We are away at QPR in the League in a weeks time, with us realistically no chance of top 4 and the fact we have 4 games in 11 days, I would start Raheem against his old club next week, for me its a no brainer, I suspect it wont happen though
Sterling won't start for us for the rest of the season. I guarantee. He'll probably get restless and then get snapped up by another club
What happened to the philosophy of "train well and you will get a shot at first team football". We really need to start using our youth players, how many of them can be worse than Adam?
Funny you should mention that http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2114060/Raheem-Sterling-targeted-Tottenham.html Thats one of the reasons why I think HE MAY get a few games before the end of the season
This pisses me off more than anything.............Kenny ffs sort it out and give the kid a game....If for no other reason than he ****ing deserves it.
What a load of tosh! Dalgliesh has been trying to bed in a new squad and deal with the effects of injury and suspension whilst still targeting 2 cups and a 4th spot. No wonder he has stuck with experienced players. As for Sterling, all the lad has got is promise - nothing more. There is no way that Dalgliesh could have turned to him. Now should we lose the Derby and/or get knocked out of the FA Cup then things may change and more opportunities arise for Sterling. What we don't want is another Pacheco on our hands. Its all well and good ripping up the youth and reserve leagues but it's a totally different issue when it comes to the Premiership. I don't know what kind of contract the lad is on or how long remains on it but if I were Kenny I would be having a word with the lad along the lines of "Who the **** do you think you are?" and "I don't want to see this kind of crap in the papers".
Maybe there is some thing we dont know about Sterling. Kenny likes to keep things private. He could have issues with attitude, fitness, confidence (including to much), or some thing else. If he plays for the first team can he still play in the Next Gen? Maybe they see him as the key to winning the competition. If we win that, then several of them should get more games. John Henry is massive on youth development. He met with the youth team bosses and academy very early in his ownership of the club.
Sterling needs to get a bit stronger to be suited to the premiership. Small is fine, look at Spearing, but he doesn't look strong enough yet. I hope he's not an arrogant, impatient kid and he realises he needs to develop a bit more. Next season he'll get a few cameo subs I'd guess. Brilliant prospect, hopefully the coaches tell him this to keep him sweet. Same for Suso - that lad looks class.
The guy with one leg is better at penalties, corners, free-kicks, passing, shooting, tackling and general running. Energy levels are better too but even out considering how much effort the one legged guy has to put in.
Adam is frustrating at the moment, where has his dead ball delivery gone? If he could just do that it would have an impact. Hopefully he will adjust, we have to remember it is a step up from playing for Blackpool. Sorry to any Blackpool fans reading this.
Kenny played Flanagan and Robinson a few times last season (albeit through injuries) when both were 17, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility Raheem will get on the pitch at some point this season. I'd at least like to see him on the bench a couple of times. There'll be a game where we're a few goals in front and that'd be perfect for his intro. If it's tight, he can stay on the bench. There's no harm in putting him there.
One baseless story from the Daily Mail gossip section leaves half of you mad at Kenny and half of you mad at Sterling! There is no evidence of this being remotely true. Sterling is playing his first batch of regular reserve football i.e. his first consistent spell playing with senior players. He's a kid. Why would Kenny be throwing him in when Sterling is still adapting to 'grown up' football and Kenny has a team to bed in? Yes let's start Sterling, risking him taking a knock in confidence when he gets shoved off every ball whilst pissing off every senior winger training hard to get a game! He signed a professional contract in December, i very much doubt that included the promise he'd be starting first team games by March.
Nobody is asking for him to be started in every first team game, just a chance to get on the bench and hopefully have his debut. He is the same age as Owen was when he first debuted for us, so I don't buy into this whole "Leave him in the reserves while he finds his feet" mentality.
Im seriously not mad at KD and im certainly a believer in giving youth a chance,once it becomes apparent that 5th in the league is unattainable why not blood Sterling and and a few others,as long as we keep the FA Cup in the hands of the 1st team squad what harm would it do?
Well for a start we are already giving the youth of Henderson, Kelly, Carroll, Coates, Robinson (before he got injured) and Shelvey opportunities. We are also bedding in several key signings and our star forward has just been out for 9 games. The harm therefore being that this lack of understanding and consistency rolls on into next season at which point we may again have nothing to play for in the league (not my view)! Or we can get a stable team and squad that gets into a habit regarding style and success and then Sterling can be a bit part player in a successful team. Another downside is that young players will learn by playing with experienced players as much as against them, so where are the above young players going to go if they now start playing with teenagers like Sterling? They're basically back in the reserves themselves. Did we not learn from Pacheco? The amount of people saying start the lad and look at how he's doing in Spain! Maybe, just maybe, Sterling isn't ready yet, just like Pacheco wasn't (regardless of actual potential). Maybe when he trains with the first team he doesn't get a kick. Maybe if we play Sterling and he does terrible his confidence will be destroyed like Walcott's was, the team will suffer, morale will drop and Kenny's job will be on the line. Maybe Raheem is concentrating on football given that outside of it he's just gotten 2 girls pregnant and the last thing a young lad needs is the first team spotlight causing a media frenzy. Please note i even did this without reference to the NextGen game which i watched, and whilst willing Sterling on to the point of touching cloth i could be very smug about how despite looking dangerous he hardly looked 10 classes above the Ajax youth team. Sterling still has a year before he reaches the point at which Xavi, Cavani (made his debut for Danubio in Uruguay) and Mata (made his debut for Real Madrid Castilla) all made their debuts. That would be one of the best players in world football in the last decade, what will be this seasons hottest transfer rumour and last summer's 'dream' wing signing, so i think we can afford to wait a little.
A couple of the boys from the Ajax NextGen team tonight have played for their first team and a few including those two have been in the first team squad. Even if we put the likes of Sterling in our 1st team squad and let them do some training with the 1st team for experience like Ajax we might not have to pay extortionate fees for players not much older than them and then we could buy some players with a proven track record over a few at the highest level.
