DEFENDER Taylor Harwood-Bellis has taken on a key message working under one of his boyhood club's biggest heroes: "You can't look too far ahead or too far back."

Having been a spectator in the stands for Vincent Kompany's immortalised Manchester City moments, Harwood-Bellis has since known the Belgian as 'gaffer' twice.

It has been a wild ride for the 21 year old, wearing winners medals for the Championship with Burnley and Under-21 European Championships with England this summer.

Harwood-Bellis also committed to leaving the club he has called home since he was six on a permanent basis for the first time, although that depends on promotion. 

But the Stockport-born Mancunian is not looking back, in anger or in elation. He tells the Daily Echo: "To be fair, I find it hard to think about the last game - never mind 14 years.

Daily Echo: Taylor Harwood-Bellis has impressed in his nine appearances with Saints

"The mindset is always that you have got another game coming up. With Vincent last year, it was really drilled into me and the lads that you can't be on an emotional rollercoaster. 

"You can't be thinking back, it's always got to be focused on the next one. You can't look too far ahead or too far back. 

"I think that's fed into my life a little bit really, I don't look back. People speak to me about my young days and it was good, but I'm thinking about where I want to be." 

Harwood-Bellis is very clear he thinks the Premier League will be a better place to play, despite keenly joining a Championship club again this summer. 

A tournament-winning captain of the country's Young Lions and with 82 Championship appearances already under his belt, he hopes Saints can help take him there. 

It is also integral to fulfilling one of the big dreams in the eye of his mind - collecting England caps, having barely missed an international game since he was 15. 

Harwood-Bellis added: "It's the dream since you're young, it's something you want to do. I know the only way of doing that is by playing in the Premier League. 

"As a platform, I think being here at Southampton gives me the best chance of going forward and playing Premier League football. 

"Getting into the England squad is going to be difficult but I'm not really thinking about that because I've got a lot of work to do here first."

Summertime's in bloom for Man City's academy. Harwood-Bellis, born in 2002, who came through the same Stockport Metro Junior League that produced Phil Foden, joined in 2008. 

He was four minutes from winning the FA Youth Cup in 2019, the club's fourth final of the decade, before a Bobby Duncan equaliser set the stage for Liverpool to win on penalties. 

His performances alongside centre-back partner Eric Garcia caught the eye of Pep Guardiola and Harwood-Bellis spent much of the next 18 months training with the first team.

After more than 10 years, Harwood-Bellis was rewarded with eight senior City appearances  - winning all eight and scoring his first goal in an FA Cup clash with Port Vale. 

Harwood-Bellis reflected: "When I was young, it was just about playing football and enjoying it. It is when you first sign a professional contract that you think, 'I've got a chance'.

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"You are on the actual path to getting there and you have to take your opportunities, with a little bit of luck too as people above you pick up injuries or whatever.

"With the games I played for City, I thought I did well and then it became right for me and the club to go out on loan and learn my trade," he continued. 

"I trained there for a year and learnt a hell of a lot, probably more than I am ever going to learn training-wise, but you can only train for so long. 

"Going out and playing the games is what you want to do and ever since then, I can't not play football matches - that comes before everything." 

Harwood-Bellis has done that with Blackburn Rovers from February to May 2021, Stoke City from January to May 2022, and all of last season with Championship-winners Burnley.

Autumn 2021 was spent in Kompany's home country, on loan with the former City captain in his first managerial job at Anderlecht. 

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Kompany was a four-time Premier League winner at City and a statue stands outside the Etihad for his contribution in their revolution of English football. 

From banning birthday cakes at the training ground to assistant manager Craig Bellamy suggesting he would basically never go home, Kompany was relentless.  

"I didn't know what he would be like as a manager, even though I knew what he was like as a player and as a captain and leader," Harwood-Bellis admitted.

"I was surprised with how good he was at explaining situations and he goes into a hell of a lot of detail.

"I think it is more with the mentality than the tactics, people always ask: 'What is he like compared to Pep Guardiola?'

"It's impossible to compare because they're two different people who view football differently, but they have the same concepts of how they want it to look."

He continued: "I would say that I wasn't as relentless until I worked under Vincent and now I am bringing it here. The manager here (at Saints) is relentless too.

Daily Echo: Southampton's Taylor Harwood-Bellis during the Championship match between Southampton and Leicester at St Mary's Stadium. Photo by Stuart Martin.

"You see it every day with the way they want to play, how much they love football and the detail they go into.

"I think that is the only way to dominate football and that is the way I want to do it, and that is why I am here working under this manager." 

Harwood-Bellis is set to start for Saints again this weekend, as they welcome in-form West Bromwich Albion to St Mary's.

It is a chance for Saints to go eight matches unbeaten in the league and capitalise on another rare full week on the training ground in a Championship campaign.

Harwood-Bellis relishes the chance to be coached on the grass but the Tuesday-Saturday grind of the second division could never burn his heart out. 

"Time on the grass is important for the manager to go into detail and get more of his points across than you can do on the pitch," he stated. 

"There are a lot more things that we will do in the meetings when we've got loads of games so it is good to get the training in. 

"But for me, I do like playing Tuesday to Saturday and getting those games in, with four on the trot in 10 days. The adrenaline doesn't stop that way."