The central striker dilemma

I think we did what was best for him. The club cares about players like Ballard and sometimes you have to just admit that his best bet was finding a club that would make him a key player. Good for him after all his injury woes.

 

Was never given a chance. Had a few loans where he got injured early on. That’s it.

Terrible mistake letting him go. Made even worse by the fact we spent 8m on a guy who can’t play football.

Hope we get a transfer ban some day.

 

I've got no idea if we made a mistake in letting Ballard go. But I don't see scoring goals in L1 as evidence that we did. I do though think that moving on was probably the best thing for him.

The issue is that we let him go in the same summer as we signed Downs for multiple millions. It invites a very easy, and understandable, view that we should have just kept the money and Ballard. Only time will tell if that view is correct or not - I honestly don't know.

 

You're quite right. And Ballard is a similar profile and player (slightly taller) to Archer. We already have someone like that who has proven to be better through his career (Ballard has scored 6 senior goals). It may end up being a mistake, but it's hugely unlikely he's the answer to the current striker issue, as we have Archer already. Strange overreaction from people.

 

Yep, we have to assume that the 3 signings from Germany came from Spors and one looks ready but another one is raw and another is like a deer in the headlights.
I believe that he made the wrong call with Jack's contract and letting Dom go although we have made some good signings too.

 

Surely Dom's prolific record for the academy mark him out as a natural finisher, he was worth more than 2 games imo, he is still only 20.

 

He had 45 games on loan where he scored 6 goals. So, you know, it’s hardly clear cut.

 

I reckon he will have a good future career, but scoring in the u21s doesn’t mean a huge amount. I am sure his contract was up at the end of the year and he has had a lot of injuries. If he had the chance to lock in a contract and secure a future, surely that is the best for the youngster?

 

When I saw him play for the U21s you could see a player there, natural goalscorers are goldust.
Plenty of good players have had slow starts to their league careers.

 

I'm selfish, I want what's best for the club and ultimately me, I think this one will bite us on the posteria.

 

But we have Archer for that, who is far more established. There’s no point comparing Ballard to Downs as they’re totally different profiles. Look, you may be right, but the idea we’ve just let go of the next Ronaldo or something is…well…weird, and not borne out by the facts.

 

It's a game of opinions and stats don't always tell the whole story (he has been hampered by injuries), we invested so much in the lad and just let him go without him even getting any game time.

 

Of course, and the opinion of the coaches was clearly that he wasn’t going to break through (at least this season) and so he likely wanted to give it a crack elsewhere. As I say, we already have a more proven player of his profile, and another with a better junior record coming through the ranks. Maybe we’re just doing the right thing for the player here.

 

I don’t think he would have made a heap of difference to us, not least because he is young and needs to have guaranteed football. I am just glad our academy still makes a lot of professional footballers. I stumbled on a video of our youth team beating Pompey 7-0 11 years ago and spent a bit of time checking what happened to most of them. Well… Sam Gallagher and Matt Targett were basically the only ones to have any success. That was when we were told we had the best system in the country!

 

We also had Ward-Prowse, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers and Harrison Reed in that generation of youth players.

 

You only have to watch the 3 goals today to decide whether he is a natural goalscorer...

 

But not in that game.

 

No. But you were implying that our academy wasn't producing any talents back then.

 

No, that wasn’t what I was saying at all. I was saying the hit rate for young academy players is generally very low, so even the 11 that beat Pompey 7-0 only had two success stories, despite the fame of our academy at the time.

 

We're all speculating that Still must change his style to accomodate Archer, well what if he does and Cam gets injured or suspended or just doesn't score enough?, surely we don't go back to the failed Adarma as central striker again? Ballard would've been a cheap and ready made alternative.
It's all about the unknown but i've always preached that it is better to try something and fail than not try at all. We used to be fearless in blooding them but maybe we don't have enough leaders to take care of them on the pitch these days.
Like Che says, what's the point of an academy (****loads was spent on it by the Liebherrs) if we aren't going to gain any benefit on the pitch? and it is worrying that J-Rob is apparently being pushed back after a promising start. Coaches should be what they always preach to the players and be "braver" with their selections.