Best Young English Footballers of the Past 60 Years: How Good Is Luke Shaw?

Listening to the World feed of today's game at Southampton, David Pleat, much more given to malapropisms than hyperbole, reckoned that Luke Shaw is one of the very best young English players since Duncan Edwards.
 
Which got me to thinking about the best I've seen as very young players in that time. (Doesn't mean they trained on or stayed healthy of course.)
 
Charlton
Greaves
Bobby Moore
Kevin Beattie
Trevor Francis
Bryan Robson
Phil Jones before Man Utd started messing with him
Kenny Sansom
Hoddle (saw his first game)
Rooney
Edit: And Michael Owen of course.
 
(Never saw Gascoigne or Shearer in their youth)
 
Be interested to hear opinions . . . . . . other names. Is Luke Shaw in this class?
 
(PS: The very young Liam Brady was as good a teenage player I ever saw.)

Carlton Cole looked great as an 18 year old..........

Kevin Keegan

The Youtube clip is taken from the 73/74 season when the young Keegan's partnership with John Toshack was in its pomp.

Keegan was the young livewire around which Shankly rebuilt the Liverpool team of the 60's, when the likes of Roger Hunt, Ian St John and others aged. The new team was even better than its predecessor.

Enjoy the clip. It comes from a time when players actually gave a damn about their team and its fans.... when defenders were allowed to tackle and the Kop was a seething, boiling mass of fanaticism that sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" spontaneously and with real feeling, rather than being stage managed for the Sky cameras. When players weren't walking billboards and football pitches actually looked as if they'd been played on.

Bloody marvellous.

scholes, beckham and even neville are better than most on that list. didnt stand out as much because they come through as a team of highly talented youngsters but someone like scholes would be a stand out even if it took a very long time for him to get the plaudits he deserved.

gerrard was talented as well, perhaps not a shining light at first. but you dont break into a liverpool team at 18 if your rubbish.

CFCNick wrote:Carlton Cole looked great as an 18 year old..........

I hope you mean Joe