I don’t know if was him or Dan Neil, my memories a bit vague but I remember thinking at the time that when the snake said it I felt he it was just because he didn’t trust young players. Loads of people jumped on it though. I do remember Doyle having a poor game once with a couple of howlers and I think his confidence was knocked. My original question was genuine though - do Man City think it was a good loan or do they think we overplayed and damaged him? I have no idea whether we have any credit with them or not.
I believe Man City would’ve seen it as a very good loan move. He gained plenty of experience here whilst playing for a club with big crowds and high expectations. Faced some physical forwards and won at Wembley as a 17/18 y/o! It stood him in good stead
Welbeck scored 11 goals all competitions last season with 10 in the Premiership, his highest ever return in the league. He always struck me as a switched on bloke when interviewed and has probably looked after himself, I wouldn't at all be shocked to see him get 10 again next season with the right team.
Looked better at right back than centre half for me which seems strange as he is physically more suited to centre half. He looked like a mistake waiting to happen in a central role. But, in fairness to him, he didn't get a run in team and its hard to build relationships with your partner when that happens
This. Something like these as competition: Henderson Welbeck Mepham Doyle Then as starters Singo Bardghji Richardson Merlin Magassa With a couple of random loans thrown in: Bobb/McAtee/Etcheverri Guiu
Interesting that your starters have no premier league experience and your competition have bags of premier league games under their belts.
The starters are all £15-20m players in their late teens or early 20's. Fast, athetic, talented and with huge potential. That's still the model and the priority. The competition I just feel are all great low budget options. Henderson and Welbeck have vast experience and are model pros. Mepham has experience of the league and knows the dressing room. Doyle is a low cost gamble with a few Prem games under his belt. You can sprinkle them in any games without having to guarantee starts for any of them I think and the total cost in fees would be under £10m.
Welbeck would be a good signing I think. Mayenda is one I have earmarked to be fine with the step up but obviously he'll have an adjustment period and Welbeck would arguably be perfect for the meantime. Feel like Moyes would love him at Everton though, maybe Potter at West Ham as well.
I think another point with ELF is how much credit it will give RLB with recruitment team. Could even put in Isidor with that too who he was familiar with I believe. Players like Ekwah were shifted quick because RLB didn’t think he was capable despite his talent. But he knew despite ELF being a bit of a flair type of player, that he would be all in here and dig in when needed. Obviously don’t want us to giving full control back to managers by any means, but should be some confidence RLB can identify the right characters as well as quality that this team will need.