“I just thought it was fake news,” says the Bournemouth defender James Hill, casting his mind back to the time Barcelona sent a scout to watch him play for Fleetwood. The game in question was a League One defeat by Burton and although the then 19-year-old was highly regarded, there were a few double-takes when the request to attend landed. “‘No, that can’t be right.’ And then afterwards someone told me they did come to the game: ‘Oh, incredible.’”
At that point Hill, who at the age of 16 became Fleetwood’s youngest player, was fresh from making his England Under-20 debut and a couple of months later an under-21 call-up followed, though a knee injury prevented him from joining Marc Guéhi, Morgan Gibbs-White, Cole Palmer and co. “I remember being on the phone to Lee Carsley,” he says. “‘I’m sorry, but I’m in the scanner at the moment, I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it judging from the pain I’m in.’”
