Ibrahim Osman tells his story of Ghanaian academy to Albion

Or at least “see you later” as he looks set to go out on loan.

The 19-year-old from Ghana has taken a winding road towards his Premier League dream and, as of yesterday morning, that appeared set to take in time in Rotterdam.

His expected loan move to Feyenoord was not complete at time of going to press and was thought to be coming under some doubt.

But whatever happens should not be a problem for a young man who has so far adapted to a residential academy in Ghana to Denmark to England in his quest for big things.

Osman followed winger Simon Adingra from the Right To Dream Academy to Albion via a stint in Denmark with Nordsjaelland.

And it had appeared increasingly likely he would have something similar to Adingra’s loan stint at Union St-Gilloise.

Or indeed Yankuba Minteh’s time with Feyenoord themselves.

Osman has spoken to The Argus already this summer about that road which has seen him grow up quickly.

He said: “The academy try to teach you to be the best you can be, play as a team, show your full potential. It has really helped me.

“It was like a camp where we stayed for four months.

“It was quite competitive and difficult.

“Everyone is talented and only a few people get the chance I have got now.

“You’re learning football, daily life skills, everything.

“Denmark was quite a good thing for me as well and there are a lot of African players there so it was quite easy for me to engage with them, socialise with them.

“Also, there’s Michael Essien at the club so it was quite easy.”

“After I signed for Brighton it really gave me a push to do even more every week in our games in Denmark, which I think I did.

“Every weekend, if we were not playing, I was watching Brighton games.”

Osman did not get on the pitch during the most recent friendly against Villarreal, for which Joao Pedro returned from injury.

Adingra was also back in the matchday squad having missed the trip to QPR.

What we have seen so far suggests Osman has plenty to offer Albion but not quite yet.

He flitted in and out of games in Japan, in which he was given the two first-halves.

Perhaps his highlight in Tokyo was a superb one-two with Danny Welbeck to help create the opening from which Minteh scored the second gal against Verdy.

He was working off Welbeck in a No.10 role in those games, albeit the Albion system was pretty fluid.

But Joao Pedro is clearly a frontrunner in that role, Julio Enciso has yet to return from injury and Jeremy Sarmiento has enjoyed a positive pre-season.

And that is all before anyone else comes on board via the transfer market.

Perhaps Osman’s best pre-season outing was his half-hour at Loftus Road when he replaced Mitoma wide on the left.

But that job was given to Adingra when the Ivory Coast man returned for the Villarreal game.

Clearly Adingra is an inspiration for Osman. But he has others.

He said: “It is a dream come true seeing those Ghanaian players who played in England and have done well.

“I am hoping to follow in their footsteps.

“Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan and the new guys here like Mohammad Kudus.”

Feyenoord like Osman. They were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Willem II in their Eredivisie opener.

They used a 3-4-3 system and failed to win despite going ahead on 12 minutes, enjoying 71% of possession and having 22 goal attempts to their visitors’ two.

The xG stats suggested it should have been a 2-0 win for the home side but they managed to concede in the last ten minutes.

But stats can be misleading and the consensus was that Feyenoord did not create enough good chances when 1-0 up and did not do enough out wide.

Midfielder Quinten Timber said: “We have to work on creating more chances from the large amount of ball possession.”

That suggests Minteh has, at this early stage, been missed by last season’s runners-up and cup winners.

Feyenoord were set to sell attacking midfielder Calvin Stengs (six league goals, 14 assists, 103 chances created last season) to Charlotte and were hoping the Osman storyline followed a similar script to Minteh’s last term.

But the Stengs deal fell through yesterday.

The word from Rotterdam was, providing the Osman loan went ahead, they would look for him get used to his surroundings quickly and play a full part in the pursuit of PSV.

But that was being thrown into doubt yesterday as Stengs stayed at De Kuip after all.