Adelaide United’s former Southampton academy attacking midfielder, George Mells, is all but certain to feature against some of his former Saints’ teammates in Monday night’s clash with Liverpool FC.
After signing with Adelaide United a couple of weeks ago, former Southampton youth attacking midfielder, George Mells, ensured he will face former teammates in his first competitive fixture for Adelaide’s Reds.
Having been at Southampton since the age of 14, the now 18-year-old spent a good portion of his development at the Saints’ academy learning off the likes of his former cub captain and now Liverpool’s midfielder, Adam Lallana.
“I know some of the boys at Liverpool very well which is going to be a good test for me and it’ll be good to see them again,” Mells explained.
“The first team players at Southampton are very down-to-earth and very humble and they mixed in very well with the young players.
“Players like Lallana, (Nathaniel) Clyne, Rickie Lambert I know because I trained with them regularly at Southamoton.
“I actually used to clean Adam Lallana’s boots when I was an apprentice, so it’ll be good to play against him because I was always looking up to him and now I get the opportunity to face him.”
But whilst Mells is eagerly anticipating a chance to catch up with some of his old teammates, his main focus is on further developing his game during his time with United, learning off the abundance of experience and knowledge flooding the Coopers change room.
“(Monday night’s game) will be my first senior game (with the club), so I’m not too sure what to expect,” Mells said.
“I’m sure there will be a lot of people at the game from what I’m hearing and I’m expecting a very hard game that will be a great test to show what (abilities) I have.
“The boys here are really top professionals. There are a lot of youngsters that look like they’ll be top professionals too.
“They’re a good bunch of boys and they’re all down-to-earth and they’ve made me feel very welcome.
“But for now I want to learn off the older players like Marcelo (Carrusca), Pablo (Sanchez), and Isaias. I just want to learn as much as I can from them and hopefully during the season if I can nail down a starting place.”
When asked if he has spoken to any of his former teammates prior to Monday’s match, Mells mentioned he had spoken briefly with Clyne, who Mells might come up against directly during the game, about his fear of flying.
“I spoke to Nathaniel Clyne through text (message), but apart from that, I’ve not spoken to any of the boys, but I am looking forward to seeing them.
“Nathaniel isn’t a big flyer and doesn’t like flying, so for him to be travelling halfway across the world he’ll definitely struggle!”
