I was thinking about him. We have 4 capable, senior CMs already who seem to be working well in a rotation. My point is, that doesn't leave a lot of room for young James Ward-Prowse, especially with the 5 sub ruling. He has undoubted quality and potential, but the unfortunate fact is that he won't get much gametime while we are challenging for the title and have senior options in his position. Would it be worth sending him on loan? He has qualities that would be desireable to others and ultimately us in the future. He is 17 on Monday, when he will presumably be offered professional terms. CM is a very difficult position for a player to make his own and only experience can make a player beeter at it.
Oh come on Itchen, explain beeter. Is this Friday night wish fulfilment? Agree with your point though. Presumably he'll get a run out in the FA Cup, but cannot see him ousting the likes Of Schneiderlin or Cork. Send him to Bournemouth or somewhere. The problem I have with us loaning players is that there are very few examples where they have gone out and come back into our first team as, say, a young Beckham did at United.
Ward-Prowse has already signed a professional deal, well a pre-contract deal I think, over time, Ward-Prowse will force himself into the 1st team, however i agree about the 5 sub ruling hampering his and other youngsters 1st team chances If they're good enough, they'll soon force themselves in
Adam Lallana? Andrew Surman? Nathan Dyer? I think Ward-Prowse would control a league one midfield and come back a better, confident player. No7
CM is about consistency and ability to make good decisions - two things that come from playing. He's unlikely to get much first team action here this season. With the confidence and match experience that would come from a good loan spell, I think he could come back a much better player. As oneno7 says, loads of players have come back from loans better for it. Jack Wilshere, Gary Cahill and Joe Hart to name a few more.
Loaning players out isn't always the solution, particularly when you consider that our facilities would be a lot better than any potential team he goes to play for. Yes, he'd be playing first team games, but his development may actually stop improving at the level it is now. Chamberlain didn't need loan time, and if James is good enough, which I'm sure he will be, he'll feature in the first team on a regular basis. That's the whole point of our youth system, and why we as fans and Nigel pride themselves on it.
So come on, address my question someone. please. Did Lallana, Surman et al go out on loan? (Dyer went to Swansea, but the circumstances were odd both for us and the player) If not, I may not be mistaken in thinking our loans have not proven to be a great success for us. I'm not denying that they may have proven valuable to the loan club and to individual players, but can anyone quote a loan that added to our squad as the Beckham to Preston example I quoted?
Lallana and Surman both went to Bournemouth shortly before establishing themselves in our 1st team - Chamberlain, Bale & Walcott did not. See the pattern?
Surman also went on loan to Walsall. At the other end of things, we were one of a handful of clubs who Reading loaned Alex Pearce to (and I think I'm right in saying his spell with us was his most succesful), and he has subsequently gone on to become a first-team regular with them and I think also had a spell as captain under Brendan Rodgers.
Oh, and Harry shipped Dyer out on loan to Burnley (obviously long before his loans to Sheff Utd and then Swansea).
Send him to Bournemouth where we send all our loan players. Might even make Bournemouth a Championship team...! Oh wait, that was too far
Any way, getting back to the point, I actually can't give an answer myself. I'm a big fan of loaning young players out to get first-team experience, and in an ideal world I'd have liked us to do this with Martin this season. However they need to be ready for first-team football. No matter how talented a kid is with the ball, you can't always just throw them out there against men - even if those men are technically not as good. As I've never seen Ward-Prowse play, I've got no idea if he's ready for regular first-team or if he needs another 6 or 12 months of growing and improving physically (in which case remaining here, and playing alongside kids of his own age plus some reserve team exposure would continue to be best for now). The last thing we want is for him (or any kid) to come back after two months out on loan, completely battered and bruised.
He's only 16, blood him in cup games and I'd fully support a loan out. Lallana didn't really get into our side until he was 20.
