Both Tel and Odobert need more time IMO. Both young, we have seen this with young players before. Bale and Modric are extreme examples where the fan base were writing them off in their first season. At least these two are prepared to run at players and try to take them on. Odobert has had very little game time with Spurs so far. Perhaps both need to relax and stop trying to impress when they come on. Easier said than done. Hopefully, Frank will bring a lot of our young players on during the season, plus this transfer window has raised the quality overall. Sink or swim for some now. So I managed to take 5 lines to say pretty much nothing at all.
We do have short memories... Both Tel and Odobert need time and opportunity. Hopefully this will come over the next few weeks and months, although it's difficult to see either starting except in maybe the League Cup.
I think we should’ve loaned both out, or at least one. I don’t think we can offer either the game time required in order to truly develop. Similar for Gray. I think Gray more so than the rest is going to really struggle for minutes, it may have to come at RB too because CM/ DM is too stacked, he’s behind Bentancur, Palhinha, Sarr and Bergvall and if Simons plays in the 10 role as hoped/ expected that’ll further reduce any chances because it means just two CM spots going between 5 players and he’s the 5th. You can see all have talent but I think in order to begin reaching their potential they need a good 20-25 starts at the minimum, can we offer them that? Doubtful. Bale (outside of injuries) and Modric, plus others like Lennon, Huddlestone, Walker etc all developed at a quicker rate because they were getting regular football here, Walker also benefitted from good loans too.
Tel is a very tricky one. The fact that he had 60 appearances at Bayern under his belt shows, as a pro and a con. Pro in the sense that his mentality and attitude seem to be top notch for such a young player, and he also seems to be able to cope will with pressure. Con in that it is pretty clear to me that he thinks he is better than he actually. His time at a top club has created a bit of a blind spot on his self-appraisal and the result is a player who if I'm honest is all over the place because he isn't focusing on developing one strong style of play and going from there. He thinks he is already 'there'.
I think the type of calibre of player we sign always under estimates the demands of the PL They are works in progress and works in progress won’t cut it if thrown in at the deep end That’s why we never seem to complete the cycles of progress with these talents…they don’t get the games and they don’t get the years. A bit of a vicious circle We as a club are always in between mediocrity and the next step be it in recruitment, on field success, owners ambitions etc etc. So it takes something quite out of the norm to pull us through if we have that e.g Kane, Son, Bale, Modric, Eriksen etc etc
This 100%. Undoubtedly talented, but needs to understand himself that he's far from the finished article. The problem is that if he doesn't get this self-awareness and is languishing in the bench, you can see it unsettling him quite quickly.
Spot on, which is what I was saying the other day about our signings. Almost every player we sign, there is a huge question mark hanging over their head. Will he, won't he? We sign players never knowing if they'll be a complete flop or a relative success. That's the difference at the moment. We're signing Takai, not Guehi. Simons, not Rogers. Kudus, not Eze.
Sometimes it can work, sometimes it can't Lamela became the secret weapon of Poch's system entirely because of the lack of football he got in the first season, either because he was often the odd man out when Villas-Boas tried to manage the bloated squad or simply being out under Sherwood On the other hand, there's so many players whose development stalled out due to their bench riding, Tanganga being the current standout in that regard
I agree. I'd like to see Odobert starting, as his pace, dribbling, workrate and finishing are all decent. Tel might have more luck against tired legs, after they've been stretched. I have an unfortunate suspicion that we may see Simons used there at first. It's nice to have options, I guess.
Simons should be used in the middle. It’s where the need is for him. Would be a waste to play him on the left when you have other options. If the club aren’t confident in Tel or Odobert then it’s worrying as they shouldn’t have made Tel’s loan into a permanent deal.
There's a certain irony that Aaron Lennon wasn't initially planned to get regular football, as he was signed to rotate for Wayne Routledge - but then Routledge got crocked and Lennon basically made himself undroppable within his fiurst few starts
I'm not sure they had a choice. It was an obligation to buy iirc. All we managed to do was lower Bayern's asking price.
I hope that's the outcome, but it's difficult to see how leaving a club (BM) with an almost guaranteed CL place, to bench warming and watching the CL on TV is going to go down well....
Yeah, as I thought. It was loan with option to buy. They managed to get the fee down from £45million to £30million though. Weird he’s left out of the squad though.
Very strange. He didn't really do much last season to justify being signed but I guess for £30m the club felt he was worth a flutter. Trouble is Frank has now had all summer to look at him and doesn't like what he has seen.
Yeah didn’t impress me at all during the loan and I would rather have not signed him. Imo the club looked at his profile, age and potential and thought for the price it was worth doing.
Should’ve loaned the poor guy out. Likely gonna be a waste of a season for him; no European football, won’t start many in the Prem, limited to domestic cups.
