England Under-21s boss Aidy Boothroyd has been hugely impressed by the maturity of Max Aarons, after sitting down with the Norwich City right-back to discuss his development.
The 20-year-old is hoping to win his ninth cap when the Young Lions take on Turkey at Molineux on Tuesday evening, knowing that victory will seal a place at next year’s European U21 Championship.
Ahead of that game Boothroyd has echoed the praise of City head coach Daniel Farke for the way the youngster has kept his head despite recent interest from Barcelona not bringing a move and links to clubs including Bayern Munich, Tottenham and Wolves throughout this year - ahead of Friday’s 5pm transfer deadline.
“I was sat with him on Sunday night and we were talking through his competition,” the U21s chief said, referring to the England senior team’s 2-1 win over Belgium. “Looking at Trent (Alexander-Arnold), Reece (James), Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Aaron Wan-Bissaka - really good players.
“His competition is tough but we looked at where he is, what’s got him to this point, where he needs to get to and what he needs to do.
“He’s an unassuming guy. All the speculation would get to most people but it hasn’t to him. He gives 100 percent in training and matches, in all the games I’ve seen him at Norwich he’s been outstanding and had a real energy and go about him.
“So that transfer talk hasn’t affected him, or appears not to have, and he’s been great here. He just gets on with it.
“I think he’s a really big talent and again, like a lot of the players here, he’s nowhere near finished in his development.”
Boothroyd vowed to go “as strong as possible” to seal qualification as group winners against, having left some of his more experienced players on the bench for a 3-3 draw in Andorra on Wednesday, although Aarons played the full game.
That included City’s on-loan Spurs midfielder Oliver Skipp and recently departed defender Ben Godfrey, who look likely to start (7.30pm kick-off), against a Turkey team who made the Young Lions work hard for a 3-2 away win last year.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Canaries forward Danel Sinani is with Luxembourg for a Nations League game in Macedonia (7.45pm), after scoring both goals in a 2-0 home win over Cyprus in Group C1 on Saturday.
- Check back to this website on Tuesday evening for updates from the England U21s game
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