Chris Smalling: Manchester United are once again a team to be feared

• Defender says team playing their best since Alex Ferguson era
• United away to Chelsea in FA Cup on Monday

Chris Smalling can draw on his own challenging childhood when talking to the pupils of Salford City Academy. He is there as the new patron of Football Beyond Borders, a charity that hopes to provide stability and hope for disadvantaged youngsters. Smalling’s glittering career shows how difficult beginnings can be overcome. The 29-year-old lost his father as a child and was raised on a council estate, the family requiring social security.

“I grew up with my mother and brother and was in education to 18, so I feel hopefully I can relate to them all,” he says, speaking at the comprehensive school the day after Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s team lost 2-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. “Football was always a dream, but a distant dream until when I was about to go to university. I’d had a couple of trials, but it wasn’t a realistic dream, it was a kid’s dream.”

Continue reading...