Just for once in my life as a 606er I would love people to agree with me but as the posts on this thread show not everybody agrees with me even when I state the "bleeding obvious" as you put it. I like the lad he reminds me a lot of me when I was a kid confident and cocky.
Yes, but he's stating he's good enough to start games week in week out in the Premier League. He'll start off ok, but after 15 games or so he'll be getting taken to the cleaners, look at Sterling, started off brilliantly, then faded. I think he's over confident, forgets this is the most demanding division on the planet. A talent no doubt, but manage him with care, because in 5 years time he could be playing for Rochdale and wondering where it went wrong.
St G....mate perhaps you should consider changing your name yet again to say......prophet perhaps.......
I am afraid I have used up all my name change options now so I am what I am now for always and for ever. The best thing of course is that it is the most appropriate name I could have chosen.
Like the kid and hope he does well, but we're going to need squad rotation for him to get some game time. Lala, Cork, Schneiderlin, Ramirez, Puncheon and JWP. Who do you leave out of midfield?
[video=youtube;KxqWvsG3ANA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxqWvsG3ANA&feature=player_embedded[/video]
It's a shame he was pretty much vying for the same spot as our only experienced premier league footballer. Otherwise i'm sure he'd have got more game time and he's got a far better instinct to get forward and threaten goal than Cork. Any signs of him bulking up? He was bullied a bit at times last season.
Considerably smaller... I remember seeing him playing in the academy games. He's quite well-built considering. He's naturally a small player.
At 5'8 I worry he'll always need to be played ahead of the central midfield pairing. In which case we'd need the remaining striker to be more goal oriented. Unless he's the next Paul Scholes. Then all's well.
Just had opportunity to watch that last youtube clip. Should be alright then. Clearly he's got finishing quality than he's had little opportunity to show in the first team so far bar the odd tap in.
I really like him. He'll be a good Premier League player, some might say he already is. Could he play in a top 2-3 side, as Saints hope to be by the time Prowse hits his peak? I'm not sure, it's really hard to be that good and it takes a bit of luck as well. But he's got a chance. As an aside, after watching the U21s and England National Team I have strong doubts as to whether Saints can both have 50% of their team from the academy and challenge for Europe. I mean, no offense but they're really bad. What are the FIFA rules against opening academies in other countries? If I were Saints, I'd open several in South America and one in Africa, etc. because that's their only chance to get the kind of quality they need. I'd also let those academy players play on loan in those countries as well, until they are 21 or 22.
I know that Saints had one in Australia and have at least one in Africa. The message is spreading. On the subject of Saints challenging for Europe and having 50% of the squad from the Academy, why not..? Has anyone put a time limit on this. Notice that Cortese has never said... by [insert year] I want 50% of the Academy in the first team squad. It is an aspiration. Aside from that Saints have ambition. It's perfectly possible for both to go hand-in-hand in the long term. He's no mug, and when he says long term, he means long term.
Cortese has big ambitions, but I wouldn't call him the most patient guy in the world. But certainly long-term it may be possible. But to me, Saints would have to start spending considerable, possibly as of yet unheard of amounts on foreign infrastructure, marketing, and scouting. The problem with English football seems to me bigger than one club can fix. It's the whole culture from how the game is played by at all levels, to how kids as young as 8-10 are coached, to the way the league system works. I think you might need a full La Masia/Camp Nou type of set up in several locations worldwide where you have state of the art facilities AND some kind of child/loaner club a la Barcelona B and C. Take the best and brightest, indoctrinate them into the "Southampton way" and get them first team real league experience at a young age. I know that we've put a lot of money into Staplewood, but I've been a little surprised that Saints haven't been more active in other ways. I would have thought we'd have taken advantage of the PPP thing and be snagging kids from everywhere, and signing up tons of foreign starlets but it hasn't happened quite yet. Perhaps we are just waiting for the renovations to complete before embarking on the next stage.
