Will Vaulks has warned Sheffield Wednesday not to put too much ‘pressure’ on one of the club’s most exciting youngsters.
While he actually made his senior debut in an EFL Trophy clash with Leicester City U21s over a year ago, Bailey Cadamarteri has been handed his big breakthrough this term.
Despite missing a chunk of pre-season after undergoing surgery last season, Danny Rohl‘s arrival in October quickly led to Cadamarteri’s promotion to the senior team.
After impressing the German manager, the forward made his Championship debut in the 4-0 defeat to Millwall.
He went onto start his first league fixture against Leicester City, before netting his first goal against Blackburn Rovers.
Cadamarteri went onto put pen to paper on a four-and-a-half year deal, and has since scored a further two goals – making it three in only four starts for the Owls.
There has been plenty of hype around the 18-year-old, who previously attracted Premier League interest prior to signing his first professional contract with Sheffield Wednesday.
Will Vaulks has admitted that he has been impressed with the ‘excellent’ teenager, but insists the club and supporters need to ‘calm down’.
Speaking to The Star, the midfielder said: “I’ve been impressed, but I do think that everyone needs to calm down a little bit.
“And I mean that in the best way ever. We don’t want to put massive pressure on this 18-year-old to be the one to lead the line for us and keep us up. Like I say, I mean it in the best way possible.
“He’s a young lad, he’s still got so much to learn, but he’s taken to it really well. He’s shown that he can be in the right place at the right time, and he’s got loads to work on in his game like we all have.
“He might go five games and not play great, and that’s completely understandable at his age. I’m really happy with him and I hope this doesn’t come across in the wrong way, because he works really hard, he can run in behind and he’s physical. I really like him, but we can’t put pressure on him – he’s in the position where he should be in and around it and causing problems… If he can keep scoring then he stays in the team.
“He probably wouldn’t have thought, maybe none of us, that he’d be around it this quickly this season. The stars have aligned for him in the best way, and he’s taken his chance. That’s what we said he needed to do when he came in – we told him to enjoy it and do what he’d been doing with the U21s, that way there was no pressure. And he’s shown that he can improve us as an XI – he can offer us something, and long may that continue.”
Can Bailey Cadamarteri deal with the pressure?
At the moment, Bailey Cadamarteri seems pretty irreplaceable in the first team – especially given the lack of goals elsewhere.
But there are a lot of games coming up and the pressure on the youngster to score goals will grow as Sheffield Wednesday try to pick up some vital points.
Danny Rohl is clearly very sensible though and will know just how to handle Cadamarteri, so we can definitely expect him to sit out of some games to avoid any potential burn out.
A poor run of form for Cadamarteri doesn’t mean he isn’t as good as we first thought, it is all just part of him developing as a very young player.