Vranny

I'd be willing to look past his age. He's a pretty exceptional talent when I've seen him play. The main concern would be whether he would be able to adapt to a more physical league though.

I sort of agree with this, but isn’t the plan to get another striker if they sell Niasse?

@nogsI just don’t think there’s realistically anymore the club can be doing when it comes to bringing through academy and youth players, bar playing the complete u-21 team in the prem. We’re currently bringing through Kenny, Holgate, Beni, Davies, Lookman, Vlasic, DCL (albeit Lookman and Vlasic could be getting more of a look in) and loaning out other top talent like Dowell, Williams and Robinson. Is there a Premier League with more youth in it’s match day squads? The reality of Liam Walsh is that he played 2 or 3 games in about 3 months for Birmingham while on loan. On the flip side Dowell and Williams have been guaranteed starters for better Championship sides, while Robinson has also broken into the Bolton side after a month or so. Obviously with Klaasen we spent $20M+ on him because the top brass thought he’d be providing that much value on the field. That he hasn’t is down to poor scouting/the board/shit luck and hasn’t really got anything to do with youth development.

Also to add to this that doesn’t mean our academy isn’t doing its job. That we’re able to produce the odd first team player (Barkley, Davies, Kenny, hopefully Dowell) and produce a good amount of players that League 1 and Championship team are actually willing to buy off us is all you can expect your academy to do at most.

I just think you’re looking at it from a “Football manager” view point. Not every promising youth player makes it as a prem footballer. That’s just not how the system works. I can name endless amounts of players we’ve hyped as the next youth player to break through (e.g. Vaughan, Baxter, James Wallace, Garbutt, Lundstram, George Green, Ledson), but the reality is their level will only be League 2 to Championship. At best they might get promotion to the prem with one of these Championship teams, but that’s it. That people are saying these players could’ve possibly been squad players shows you that they’re not really missed.

I always had the feeling that he was over here as a developmental loan, rather than being a player that Sporting we’re trying to sell.

Realistically, how many of these players that we’ve let go in the last few years have really come back to bite us on the arse? Gosling ended up a prem footballer, but he wasn’t good enough for us. Mustafi has turned into a good CB, but Moyes wasn’t willing to give him any minutes, so there’s a fat chance he would’ve become the same footballer under him. Shane Duffy is the only one I can think of that could’ve stayed, but again he wouldn’t have got the same opportunities at Everton as he got in the Championship. Everyone else had ended up a decent Championship footballer at best (I.e. not good enough for Everton unfortunately).

Didn’t even notice that bit myself

This. Or this. I imagine it’s the sort of deal we’ll be looking to do in the summer though.

I think Joe Williams is the guy we’re hoping developes into a future CM for us. I’m pretty sure he was the one we turned down a bid for from Barnsley too before they got Walsh.

Then we’d just need to find the next Phil Neville to slot in next to him

This is the other huge issue driving this problem. You can’t really complain about players going down over “minimal contact” when they would never receive a penalty if they were infringed upon, but didn’t go down. This part of the game needs a huge mentality change from the higher ups and refs.

I’m not too worried about him. He’s having a bit of a down turn of form currently, but it’s the exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from someone of his age. Earlier in the season when he was struggling to get a look in, he was one of the few players that was able to provide a bit of creativity when actually given a chance. He tries to bring some energy when on the pitch and he’s got an eye for a through ball when in form. Just needs to build his engine so he can last for me than 60 mins and put a bit more muscle on him.

It’s been good to see how quiet this thread has been during the first three tests

Yeah, it’s definitely to our advantage with only a game at home left, but their pace worries me and we pack a natural finisher these days to put our chances.

I have a bad feeling we’ll boss Honduras at home, won’t finish our chances and go out 1 - 0 to a goal on the counter. It’s what we’ve been doing all during qualifiers.

How many number 10s do we need in the squad? Plus Dowell won’t be returning any time soon. I’m pretty sure Forest would have to agree to his release and that’s not going to happen with his current form. Personally I’m just thrilled to see him develop his game at championship level. He’s one of those types of players that I was worried would struggle to find game time In the lower leagues due to his physical attributes. Look at how Barkley’s loans in the championship went and he’s physically a beast in comparison.

We’ve effectively lost our two clear best attacking players in Barkley and Lukaku and replaced them either with gamble signings, or players that don’t even play in the same positions. Plus throw in an aging backline and a general lack of confidence in the team. But the main issue is we pretty much know we’re going to lose after we concede because we haven’t got a natural goal scorer with preditory instincts in the squad.

I’d be reluctant to start Niasse, as he isn’t registered for the Europa League

My biggest issue with Unsworth was him starting Davies and Gana as our 2 centre mids on the weekend. When have we ever seen either of them hold there position? I’m hoping he keeps giving Beni games, at least until Schneiderlein’s had some time to think about his shit form this season.

He was sacked at West Ham basically because the fans hated his style of play...

I’ve enjoyed both shows, but Big Mouth is quite different in my opinion. It’s like a sex-ed class meets coming-of-age teenage comedy, with fuck-tons of dick jokes/sex humour.

I’d argue for outfield players it’s more like 24-28, so it’s really just Gana who started on the weekend that’s in that bracket (I definitely wouldn’t say Mirallas or Lennon are “at their peak”). I think Sig, Klaasen and Keane were bought in with the assumption that they’d be at their peak over the duration of their contracts. Unfortunately they’ve all been shite to average so far. Whether that’s down to adjusting to new tactics, having a shite manager, lack confidence or just being overrated we’ll just have to see.

Nah, he’s really just that bad at them His corner taking ability dropped off ages ago; his direct free kicks just in the last few years.

I'm feeling that worried about us at the moment I could probably accept Allardyce coming in until the end of the season to do a job