Ayyoub Bouaddi has been a Manchester City player for a matter of weeks. He is already talking like a senior professional with a decade of derbies behind him.
Ahead of today's 199th Manchester derby at Old Trafford, the Moroccan international summed up his approach without a flicker of anxiety. "When you were a kid and you watch football, you want to play [in] the biggest games," he told mancity.com. "And I think this game this weekend is going to be a really good game against United – the derby – so of course it's an important game for us, for the fans, for everyone."
"When you were a kid and you watch football, you want to play [in] the biggest games. And I think this game this weekend is going to be a really good game against United – the derby – so of course it's an important game for us, for the fans, for everyone."
That he is even in the conversation for a fixture of this size tells you plenty. Bouaddi arrived from Lille towards the end of the summer transfer window, earmarked as one of the top midfield prospects in world football. Plenty of teenagers carry that label into a new country and spend a season shrinking under it. This one has gone the other way.
His first start for City came earlier this week in the 2-0 win over FC Porto at the Estádio do Dragão. A Champions League night in Portugal, away from home, with the noise and the pressure that comes with it. Not a bad place to make your full debut.
Elliot Anderson certainly didn't need telling. "He's such a good player – obviously everyone's seeing it, you know, first start in the Champions League for City the other night," the England international said. "He was very, very good. Everyone's really happy with the way he played, especially at such a young age."
Anderson, who has been around the Premier League long enough to know what a young player needs, has taken on a bit of responsibility himself. "There's a responsibility on me, obviously having played in the Premier League before, to help him settle in," he added. "And he's doing that really well, he's top."
Bouaddi, for his part, is not pretending he has it all figured out. The 18-year-old is happy to sit and watch, to ask, to take notes. He name-checked Anderson, Mateo Kovačić and Enzo Fernández as the men he studies most closely – the ones who do what he wants to do.
"I think I can learn from everyone. But of course, I would especially watch the players who play the same position as me. So Elliot [Anderson], Kova [Mateo Kovačić], Enzo [Fernández], and the other midfielders – they are all great players with experience and can teach me a lot."
"I know that I still have a lot to learn from all the players hopefully," he said. "I'm at Manchester City, one of the biggest clubs in the world. I have a great player next to me [Elliot Anderson] so I can only learn here and enjoy."
It is the sort of thing you hear from a young player who has been media-trained to within an inch of his life. Except Bouaddi says it like he means it, and his performances so far suggest he does. Enzo Maresca has been watching closely. If he decides the teenager is ready for Old Trafford, there is no indication Bouaddi will treat it as anything other than another chance to learn.
The 199th Manchester derby is a big game for City. For an 18-year-old who has been in the door five minutes, it is the kind of occasion he has been waiting for since he was a kid watching on television. He is not hiding from it.