My memory playing up. Seems like he's been with us for longer. It maybe that loan spell confusing me. Interesting though that Lallana, Bale, Walcott, Dyer and a few decent others came through at roughly the same time and yet THIS is considered our golden generation. How good must we be!
Yep, he first played for us in 2008, when we were in the Championship and yet to be relegated. 23 times, according to Wikipedia. Dark days, brrgh..! I think this label about a Golden Generation is because Saints have an excellent opportunity to keep hold of every one of the new bunch. Not much good calling them that if they don't stick together and play in the same team. Besides, this group are very good at 18. Not a couple of years later.
It's no surprise that we can and will keep hold of our youngsters now we are back in the premier league, just as we did with the likes of Shearer, Bridge etc. The difference now is that I don't think they will feel the need to move on to achieve things!
Of the 220 who started a match this week, 75 were English, we had the joint most with 6 (same as Norwich). Only 10 of those U21, and 3 of them were our 18 year olds. Another was Chamberlain so really we had 4. Sauce: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/20/premier-league-english-talent-margins
Only today I read an article showing someone's Team of the Week, and Luke Shaw was in it. One of the comments of him was that he was unlucky not to have been snapped up by a top club. Whenever you see this kind of crap, lazy journalism, there's never an opportunity to comment about the quality of the article. I don't know how much more has to get out to the professional football media, let alone just the general footballing public, but some people just don't seem to want to read, listen or see. Even though they have the facility to do it. I mean, I don't how many times the lad has said that he made a decision to stay with Saints as far back as January of this year, and signed a long contract on his recent 18th birthday. Perhaps -DTLW can fill me in on the details of how sports journalists can cock a deaf'un or turn a blind eye..?
We've gone off on a tangent from the original comment but I wonder if Oxlade-Chamberlain regrets moving, knowing now how good we are, give it a season and we could've surpassed where Arsenal are.
I read the same nonsense but there was a space for comments. I just couldn't be arsed to waste my time responding to such a pathetically crap attempt at journalism. If you want to read how poor this article is then here is a link but I would find something better to do if I was you: http://hereisthecity.com/2013/08/20/ld-who-joins-van-persie-and-agbonlahor-in-the-team-of-the-week/ and here is the information on the little **** who wrote this crap: Lewis Doe is a freelance writer and editor who seeks to bring you the biggest, smallest and most interesting stories from the football world. Lewis has previously written for some of the biggest football news and opinion sites in the world including FootballFanCast and Goal.com International. Lewis is also experienced writing in the betting industry and aims to deliver his stories with up to date factual and statistical information. He hopes to sum up stories for the site and provide an angle on the issue moving forward. Lewis is HITC Sport's La Liga correspondant. Can one of you young fellows tell me what "He hopes to sum up stories for the site and provide an angle on the issue moving forward" means because it sounds like a load of garbage to me but then so does the rest of what this idiot has written. I can't see him getting a paid job in the media anytime soon.
When told that, Rickie said that he thinks a lot of people wouldn't take the chance, whereas Southampton did.
Awful piece of writing. I have less to say about the content than the poor quality of his writing - he needs to go back to school, and I had to tell him so. No pride in workmanship these days at all. Not many jobs - bar online 'journalism' - that you can hold down without knowing the core skills of the profession itself.
Yep, that was the article, Godders although I still couldn't find a place to air my view on the piece. Stretching the irony, as he did in his article, I came across this piece on Alex Buttner, from the same website. Remember him..? The one who was dazzled by the bright lights of Manchester [more like the eternal rain up there which got into his eyes]..? Well it appears he isn't going to be able to tie down a starting place at OT after all and he's a bit miffed about it, what with ManU bidding for Leighton Baines and all. And he could have come to sunny Southampton and possibly set back Luke's career a year. Ah well, they say good things come to those who wait. That may not always be true. http://hereisthecity.com/2013/08/20...ay-back-for-alexander-buttner-and-manchester/
I'm still trying to work out what "probably ironically unlucky" means. The very lovely Mrs Godders tells me that "He hopes to sum up stories for the site and provide an angle on the issue moving forward" means he'll try to keep you up to date with what is happening. What a load of verbosity. The Plain English Campaign would have a field day with this boys writing. http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/
His Bank Manager doesnt. Joking aside I think another season to allow him to strengthen up may have helped avoid all his injuries.
Very true FLT and I accept the observations of others that players may have improved during our journey up the leagues. I do not believe this is the case for Rickie though. I think he's always been this good and that the only thing we improved in him was his fitness, something which any PL club could have done surely.
It makes you realise how good a manager Ferguson was. He had the talented youngsters AND he had the courage to play them when he could easily have gone out and bought more experienced players. If our lot really are good enough, I hope they get the same opportunity.
But Fergie never had the danger of his babes wanting out. And other clubs never came to call for them because when your club is already at the top of the pile the only other way for a young player is down . The additional problem for other managers is that they might have their key youngsters stolen from them. In Saints case it has been all too common.
I believe Rickie has admitted that tactically he has learned a great deal these last few years, but the great thing is, is that he has had the capacity to learn, and exploit the information so well. The skill was already there. Finally, pundits are now realising that he much more than a big CF or Grant Holt clone. This is what pissed many fans off last season when it was clear that pundit comments were ill-informed about Rickie. They hadn't seen him play properly, but had gone on the say-so of others. These days the only remaining doubter is Garth Crooks.
