Once again Nick Powell shows the rest of the football world what we already knew – that he is a prodigious but unfulfilled talent. An 11-minute hat-trick last night as a 2nd half sub (and the 3rd sub no less so it really was last chance saloon) for Wigan, following his late winner, again as a sub, on Saturday. Fortunately at 23, he’s young enough to come again and I really hope he does because when he did it for us, I was (perhaps mistakenly) putting him in the same bracket as Ashton. Different type of player but equal abilities in the final third. Ok, so his best came at League 2 level while Deano was performing consistently in the Championship. It does make you think that the Man U move came far too early. We really needed to see a season in League 1 from him to see if he could make that step up first but I don’t blame anyone for not blocking his move to Old Trafford. It was great publicity, another feather in our cap and the biggest coup of all for our “famed academy”. And some much needed dosh!!

To be honest I reckon he would have made it had it not been for Fergie’s untimely retirement – untimely for Nick that is – and for Man U’s insistence of playing Januzaj ahead of him. I remain convinced they got that the wrong way round.

On the flipside of course, I look at Wigan, and they have arguably not one but two of the most gifted players we have ever produced – and look at where they are in the table!!!! So were those two really as good as we thought ....?? I think they are. It’s all about right time, right place, and a bit of luck thrown in. I still think both players could play in the Prem – and in Nick’s case, again.