve obvious. In a way, he is like another young Sheffield sportsman forging a sporting career, Joe Root, the Yorshire and England cricketer, who is equally earnest when undertaking what for him are growing media responsibilities.

Yet where there is hesitancy in Long off the field, on it he grows more assured with every performance.

The reason for the 19-year-old’s introduction to the media is because he has been named by Peter Taylor in his provisional 35-man England Under-20s squad for the summer’s World Cup in Turkey.

Just two years after his Sheffield United debut, and following a season when he became the club’s No 1 custodian, it is a significant feather in the cap for the latest prospect off the Blades’ production line.

Keep rising like this, and as Root has found, these media sessions will only get more frequent.

If his evaluation of his own performances on the pitch are anything to go by, Long will only improve.

“You’re never the finished article,” says Long, who played 44 times this season. “For a lot of keepers, shot-stopping is the main attribute so that takes care of itself. But there’s other vital aspects. Commanding your area, distribution – they’re all key parts of a goalkeeper’s game at the minute and I’m always looking to improve those bits particularly.

“Before the season, I didn’t expect to play anywhere near the games I have done, but, from 10 games in, I’ve never really looked back. I’ve taken it game by game and progressed like that and the season has been really positive for me.”

It has not been as serene a baptism as a swathe of appearances and an international call-up would suggest.

There have been times when the lifelong Blades fan stood in his goalmouth hoping the ground would swallow him. But the key for any goalkeeper, something Long is aware of, is not to compound any errors.

He says: “As a goalkeeper, you’re always going to make mistakes but I think the main thing is coming back the next game and focusing on what you want to do, and not still having that mistake in your mind. I feel stronger mentally.

“There’s no time to be worrying about concerns, or not wanting to make a mistake. You’ve just got to concentrate on what you want to do and try and implement that at game time.

“You can’t ever relax, there’ll always be pressure from other goalkeepers coming in so you can never take your foot off the gas, you’ve got to give it 100 per cent and work as hard as you would be if you were trying to get in the team.”

Long is indebted to United’s other goalkeepers, Danny Coyne and Darren Ward, who have 40 years experience between them, for keeping him focused.

“They’ve told me to keep grounded and keep working hard,” says Long. “That if you get too carried away you stop doing what’s got you to the place you’re at, and that’s when it might start to go wrong.”

An England call-up, being named the club’s young player of the year, and interest from the Premier League, from Manchester United among others, are all reasons why the young man could become too big for his boots.

Who could also blame Long to be tempted to follow other Blades academy alumni like Matt Lowton, Kyle Walker and Kyle Naughton out of the door?

But the teenager acknowledges that his call-up for the Under-20s squad owes everything to the fact that he is playing regular football and, at present, seems content to continue that education at Bramall Lane.

“It’s nice to be linked but the main thing for me at the minute is playing and I’m playing here, and that’s what I want to continue to do,” adds Long, who is contracted to the club until 2016.

“I want to play in the Premier League at some point and that’s my long-term goal.

“But I wouldn’t have got picked if I hadn’t played so many games this season. Game-time in proper League football is a big help and a big stepping stone towards getting international recognition.”

Long will compete with Middlesbrough’s Connor Ripley, Manchester United’s Sam Johnstone and Chelsea’s Jamal Blackman to be Taylor’s No 1 for the World Cup.

After two weeks with the squad at Cheshire and then St George’s Park, the former Hull and Bradford manager will whittle his squad down to 21 names on June 7.

Following a season when the Blades failed to meet their stated aim of promotion from League One, the continued appraisal of their academy products from outside S2 remains a source of hope for the club.