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The Youth Players/On-Loan Thread 2017/18

DeleHarry said:
Such a shame. Bennets is one of the highly rated ones from the youth sides. It's almost as if we don't really give care anymore about finding a path for these kids to get into the first team squad.
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Hard thing to balance when there is do much pressure for the first team to improve year on year - would our fans accept us falling back if it meant blooding more youngsters?
 
It happens. Its a shame but I wont be going OTT on it right now.

The team is that good it takes a real special talent to get in contention.

How many top clubs actually bring through players regularly?

We have Winks established, KWP working his way in, the like of Onomah to make the squad, Harrison getting on the bench - we are doing better than most, even if people want even more.
 
billyiddo said:
Hard thing to balance when there is do much pressure for the first team to improve year on year - would our fans accept us falling back if it meant blooding more youngsters?
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I'm not sure if we would fall back though. Signing players like Nkoudo, Sissoko, Llorente is a waste of time and money because they rarely get game time and when they do come in don't really perform

If we had KWP, Onomah, Oakley Booth, Georgiou and Sterling instead of Aurier, Sissoko, Nkoudo and Llorente would we really have been any worse off?

I as a fan would accept us falling back if it happened anyway. The club has invested all this money into the training centre with all its facilities not only for the first team but also the youth sides. It would be a shame if we started to be considered as a club that no longer provides a genuine chance for the kids to find a way into the first team squad. Of course very few will make their way through, but it seems now that top prospects like Griffiths, and Bennets especially, are considering leaving to further their careers. It's disappointing that's all
 
billyiddo said:
It's easy to make the argument with hindsight when there's some underwhelming signings to reel off
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I know it's easy now but it's how I felt last summer anyway. My belief has always been that squad fillers should come from the youths and we should have 18-20 top class first teamers.
 
Its a balance thing.

Bit-part players need to come in and do a job.

I was delighted with Llorente last summer, I thought it was a very clever move. Clearly having no idea just how useless he would turn out.

Last year I thought it was brilliant, excellent striker with a wealth of experience to come in and do the job.

This year I think he has been an absolute flop and would have preferred a youth prospect, or a pineapple or maybe traffic cone.

Hindsight is always 20/20, isnt it?

CM/CF are key areas, real depth is valued and its tough on youth players to be expected to perform there. I had no real issue with our moves in these respects.
 
I agree with Dele... clear out the deadwood and if we are going to bring someone in they have to be a really top drawer prospect, otherwise we should trust our best few youth players, the kind of guys that always appear in the match reports, and win World Cups
 
Also seems youth players are usually so keen to impress they bust a gut for you. To be fair to Aurier he does run around a bit, but Llorenete has been static all season, playing a kid with talent who actually moves about a bit would be better.
 
Yiddo said:
We will have a deal in place for if he becomes a superstar.
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I hope so. First refusal or some sort of agreed buyback clause would be nice. Would he count as homegrown if he came back? What about if he went full German and played for their national team?
 
Was he any good? He's not really I name I've noticed stand out in reports

It will be really good for the national team in a few years time having all these young players with experience of playing abroad, something that previous generations always seemed to shirk.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Was he any good? He's not really I name I've noticed stand out in reports

It will be really good for the national team in a few years time having all these young players with experience of playing abroad, something that previous generations always seemed to shirk.
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I spoke about him here, although the 2nd part can largely be disregarded now:

Yoof said:
Yes, I think if he's to play for Spurs one day then LB/LWB is his best shot. He's currently better further forward but I don't think he quite has enough variation to his game to play there for us, I could be wrong but he's more effective in transition and when he has space to run into - qualities that tend to lend themselves to FB/WB in the modern game. Of all the players in the academy I'd say he's the most improved this season though. He was a very promising prospect at U16 level but didn't really deliver on it for the next two years, he would always show flashes of ability but was horribly inconsistent. This season it seems to have clicked for him and he's now effecting games on a more consistent basis.

Next season will be an interesting one for him. I'm a believer that once a player has proven themselves for a season at a particular age level then there's not much to be gained from making them do it all over again, I imagine he'll be one of those traveling with the first team in the summer so maybe he'll get the chance to make an impression that way, if not then a loan might be best for him. I know loans are hit and miss by nature but if the alternative is another year of U23s then I would prefer him to go and test himself at senior level somewhere, he has the physique and athleticism to compete at least which is often an issue for kids his age making the step up to first team football.
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There aren't many in the academy I'd place ahead of Bennetts so he is a loss but it's understandable why he's left. I did say a while ago that Griffiths(if he does indeed end up leaving) may not be the only player to leave, though I won't play the classic ITK card and pretend that Bennetts was the other player I was talking about so I would say we may yet see one or two more go the same way, though hopefully not. It seems likely that we've also lost one of our best U16s(Noni Madueke) to Man Utd.
 
Yoof said:
I spoke about him here, although the 2nd part can largely be disregarded now:



There aren't many in the academy I'd place ahead of Bennetts so he is a loss but it's understandable why he's left. I did say a while ago that Griffiths(if he does indeed end up leaving) may not be the only player to leave, though I won't play the classic ITK card and pretend that Bennetts was the other player I was talking about so I would say we may yet see one or two more go the same way, though hopefully not. It seems likely that we've also lost one of our best U16s(Noni Madueke) to Man Utd.
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Is it wages or a path to the first team that you think is the problem?
 
Can understand how these teams are taking our youngers players - offer them a few k per week and place in the first team squad next season and in a decent league. He's also a permanently owned player for them, rather than loan, so more likely to take a long term view of his development and give him minutes on the pitch where possible

Bennetts might be a good prospect but there was zero chance of him playing for us next year; more likely, he'd be loaned out to a championship or league 1 team and, as we've seen, the amount of playing time from those loans is really hit and miss. Contrast that with my comment above where he will play
 
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