When Gary Neville expressed admiration for Robbie Brady a few days ago it was in the context of him recalling that the Dubliner had not always seemed the most professional when he arrived at Old Trafford as a teenager.
Brady remembers it slightly differently, with his younger self, he suggests, mainly guilty of being a star-struck when he found himself mixing with players he had watched on television in Ireland.
Didn’t have the nerve
There is, for instance, the story of Ronaldo cutting in ahead of the teenager in the queue for food one day in the club canteen.
Brady didn’t have the nerve to call the Portuguese out on it and regretted it when Alex Ferguson stepped in to bollock the Irishman for not standing up to somebody whose place in the team he was aiming to take.
“When I went over, it was the biggest club in the world,” he says. “I was still in awe and maybe it took me a little while to get what it really took.
“I think my time at United and then my loan spells at Hull helped me mature, to grow up and get my head around what it took. I always wanted to play at the highest level but it took getting that in your mind, and knowing what it takes was a big thing. But I feel on the road now and I know what I want and I’m setting goals for myself and hopefully I can keep on going.”
Having established himself as a Premier League player at Hull, he had enough about him over the summer to make it clear to Steve Bruce that he wanted to stay in the top flight. The manager, he says, respected that and said that if the right offer came in, the club wouldn’t stand in his way.
It took Norwich a while to make anything approaching the right offer but when they offered €10 million at the third attempt, Brady was on his way.
These days, it seems, the one-time United wannabe is rather more effective in engineering a route to where he reckons he needs to be.
“I think it’s very important,” he says. “I want to play at the highest level. When the opportunity came around, I was buzzing; and playing week-in week-out against the world’s best is going to help me in the international set-up as well.”
Longer term
Quite where Norwich manager Alex Neil sees Brady over the longer term remains to be seen, but for the moment, Brady says, he is a left-back for both club and country, which suits him just fine.
“I sort of knew because I played that position before and Martin Olsson was injured when I got there. I had a chat with the manager and he said to me I might need to play there for the first few games. That’s where I’ve started and I’m happy so far.
“The more you play there, the more familiar you are with it. Playing against these players every week in the Premier League, you’re testing yourself against players at the top level. It’s perfect coming into these international games.”
