John Bostock has today, cut short his loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday and returned to our club after making two starting appearnces for the division one side and two sub appearances. I do not know the circumstances surrounding his return, they maybe because the new manager there does not fancy him, or it's possibly because he wasn't doing it on the pitch, so it suited both parties for a parting of the ways. What I do know is, that Bostock's most effective play comes from an attacking CM role, and apparantly Wednesday did start with him playing a wider role. Whatever, questions will be asked yet again of a player who we made such a big effort to sign and of course upsetting the Crystal Palace hierarchy in the process. I like Bostock, he always plays well when I watch the Spurs XI play, but I do wonder where this now leaves him at Spurs. He's a good player, just turned 20, but when is this talent going to come out. The loan transfer market closes on Thursday of this week, and I believe it's important Bostock can get somewhere for the rest of this season and get playing every week, otherwise we'll be looking at another season of dubious progress from him.
Simon Jordan was always angry at someone. We really didn't do anything wrong from what I heard about the situation. He's left footed, isn't he? It tends to be a very English thing to put anyone left footed out on the wing, especially if they have a little pace or can cross. We did it with O'Hara and whilst he didn't do badly there, he needed to be in the middle, in my opinion. If he's worth hanging on to, I say we motivate him better. If we can't find him a club in the Championship willing to take him, put him in with the first team training until the end of the season. There's no point putting him at a comfortable level playing regularly in League One(or below) when he was starting to look Championship standard 4 years ago. If he's worth it, give him the experience at a level that he wants to be at and if he's not working his ass off or is a long way off the standard then we can get rid of him and move on. Another League One loan move would surely just be to put him in the shop window. This is all in my completely unqualified opinion, of course
I couldn't agree with YV more. Get him in with the first team training, at least he can learn from them what he can. If he works hard enough, maybe next season for him could be what this season has been for Livermore.
That's a point I ofetn used to make on the old 606 site, that anyone of our youngsters with half a decent left foot, would often get shunted out somewhere on the left, in the hope they would "do a job". As you say, we did that with Jamie O'hara, and we also buggered up Jonnie Jackson's chances of making it at our club by doing the same thing. If we are going to see the best of John Bostock come through, then we and the borrowing club, need to be playing him in his best and most natural position, for his talents to be developed.
As YV says, if he can't get a regular game at Championship level, then we need to keep him for the rest of the season. He might even get a run out or two, as we're lacking a little in the creative midfield role, with Huddlestone out and Carroll at Derby. Seems like Dave Jones froze him out, but it's impossible to tell whether that was a justified decision at the moment.
I never knew what Jackson was meant to be. Never looked any good to me but I must have been about 16 at the time so I probably wasn't much of a judge. Even though he was a cb, Gardner was another who was seen as cover on the left by virtue of being left footed(or no footed, as I suspected). The early to mid 2000s was a fairly chaotic time for us, we had of very unspectacular youngsters and average at best foreigners coming in too. Players like Kelly and Routledge would've been treated as gold dust if they were left footed, as it was they were kept on the bench or shoe horned on to the left at times whilst some much less talented players were given plenty of opportunities on our dubious left flank. ... Clemence, was yet another one, wasn't he? Whilst I'm at it what ever happened to Ziegler? He looked good when we first got him then he ended up out on loan and finally shipped off.
Reto Ziegler's had a pretty respectable career so far, YV. Spent four years at Sampdoria before moving to Juventus on a free. He was then almost instantly loaned out to Fenerbache, bizarrely.
Anthony Gardner was at one point, reckoned to be a better prospect than Ledley King, by the Tottenham coaching staff at the time. I remember when Daniel Levy first took over and the first Spurs game he ever watched was our Academy side. He looked at one player and said 'why on earth isn't that lad in our first team, he's so good'. That player was Mark Yeates, who is another who had his chances jeopardised by being played out of his natural position. Not saying for one minute that Yeates would have made it at Spurs, but my point still remains that whether it be at our club, or away on loan elsewhere, our kids need to be played reguarly and in their best positions. for them to stand a chance.
Yeah, I saw. I meant what happened to him at Spurs, he seemed like a useful squad player for us and at a young age too, then he was on loan and got rid of. Etherington too, he looked like he was progressing well and then we got rid of him just as we brought in the policy of only signing right footed centre mids and playing them on the wing. Yeah, I always used to back Ledley as the better player but the two Spurs mates I had thought Gardner was by far the better and my Dad backed them both to be future England stars, which I agreed with Intentionally or not, Pleaty made a good decision bringing King into the midfield he really came on in that role and it helped him get a few more England caps too. I think he'd have returned to that role at somepoint had he not had his knee troubles.
I think that Etherington's personal problems finished him off at Spurs YV, which is a shame. He's still a pretty dangerous player now, on his day. I seem to remember Ziegler wanting to start and failing to secure a place, but I can't remember who was in front of him in the pecking order. Christian Ziege, possibly? Seemed to go off the boil somewhat after a decent start.
Its easy for certain players to stand out at a lower level if they have a certain build or style of play yet when a step up is made, the ability that gave them a rep at a lower level suddenly seems to vanish? why is this? well they just aren't naturally capable of moving up a level as lets remember, these young players some of talk about, only showed their "great talent" when playing at a lower level. Then you get players like King who just come into their own and progress as they move up a level. Bostock may well have some talent, however if he can't go on loan to lower league teams and perform, then there is an issue. I remember defoe when he went out on loan as a youngster with Bournemouth when he was with the hammers, he shone and the loan system says alot about a youngster as it tells you if they have inner belief to go out and prove they deserve a chance while some players must think "why did i leave my previous club to sign for spurs and then be sent out on loan to this pile of crap" well thats their biggest mistake!
...and whats changed? I think a lot of these youngsters mentioned must have been up against it at Spurs to find their best position. Our management would still argue Bale's best position is LB! Same ol thing for me with many of them, great potential with a ball at their feet, but little else on the defensive work, we have conceded the most PL goals for a reason. So if you going to shove a player to do his attacking work out of position, what chance does have to be orgainsed when we don't have the ball?
Cheers, PNP Like Taraabt. Excellent in the lower leagues but totally found out in the Premiership, as well as being lazy and an arsehole. I don't think King went out on loan but Caulker's proving a good example of the loan system when it works, moving up one tier every season and rising to the challenge. Bostock had some attitude problems in the past on loan but he seems to have matured a bit now and hopefully is in a better position to take his opportunities, although I suspect it won't be much longer that he's on our books. Oh and fur cough, Notso
some really good points here. but the question for me is... "is he good enough?" the guy is now 20. yes, he's young, but we don't appear to be seeing any signs of a "real prospect". - by now, we should be. and that's what concerns me. Look at walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain. - Bostock had similar hype surrounding him a few years ago, hence the controversy with CP over the fee we paid. the former 2 seem to have excelled, but the latter hasn't. 3-4 years later and we're not seeing much of a return on our investment. There's been reports in the past about him having a bit of an attitude problem, too. - he should look at someone like Jake Livermore who's been patient, worked hard and finally got his break in the last year or 2. perhaps that could give him some inspiration as he'll be approaching Jake's age within the next 2 years.
Sounds about right, Croydon. Sorry Notso, but I'm not sure what you mean here. The most goals? From set-pieces or something?
Think he means this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_records_and_statistics#All-Time_FA_Premier_League_Table
Oh, the most goals ever! Hard to blame all of that on the current administration, though. We have had some shocking defenders in the past and rarely used an effective holding player in midfield.
