I am a little confused about all the talk of getting a striker on loan. Adebayor - yes great on his day but can go missing in games and also could disrupt the dressing room spirit? would be big expense and not sure the right type for our current TEAM, more an individual player. Harry Kane - obvious talent in England U21, but unproven. So we again give great experience and game time to a young player from another team, then we lose them back to the home club....... Walker, Townsend are the most recent examples. A N Other on loan - same as above, may help, but could effect team spirit. What ever happened to the days when we blooded our OWN up and coming players. We have the talent in our reserves, yet all talk is to bring in someone on loan! I remember the day a young Clive Allen made his debut and scored a hat-trick at home to Coventry. Give our own players a chance. See Hitchcock got another couple today for the EDS. I think Harry has done a great job in turning the club around from last years mistakes and must take great credit, but question the reserves for the weekends game. We all know that Zamora is no where near fit but starts. Hoilliet plays, but may not be fully fit/recovered, on the bench we have Phillips who is not match fit, yet comes on for what 50 mins and I know we have a lot of midfielders, but why have a bench full of them and no attackers? Why do we not have Hitchcock and Shariff on the bench? Give our own kids a chance. Once the team start playing as we all hope have the kids in there and give them 15 - 20 mins at the end of games, who know 'Hitch' could be the next Clive Allen. If we don't use them what will happen, our kids will go on loan, when they come back will they get a game?. Use them now why we have no other choice, at worst case it will mean we have 11 players on the pitch and not 9.5 or 10 and give youth a chance to play for the Shirt with pride. The other option I wouldn't mind seeing is get HH out of retirement for a short term fix.
It would be risky to play Vivian, there's a good chance he'd get a red. Rick would look pretty good on the left though.
I certainly agree with playing the young strikers more - certainly more deserving of a place than Zamora. But imo we should have 4 first team strikers (not including youngsters). One injury and at the moment we are down to the bare bones, so 3 is definitely not enough, especially when one of those three is Zamora. A striker on loan is a must imo, but I do agree we need to give the young players in our youth team a chance more often.
Do not forget AJ either, he will miss 50% of the season at least, we have one forward we can count on, we need two more if we are to play one up front or four more if we play two up front.
For us it's simple but I think for the owners and management it's more complicated than that. They really want to get promoted this season, for financial reasons mostly. They need as many points as they can get and using an unproven homegrown kid is a gamble. Just because Hitchcock scored that goal on his debut, it does not mean he's the real deal now. He might be. He might not be. I can understand why they might be afraid to use him. If we were a team only expecting to finish up mid table for the foreseeable future then it would make sense to try them out. But as we're a team pushing for promotion since the moment we were confirmed as relegated I can see why they might hesitate and instead would want to bring in someone with a goalscoring record at this level. Of course I'd like to see our own youngsters but it's not my choice!
Think you got that dead right mate, If we expect (as so many have posted..automatic prom) then do we risk wasting 4-6 games proving one of our youngsters is not up to it just yet & miss out on vital wins, OR do we gamble on him and if he/they dont perform be satisfied with another year in the NPC. It would be a lot of pressure on a youngster especially given the expectation levels at the club and the financial investment and rewards. Do we think any of our current crop of youngsters could take that pressure? I dont know enough about them to comment. I can understand both side of the problem and can easily see why the management team would go for the proven striker. i know it doesnt gaurantee anything. Personally id like to see us get another good/proven striker in and then introduce our youngsters gradually so as build build confidence and knowledge. Always keep them in and around the first team and make sure we have at least one on the bench for every game. give them a regular 20 mins or so at the end of games and slowly give them more time. Some may develop & others may not ut this would put us in a stronger position to win matches whilst delveloping our own youngsters. Problem is it "Tonys Ball" and he'll let who he wants to play with it...Over to you Uncle Tony
It was very bizarre that Hitchcock wasn't on the bench. Had we been chasing the game late on who would we have brought on? As Queenslander!! says, 20 minutes here and there will help them grow, a constant diet of EDS will only go so far.
I think the problem is with this division and wanting to get out of it is having experience in the front line. In hindsight, I wonder whether letting Bothroyd go was such a great idea. Considering he was on released on a free, to me he was never given a proper shot and I'll tell you what against Southampton last year he was superb. In saying that, I would like to see Hitchcock given more of a chance but i'd rather HR wait and let him keep scoring in the EDL so he's earning his chance rather than being chucked in because we have nobody else.
I tend to agree with the sentiment and totally agree with Adebayor however you also have to remember we don't see how they perform on the training ground, at present I see no reason to doubt Harry in his selection policy. There are some bits I don't agree with but all decisions seem to have been vindicated so far
Don't think the young ones get nervous,they have so much energy put em on from the start they can score goals
Are we forgetting one man doesn't make a team. If one of the youngsters is given a fair chance and doesn't make it, then are we really any worse off than a 50% fit Zamora or AJ? As others have said, getting promotion is important but we also have to allow some talent to come through our ranks. Harry seems to trust the Spurs youth setup more than our own.
