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Luca Williams-Barnett

When you’re a young player in the academy and you see that almost everyone from the classes ahead of you was sold off without ever getting the chance to establish themselves in the first team, well, you tell yourself you’d have a better shot at another club.
And that’s going to be even more damaging for the future, because many future prospects will end up at other clubs—or abroad—rather than with us.

That is the real disaster
 
When you’re a young player in the academy and you see that almost everyone from the classes ahead of you was sold off without ever getting the chance to establish themselves in the first team, well, you tell yourself you’d have a better shot at another club.
And that’s going to be even more damaging for the future, because many future prospects will end up at other clubs—or abroad—rather than with us.

That is the real disaster

Never mind there will always be an average overseas player we can pick up to fill a place a youngster could have filled.
I think this is an ideal season to try out our young players, we haven't settled as a team yet and aren't going to be competitive in any competition until we have.
Apart from Savio I don't see any player in the team who can break the lines and carry the ball into dangerous areas, Williams-Barnett is a player who could be able to do it given the chance.
 
I'm sure he will get a chance. A tricky season with so few games, makes rotation very difficult. I definitely think his attributes stand him in good stead, to make make more of an impact than Moore did, when given the opportunities.
 
It's not only about giving youth a chance, he is exactly the type of player we are crying out for; someone to get you out your seat, someone who makes the admission fee worth it. Build the team around him.

Yeh, I think people would scoff at the idea, but he looks levels above where he is and with no loan available I think we should be now thinking about saying "go on lad, show us what you can do" not least because the alternatives look utterly uninspiring.

Floyd Samba at City got an entire Carabao cup and impressed, would like us to be a little less frightened to take the risk esp with LWB
 
He should be given 20 minutes per match so he sees that the club trusts him. He needs to feel he can be part of this rebuild—he could even be the cornerstone of the project.
That would have a fantastic impact on the other academy youngsters who might also aspire to a spot in the team in the coming years.


Let’s not do anything rash; let’s not repeat the mistake made with certain young players who went on to shine elsewhere.
 
He should be given 20 minutes per match so he sees that the club trusts him. He needs to feel he can be part of this rebuild—he could even be the cornerstone of the project.
That would have a fantastic impact on the other academy youngsters who might also aspire to a spot in the team in the coming years.


Let’s not do anything rash; let’s not repeat the mistake made with certain young players who went on to shine elsewhere.
Won't happen with De Zerbi here.
 
Honestly, I think he has more potential than Simmons for the number 10 role; I didn't find Simmons convincing last year.

I think you always need a chunky squad especially when you have CL aspirations.

Never say never, but UEFA comps for next season might be a stretch based on current status. If we can force our way back in for the season after then LWB will be prime for a significant role as he hits his 21st b'day.

It's about what we do with him in these next 2 seasons that is interesting. We are still running the Simons/Madds/Kulu experiment at this stage and the outcome of that is important for LWB.

The irony here is that if you throw Mike Moore into the equation then our current massive problem at 10 could suddenly get over stocked at some point especially if we buy a 9 and Marmoush wants to play there.

When you sit bottom of the league all you can dream about is these dilemmas right?
 
There's too many 10s in front of him for him to get a game. If only all our other options were injured.

I don't think we do have many in front of him, we have no idea of how Maddison or Kulusevski will be if they get fit, Fenandes looks more comfortable playing a bit further back and Gallagher can't pass the ball.

I don't think he'll be an instant success but he offer something the other don't.
 
Brings a challenge for us, up to a couple of years ago, none of the young players we let go really gave us regrets or looked like wrong call.

All of sudden, Parrott, Vuskovich, Lankshear, Phillips and now if we potentially lose LWB, the decisions look a lot less smart, a review is needed.
 
Brings a challenge for us, up to a couple of years ago, none of the young players we let go really gave us regrets or looked like wrong call.

All of sudden, Parrott, Vuskovich, Lankshear, Phillips and now if we potentially lose LWB, the decisions look a lot less smart, a review is needed.

As long as the problem doesn't become the other one where the kids won't sign their first professional contract because they fear that THFC won't give them a chance. Binks had his head turned and thought he was closer to the 1st team than he actually was at the time. At 25, he's currently being linked with Everton after becoming a journeyman at a lower level. Obviously, Madueke is the one that always gets thrown in our face as the opposite end of that argument.

The more interesting thing is comparing KWP or Japhet to Lanks or Phillips. With the former 2 players, I felt our club massively held them back. With the latter we set them free which should count in our favour. It's a good look (to youngsters) for our club that we no longer do that. We just need to be careful that we don't encourage hissy fits from the kids when they're not getting a chance.

Finding the balance is actually really tough and we should acknowledge that I guess.
 
As long as the problem doesn't become the other one where the kids won't sign their first professional contract because they fear that THFC won't give them a chance. Binks had his head turned and thought he was closer to the 1st team than he actually was at the time. At 25, he's currently being linked with Everton after becoming a journeyman at a lower level. Obviously, Madueke is the one that always gets thrown in our face as the opposite end of that argument.

The more interesting thing is comparing KWP or Japhet to Lanks or Phillips. With the former 2 players, I felt our club massively held them back. With the latter we set them free which should count in our favour. It's a good look (to youngsters) for our club that we no longer do that. We just need to be careful that we don't encourage hissy fits from the kids when they're not getting a chance.

Finding the balance is actually really tough and we should acknowledge that I guess.

Complete true, but the real question is what is our strategy?

Are we Chelsea where we have no loyalty/interest in youth other than a mechanism to monetize? or do we have some real intention to always have a youth player in first team? (which would have dependencies, like x in pipeline, x on fringes)
 
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