...Had a half decent game on Saturday (not before time) but I do get fed up with the; "give him time, he is young brigade" 22 is not that young anymore, just posted the list below of 20 players at random across mainly the Premier league but a couple from the championship as well, wonder if I will get more or less down arrows than my list; Exactly, 22 is not young anymore, please stop using this excuse for Frank, simply he is not as good as we would like.! (Yet) Other young players are available; Ravel Morrison â 21 Raheem Stirling â 19 Tom Carroll â 21 Luke Shaw â 18 Adnan Januzaj â 19 Ross Barkley â 20 Oscar -22 Eden Hazard â 23 Coutinho â 21 Jon Flanagan â 19 Aaron Ramsey â 23 Jack Wilshere â 22 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain â 20 Romelu Lukaku â 20 Gerard Deulofeu â 19 Danny Ings â 21 Will Hughes â 18 Tom Ince â 20 Andreas Weimann - 22 Leandro Bacuna - 22 (I got bored at 20 players)
I don't see what MM does in Nouble but this post is a little symptomatic of the wanting results yesterday in football. 6 of the players picked out are the same age or older then Nouble yet still classed as young players that are "available". The majority of them in premier league teams destined for a career at the top of the game. No-one is claiming Nouble is ever going to be a star, but he is young and still has time to develop into a player that can, with MM and TCs tutelage, produce performances like yesterday more consistently.
I am not saying we are going to bid for these type of players, it was just a choice of words to try to get the message across that Nouble is not young in footballing terms, these other "young players" are all starting regularly & playing well (generally) for their teams, it was just to highlight that being young does not mean you can't be decent early on in your career. Nouble to my knowledge has been with around 7-8 clubs either permanently or on loan , he also has played a total of around 3 seasons worth of first team football, as much as most in that list, a few other bits n pieces; He has scored 5 goals in 49 appearances (inc from the bench) for Town so around 1 goal in every 10 games, he has picked up 4 yellow cards in that time also. He is a striker & even for a youngster (although I am not sure that being 22 is classed as being young these days in professional football terms) I would think that a goal every 4-5 games would be a more realistic/acceptable return. I do not have stats for his assists but I would suspect it is not dissimilar from his goal tally.! Frank so far has made 123 1st team appearances, split almost 50/50 starting or from the bench, he has scored 14 goals, so roughly 1 goal every 10 games. It also equates to around 3 full seasons in match totals so again I do feel by now the "youngster" tab is maybe a little over used.!
I can see your point, Hoppers, especially regarding how many clubs he's had. We could get into a circular argument about why thats the case, no time to settle, move on, or just not good enough and he has a very good agent. Either way Mick sees some use in his work effort and i'd like to see the stats for when he is and isn't playing. Saying that I'd like to see similar stats for Taylor - in my head he had a positive impact at Blackpool and obviously Birmingham. Can't actually recall for sure any other league game he's featured this season
Interesting article this. I guess first and foremost, 22 granted isn't that young in football terms. That said, some players like Cherno Samba, Freddy Adu are so good aged 15 or so, and what's become of them? Freddy Adu for instance was recently on trial at Blackpool. I suppose I consider age somewhat irrelevant to be honest with you. So long as a player appears to be getting better and developing, then that's all that concerns me! I know Mick's faith in Nouble may irritate a few, however he picks him for a reason. McCarthy is a good manager, and won't simply pick a player for zero reason. He put in a decent cross ( though very badly defended by Brum ) for our goal Saturday. While I get what you're saying, to compile a list with players of the likes of Lukaku, Oscar and others is a little bit ridiculous at best!! Good job you got bored at 20 players!
I think the old adage if your good enough your old enough should come into play here. At 22 you are not going to be the finished product but there should be an outline of a decent player on view and for me there is not. It may change but on present viewing Nouble seems to have little promise other than a willing workrate. Personally I think his biggest issue is his attention span and ability to read whats happening. The runs are too late or in the wrong direction. Its just not clicking for him currently.
As I have a keen working interest in talent ID and athlete development I'll throw in a brief summary.. Players such as Rickie Lambert only really hit the straps until his mid-late 20's along with countless others... Kuqi etc. as players mature at different rates. In fact Drogba signed his first pro contract at 21.. and Ian Wright at 22! The Long term athlete development (LTAD) model is one that is very convoluted in football compared to other sports.. for example part of my day to day job is to work from an athlete profile for my sport sport.. Tall, powerful etc. whereas football is very wide ranging. I would also say that 22 IS young.. the LTAD model would suggest that players fully mature (psychologically) by 27 or slightly older for Goalkeepers (although as I said earlier players mature differently depending on environment) The list of players you mentioned along with the general trend is that players are sought after more at a younger age and that players over a certain age are 'past it' whereas Lambert among others still prove that there is still important development that can be made between 24 - 30
