Young talent back on track with City lifeline

FORMER MAN U PROSPECT REBUILDING HIS CAREER

- By BARRY COOPER

Mention the name Brandon Williams to any Manchester United fan and there will no doubt be a look of disappointment about what might have been for a player they describe as one of their own, who promised so much.

When he burst on the scene at the age of 19 for United against bitter rivals Liverpool in the Premier League under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it felt like the Mancunian had the world at his feet and an Old Trafford career in the palm of his hands.

Unfortunately, in life, things rarely go according to plan, and for Williams, it’s been a traumatic period played out under the gaze of the world’s biggest football club. His every move watched, analysed and often criticised.

Two years on since a high-speed car crash that changed his life forever, Williams is back in football. He has been given a lifeline by Hull City in the Championship and a chance to rebuild a promising career and shattered reputation, and it’s one he says he’s determined to grasp.

Back in May, Williams left Chester Crown Court with a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, a three-year driving ban, and a significant amount of community service to undergo as a lasting memory of a crash that mercifully caused no fatalities or serious injury. The mental scars are a daily reminder of how close tragedy came, and give him the fuel to ensure he does not waste this chance.

In a candid interview with Hull Live exactly 24 months on from that early evening crash in Cheshire, Williams says he's determined to win the trust of those people he’s let down in the past, as well as City head coach Sergej Jakirovic and his new teammates at the MKM Stadium, who have welcomed him in.