Mackem in peace (OK I found last night quite amusing but it's nothing you's haven't been laughing at us for the last 2+ years about!!) - have to say you have a hell of a player in Longstaff - great in the tackle - has a bit of devil in him, cracking passer of the ball too. Think this lad could be playing for England in the not too distant future.
They paid £20m for Henderson when £20m was a massive fee!! It’s good to see young local talent getting a chance (even though it is fir you lot!!) as Benitez has notoriously been poor doing that. Cracking player as long as he keeps it going
Think Longstaff only got his chance as we had no other players available. However its come about, I'm glad it did
Nothing to suggest he won't keep going so far. Our last "star of the future" form the academy Rolando Aarons had an amazing debut game, and mad rumours Man City wanting to put in a £20m bid for him immediately started circulating....then he got crocked for 3 months in his next game and it became obvious he couldn't stay fit if his life depended on it. Longstaff seems very different, very physical and tough, his passing looks great, and he actually seems to relish getting involved and isn't afraid to put the foot in and have a scrap. It's what we've been missing with Diame off the boil this season, and for me he could be the difference in crunch games this season vs the likes of Burnley, Soton etc.
I like Longstaff, he has loads to learn but the basics are right. Technically sound, good passing ability. He still gets caught in possession in dangerous areas now and again, but the only way to get better at that and decision making, is to keep putting him in that situation so he learns. You have to play PL football to do that because its the only way to learn how quick things happen at this level. So putting him in the 23's or out on loan in the Championship will not help. We need to accept some pain to reap the rewards. I don't care how its come about. I think Rafa needs to open his mind and give young players more opportunity. He has found that stumbling on young Longstaff by being forced to play him, he has a squad player who is capable and fills out the squad without spending money. Crucial for us under this owner. If you found another 2 or 3 it would help massively. Plus if you want to recruit like Spurs do the up and coming players like they did with Alli, Walker, Bale, Dier, Davies, Naughton etc, you need to be seen as a club who gives them game time and allows them to make mistakes. you can then sell them on like Bale and Walker (combined income of £135m). Its a massive positive and I'd like to see more given a chance. Woodman will need to start playing soon. I'd like to think we will build on the success of giving Longstaff a chance. I suspect we won't with the excuse of being at the other end of the table means you can't risk it which is rubbish.
You're saying we should stick Woodman in a prem match this season? I wouldn't be adverse to him getting fielded if we're safe but a bad performance could destroy the lad, plus he IS worse than Dub right now. You can't cite Spurs in entirety then say which end of the table you are doesn't impact on giving youth a chance. Spurs have invested in infrastructure and players. I wish Mike would take the Rafa bait and just spend on the academy and training facilities like, reckon we are bottom 3 in the league in this regard. Since Rafa's been here he's managed to get a new lick of paint, ridiculous. I'm happy Longstaff is doing well but he's the first player since Dummett to get a first team promotion. I genuinely believe we haven't had much talent in the youth teams and, if we did, it was fast destroyed by 'Mr. motivator' Pedro. I think more than anything, from this point, we need to keep finding the right loans for players. Longstaff's really worked out for him.
Has he been adverse to giving youngsters a chance though? McClaren refused to drop Colo on Saylor despite how bad they got, and the first thing Rafa did when he got he was put Laecelles in the first time and give Saylor the boot. Same with Longstaff who since having a good initial impact, has retained his place. Rafa will give our kids a chance if they're up to it, the trouble is, our academy has been dire for years and we seem to accept any old **** these days, and the fact 95% of our kids end up at Consett, Bedlington Terriers, Jarrow Roofing etc by the time they're 21 proves this beyond any doubt. Longstaff is sadly an exception to the rule, rather than an example of how good our kids are.
I'd love to see any evidence to back this up, he is not known for not giving youngsters a chance. Indeed if it wasn't for such a desperate situation whereby Ki was going away, Shelvey and Diame had injuries, you'd have to wonder where Longstaff would be plying his trade right now. This isn't a new thing with Rafa and I have to say he is not alone either. I think his approach is very in keeping with a lot of managers. The more modern managers seem a bit more willing, but the premium placed on the PL status weighs heavy on most of the coaches. You will get managers like Pochettino who buck the trend, hence why Levy went all out for him. A tactician who had a big emphasis on youth. You will never find out exactly how good the youngsters are until you give them an opportunity to make mistakes at the highest level and learn from them. You will quickly weed out the ones who belong in the Northern League. It is quite easy to weed out fans who don't understand player development in the same way. You get those who comment on things like loans with "he didn't pull up any trees on loan in the championship, so he's hardly ready for the PL" - can you imagine if that had been applied to the likes of Harry Kane? Even Beckham didn't look amazing at Preston. He did well in a short stint but you wouldn't have looked and said "ready for the PL". If you look at the loans of Longstaff to Blackpool and Kilmarnock, they didn't tell you anything about his current form. He did well but just looked run of the mill at those levels. Rafa took that at face value and put him 5th in the pecking order. Really what we need him to do is blood them and give them a run of games, then make that call. As I say though its a lost art in modern football and takes bravery to do. Not sure on the relevance of McClaren? He was not much better than Rafa. You could argue that he bought Mitrovic, Mbemba, Thauvin and gave them opportunity but its not really the same as they are known quantities. I'm not sure where you've got Saylor from, McClarens back four was largely Janmaat, Colo, Mbemba, Dummett. From memory and I could be wrong, I'm pretty sure Lascelles only got in when Rafa arrived because Saylor and Colo were out. He largely picked Taylor and Mbemba to begin with (I think Colo was out injured) I seem to remember Lascelles replaced Saylor at half time in one of the games (Southampton or Bournemouth??) and then kept his place. Again it was injury that sore Rafa give youth a chance.
No, no, no! Laecelles only got established in the team after Saylor had an absolute 'mare when we lost 3-1 to Southampton and was hauled off and replaced by Laecelles. After that Laecelles and Mbemba became our regular central defences and Colo and Saylor were pretty much never seen again. It wasn't anything to do with an injury to Saylor, it was cos Saylor had been bloody awful in that game and Rafa made a change. Find the youtube footage of it, especially the first Soton goal where Saylor does a pirouette while Long walks past him and scores, Saylor was wretched in that game, nothing to do with injury. As for Colo, he'd mentally checked out a long time before the end of that season and injury had nothing to do with it. My point is Laecelles hardly got a game under McClaren and the first thing Rafa did was to make him a first team regular and later captain, we could've stayed up with a defence of Laecelles and Mbemba, but by the time he got his chance it was far too late. Rafa likes experience yes, but he's not against youth, as the Laecelles and Longstaff examples show.....plus what other youth options have we had? Adam Armstrong wasn't Prem quality, Rolando Aarons will never play more than 2 games in a row, Sterry and Barlaser look league 1 at best, Curtis Good could barely get off the Bradford bench, and Haris Vuckic hardly got into the Wigan and Rotherham teams.
No not yet. At some stage soon though you are going to have to be brave with the lad or you will lose him. Given his pedigree and what we've seen, he will make the jump to PL level. You can either play safe and lose him or you take a bit of pain. Goalkeepers is probably the one area where maybe you have to wait a bit. In our situation though, you have to think about the money aspect - Pickford makes loads of mistakes. Yet because he was given a chance and had a good spell, he went for big money. Where would the mackems be now without that money? I do think we lack quality in our youth system. There is no doubt about it and Rafa wants money spent on it and the training facilities. What I think we have to separate here is thinking that Rafa will suddenly use the youth system having invested. There is nothing to suggest he will. We have to bear in mind this guy has had access to 3no high quality youth systems in his time at Inter, Liverpool and Real Madrid (plus a few other reputable ones). He showed very little interest in any. It would be unfair to call him a chequebook manager because he is top coach. He isn't a manager that gives youth a chance though. I just think we wouldn't have Longstaff now if we hadn't got those injuries. That is bit silly because of some notion you can't take the risk in our situation. Well apparently you can and can benefit is what we've discovered. It needs to start with the investment of course. I have to say though if I was running the club and pumped money into the youth system, and Rafa then didn't use it, i'd just sack him. You can't have it both ways, lets have a great system but don't use it. It is not the top youngsters. Its the Longstaffs who need opportunity. It should not take injuries to give that. If you don't want Spurs, take Southampton or West Ham. Or Palace? Southampton lost their way a bit but they are basically in the PL because of the approach. Bale, Walcott etc, it goes back a long way. West Ham have a long history of it. They probably went too far at times and suffered relegations because of it. The end of the table does impact a little, but no where near the extent some like to portray. These fans who claim to want a good youth system,but when it comes to the crunch start worrying about the table etc are just hypocrites. Its a load of rubbish and there are countless examples which absolutely blow this argument to small pieces. Lets be realistic, blooding a Longstaff doesn't require an injury when you have our midfielders.
Again though you are saying Saylor and Colo had been ****e for a long time. Yet it took Rafa a third of his games to realise and his go to option was to pick the underperforming Saylor. Rafa doesn't give youth a chance, there is no evidence at any club to suggest he does. Armstrong not being PL quality is the comment I love. Is he worse than what we have? Do you think Joselu is PL quality? Perez? There is an argument you could pitch against a few. Possibly correct but then Longstaff was not PL quality based on what we'd seen. Rafa didn't think so, hence he made him 5th choice. Amazing what they achieve when given a chance. Mbabu was deemed not even worth a contract. Playing CL football now having been given a chance. He needs to be more proactive in giving youth a chance, that is just my personal preference. He doesn't see it like that. Doesn't make him a bad manager or suggest he is not a great coach. Just means he doesn't trust youth the way a Poch would.
https://www.skysports.com/football/soton-vs-newcastle/341511 Juat checked back and Saylor did limp off injured along with Janmaat. So I’m afraid it’s YES YES YES Charlie I’m struggling to locate many young players blooded and established by Rafa.
Saylor limped off? With **** footballer disease maybe, he was diabolical in that game, Rafa had only had 4 games up to that point so was getting to know the players to some extent, and Saylor's ****ness only became glaringly obvious in that game. Plus Rafa had hardly had any time before his first game with the players (he would have had if the correct decision had been made and McClaren had been axed after the Chelsea hammering, giving Rafa the 2 week break to get to know the players), so he obviously didn't know them fully. Yes I think Armstrong is worse than what we have, and he sure as hell ain't a Prem player, even in the championship he only got 6 goals for Barnsley in a full season and 1 for Bolton in half a season; he scored for fun in League One to start with, and hey look he can score again now he's back there after a poor record in the Champ. PL quality? Seriously? And yes Perez is prem quality (lower prem team) and Joselu is nothing more than a squad player/bench warmer. And FFS Mbabu playing Champs League football is a ridiculous distortion of facts, he plays in a Mickey Mouse league in Switzerland, your granny could probably get in the Champs League in the same way he has! If Mbabu was any good he wouldn't be at Young Boys. Same for James Tavernier, captains his team and scores for fun in Scotland became he plays in a joke of a league that massively below the Prem. Going all out with youth is dangerous - remember Ossie Ardiles at Toon?
