Ever since James McAtee, at the age of 13, caught the eye of Pep Guardiola during an academy training session at Manchester City, there has been a buzz around him.
He counts Guardiola and Enzo Maresca as former managers, and was once described as “The Salford Silva” in a flattering comparison to David Silva, his idol and old team-mate.
A shimmering menace with a magical left-foot and exquisite technique, McAtee was considered on par with other Etihad Campus talents such as Phil Foden and Cole Palmer. So when he joined Nottingham Forest last summer for £24m, leaving the City mothership after 12 years, great expectations were inevitable.
He arrived a few weeks after captaining the England Under-21s to glory at the European Championship, alongside an emerging midfielder called Elliot Anderson. By his own admission, his time at Forest has proved a slow-burner so far, but this is the year where McAtee intends to deliver what he calls “showtime”.
In his first major interview since joining Forest, McAtee is reflecting on his debut season and the future during a break in the club’s pre-season training camp in the Algarve.
“Last season was definitely difficult, I came in and didn’t really perform at the start as I know I can do,” he tells Telegraph Sport. “Moving away from Manchester after such a long time was tough, but I don’t want it to be an excuse. I know I could have performed better.
“Coming into this season I’m trying to put that behind me and show the fans what I’ve got in my locker and the quality that I can bring out to help the team.
“A lot of players take time to adapt in their first season, and in their second season it’s showtime. Pre-season has been amazing under the new manager and we all think we’re going to have a very successful year.”
McAtee has not yet completed a year at Forest but is already on his fifth head coach, and that is undoubtedly a factor in why last season proved so challenging.
He signed while Nuno Espirito Santo was in charge and then struggled for minutes under the Portuguese’s successors Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vitor Pereira. Last season, he started just two Premier League games. Yet the appointment of Oliver Glasner earlier this month already appears to be a turning point for McAtee.
Glasner makes his mark on the players
Glasner is working closely with him to find his best position, and there remains a conviction within Forest that McAtee will make a strong impression this season. Staff and players have insisted that McAtee consistently takes their breath away in training.
He says: “It was a very tricky season with four different managers and there was a lot of turnover. It wasn’t like we had similar managers with their styles of play so that was also tough. Since the new gaffer has come in, the information we’re being given is definitely something new to me, and it’s very intriguing.
“Every session you’re learning something new, so we’ve absolutely loved pre-season. You want to listen to him in his meetings and he’s come in with real positivity.”
McAtee is determined to focus on the future, but he does confess that the low moments last season were hard to comprehend.
“When you have a bad game, it maybe knocks your confidence going into the next one and it was then like a snowball effect,” he says. “I don’t think I deal with it in the best way possible. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get around the lads and start speaking to them again.
“It does hit me sometimes, but I’m working on it and hopefully now, if I ever do have a bad performance, I can bounce back straight away.”
The nadir for McAtee was a Europa League game away at FC Utrecht in December. Dyche, his third head coach in under four months, gave him a rare start against the Eredivisie team, but he was taken off at half-time.
“My head was fully gone. I was so annoyed coming off after that game that it took me maybe even longer than a week to get around the boys again,” he says.
“My team-mates were with me the whole way last year. They knew I wasn’t performing as well as I was in training and were so supportive.”
The support of his family, including brother John, the Bolton forward, and girlfriend, was also crucial during those moments. McAtee became a father four weeks ago after his partner gave birth to a boy.
He has worked closely with Tom Evans, Forest’s physical development coach, over the summer to build muscle and prioritise fitness.
There has still been time for his favourite pastime away from football, though. He is Forest’s undisputed golf expert, playing off a handicap of four. He caught the bug while on loan at Sheffield United and has never looked back.
“There’s quite a few of us who go out and play,” he said. “Morgan [Gibbs-White] is a decent golfer and there’s also Neco [Williams], Yatesey [Ryan Yates] and Woody [Chris Wood]. It’s a nice way to chill and take your mind off football. Elliot [Anderson] used to play with us a lot but he’s obviously now gone to City. He was looking for somewhere to live the other day so I was trying to help him out.”
McAtee will always reflect fondly on his upbringing at City. He joined them from rivals Manchester United in 2013 and would go on to lift countless trophies and personal awards with both the academy teams and Elite Development Squad. It was always a regret for Guardiola that he could never guarantee McAtee more first-team football.
“We had a very elite manager and elite players, so it was easy to learn there. I was learning every day,” McAtee said.
“I came through there when I was 11, so it was something that I fitted straight into. I hope Pep is now enjoying his time off because he deserves it.
“Enzo [Maresca] has now gone in but he’s learned a lot from Pep [Guardiola] as well so I think he’ll be just fine. I played a lot under him for the under-23s and he’s a great manager.”
McAtee has been impressed with Glasner, who has been working around the clock to implement his philosophy. The Austrian coach wants him to play deeper and in pre-season matches it already appears to have had a positive effect on the 23-year-old.
“My most comfortable position is as a No 10,” he says. “But if I come and play deeper I can get more of the ball and just get into the game more. Sometimes as a ‘10’ I can go five to10 minutes without even touching the ball, but I’m happy playing anywhere.”
After three relegation battles in four seasons, hopes are high for this season under Glasner.
Forest reached the Europa League semi-finals last season and now have a manager with vast experience of those competitions. He lifted the Conference League in his final season at Palace and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt.
What does McAtee think Forest can achieve this season? “We want to get back into Europe as quickly as possible. With the squad that we’ve got and the manager, I think we definitely can,” he says. “Everyone wants a piece of silverware and to try and get this club to the highest point you can.
“We’re looking at pushing into that top eight. There’s a lot of teams in Europe who aren’t used to the double-game weeks and we can be fresh going into the Premier League. We can take advantage this season and it’s a bit of a chance for us.”