Sid Lowe

This is a guy that you said it then.

This is, what did you say, 60 years since a player this young has scored a hat-trick.

And yet it feels like it's been a long time coming because we've been watching him for so long because he's been exposed to this kind of pressure so young.

And I thought it was very, very telling that that comment post came about.

A happiness or a comfort or a sense of being himself

that just hasn't been there for a big chunk of this season.

And in a way, I imagine it's quite difficult to say that for him.

And I kind of applaud the fact that he brought it up.

And I think maybe it just gives us a little bit of a reminder as well, doesn't it, about how we deal with him, how we analyse him, how we kind of judge him.

And judging itself is a difficult word, isn't it?

But how we judge his performances and him as a young man who's still only 18 years old.

Yeah, and I think what happens as well, Dan, is that I think that scrutiny shifts and it changes in... How do I put this?

It changes in focus.

I think it changes in tone.

And I think it changes in the sense of whether or not you're on his side.

So to give you the best example of this, as I've just said, he goes to the European Championships as a 16-year-old.

And he is the kid that everybody loves.

He turned 17 just before the final, and he is Spain's boy.

He is the one that everybody wants to celebrate, everyone wants to support, everyone gets excited about, and everyone says, could well be that in the next three, four, five years, the best player in the world is Spanish.

He's one of ours.