Behind every success story there is usually a bit of failure somewhere along the way – and sometimes the reverse can be true, as well.
Tottenham target Lucas Moura has not come anywhere near to living up to his billing since joining Paris Saint-Germain for £38m in 2012. And his international career has also gone nowhere. The last of his four goals (in 34 games) came in a friendly before the 2013 Confederations Cup, and in the triumphant reign of current coach Tite he seems well off the radar screen.
I have long been of the opinion that things started to go wrong at the very moment they went most right.
Lucas Moura made a name for himself exactly seven years ago, playing for Brazil in the South American Under-20 Championship. The side produced plenty of senior internationals – spearheaded by Neymar, but also including Casemiro, Oscar and full-backs Danilo and Alex Sandro. Lucas had an interesting tournament, but frequently a frustrating one. He showed plenty of pace down the right wing, but often appeared to be playing in a tunnel, head down in his own little world.
Then came the last game of the tournament, Brazil against Uruguay, with the continental title at stake. It was Lucas Moura’s day. Uruguay had a player sent off early, opening up space on the field, and he charged at a terrified defence, scoring a hat trick as Brazil won 6-0. It was his glory afternoon.
But this created a problem of expectations. In Brazil the performance was interpreted as one in which Lucas Moura produced his normal level of play. This was false. It was one of those occasions – as has happened in the career of Theo Walcott, who he resembles so closely - when everything goes right. But he was still very much a work in progress.
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At club level I watched Sao Paulo play him wide on the left. He did not look at all comfortable. They gave him a run at centre-forward, and he was even worse. He was a right winger – equipped with searing pace but little subtlety. Put him on his ‘wrong’ foot, take his acceleration space away and he was bound to struggle.
Brazil immediately promoted him to the senior squad – an enormous mistake. He should have gone to the World Under-20 Cup in Colombia. With no Neymar in the team, he would have had to take more responsibility for the collective side of the team’s attacking play. Instead, he joined Neymar in the squad for the Copa America in Argentina, where he spent most of his time on the bench. And all through his 34 matches for Brazil he has rarely been decisive – with the exception of games against weaker opposition, such as a domestically based Argentina side, against whom he scored a wonder goal. He has never scored – and barely featured – in a proper competitive game at senior level. The truth was that he was a player promoted prematurely.
Around the time he moved to PSG, I spoke about him with Denilson, another right winger who made a big money (and premature) move to Europe, joining Betis in 1998. Denilson saw similarities in their situation - and so it has proved. Hitting 26 later this year, Lucas Moura is in danger of making a transition from promising youngster to veteran with little in between.
But there is still time. And the good news is that in Mauricio Pochettino he may have found the ideal coach. It was under Pochettino at Espanyol that one of Lucas Moura’s contemporaries, Philippe Coutinho, started to bounce back from his initial disappointments at Inter.
If the move to Tottenham goes through then Pochettino can be relied upon to work Lucas Moura hard on the training ground and boost his confidence when he takes the field – two things that may belatedly help turn promise into reality.
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