Question: How does a doting mum, dad or grandparent KNOW whether their up-and-coming son or grandson has the potential to become a professional footballer? There must be hundreds of thousands of people like me who are convinced their young offsprings have what it takes to become Premier League multi-millionaires - just as there are countless others who believe their loved ones have more singing potential than any  X-Factor finalist.

I’m in a quandary. I have an eight-year-old grandson, Charlie Simpson, who I believe is a bit special on the football field. What I cannot be sure of is whether it is wishful thinking on my part or whether he really does have that little touch of je ne sais quoi.

Our Charlie plays in midfield for Bury Amateur Vikings under-10s in the North Bury Junior League. He’s at least a year younger than any of his team-mates but in their six games this season so far (all won). he has scored nine of their 14 goals, including a brilliant hat-trick against Westbury FC last week which included blasting a goal-kick back past the Westbury goalkeeper from the halfway line and a powerful header from a corner. The third was slotted in cleverly from a narrow angle after he had cut in from the right and beaten two defenders.

As far as I know, there were no talent scouts watching that game - or indeed this weekend’s match when Charlie scored two more in a 5-0 Cup victory over Bury North End. Then again, maybe there were…but for some reason they didn’t see anything special in him.

A couple of years ago, Charlie WAS spotted - by a Manchester United Academy scout.  He subsequently spent six months training every Thursday with other talented tots at The Cliff before being cast adrift. His crime - that he was not a budding Cristiano Ronaldo but a midfield player with an uncanny ability to read the game for one so young.

All that seemed to matter at United was ball skills. If you couldn’t dribble past eight players and smash the ball into an empty net, it seemed you weren’t good enough. Even if you were a goalkeeper! Charlie is no up-and-coming Portuguese winker, but then again Ronaldo is no Paul Scholes.

The one weakness I see in Charlie is that he is completely left-footed. But then he is young enough to develop a lethal finish in his right peg, too - and in any case, how many Premier League players use one leg just for standing on?

OK, I’m sure the parents of half a dozen of Charlie’s teammates think their lads are right up there with him in the talent stakes. And who knows, maybe in the fullness of time they will turn out to be better players than him. For now, though, he looks the pick of the bunch...though in his delightful naivety he insists he would NEVER turn blue and play for Manchester City.

Realistically I know the odds are stacked heavily against him ever reaching professional standard. After all, 99.9 per cent of promising kids playing junior football will probably never make a penny out of the game.

However, there are exceptions. I seem to remember reading somewhere that David Beckham signed for United when he was eight. The lad clearly was a very special talent. But how exactly did that talent express itself - what exactly did the scout who ‘spotted’ him see in a kid of our Charlie’s age?

And could it be, is it just possible, that young Charlie - who, like his dad, is a Man United nut - might have something a bit special? I just want to know because until someone puts me out of my misery and tells me he does NOT have the talent to make it to the top, I will remain convinced that he is destined to be the Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard of the 2020s.