YV, yes, I'm sure there's exceptions, but most of those players you've mentioned we're playing/starting to play in the top league in their respective country. Lewandowski, at 21 was signed for Dortmund (ok, so he was 1 year over the age in my original point) Paulinho at 21 was playing for Corinthians in Brazil's top league Pedro at 20 was part of Barcelona's main set up. - but let's give him the benefit of the doubt... it'd be pretty hard to break into Barcelona's team! Flamini, after breaking through at Marseille was snapped up by arsenal at 20. - another club in the top tier of their country Pirlo at 19, made 20 appearances for Inter (in an era when Inter were pretty ****ing good) All I was saying, was that in general, these young players should be playing premier league football by now. Even if it's not for us. Yes, we've got Bentaleb, Carroll and Kane coming through, but there's a **** load of others that don't appear to be anywhere near!
We have too many in MF now (seniors, Academy) all of the same age group. They cannot all play, so some are going to have to be purged. Worse has been the back four situation. With the long-term injuries that Ledlley, Kaboul etc have suffered over the past 3 seasons, tis unacceptable that the development of Veljkovic etc has not been accelerated over this period.
You can't make generalisations. Footballers, like kids at school, develop at different times. Some are fast starters, some late developers - most progress steadily. You can only hope that the coaches have identified talent or potential or both and that nurturing the player will bear fruit at some point. Who would have thought that a 4th division player at 27 years of age (having never exceeded that level) would be playing for England and in the CL at 32? Ricky Lambert btw
Whether it's one season back or more is hard to tell. One thing for sure is Liverpool is a TOP club when you compare them to the likes of Spurs. I like to think of Spurs as 'The Nearly Club'.
we'll have to agree to disagree, Luke. I'm all too familiar with how children develop in sport, as I do it for a living. I agree in the sense that there are exceptions such as Lambert, but at the level/age we're talking about, in general (yep, I'm generalising again) you've got to have started standing out from the crowd, IMO. What I was actually trying to get at from the beginning, is that I think there's a fair few players in the development squad at Spurs who should be closer to making it than they are. The fact that they aren't, and they don't appear to even be going on loan to other premier league clubs, makes me question how good they really are.
Sunderland have launched a £4m bid for Ashley Williams according to sky sports. We should be all over that if that figure is true. Great business IMO.
I'm sure we have our eyes on one Swansea centre back of the 2011-12 season, but it's probably not Williams.
Liverpool WERE a top club when compared to Spurs some years ago, these days it is a far closer comparison. The only difference these days is the universal love by 90% of the media for all things Liverpool, a slightly bigger revenue (of which the gap will close once our stadium is built), and a propensity to be given the benefit of doubt by 90% of referees.
Apologies on Pedro, I thought he was about 23/24 when he broke into the Barcelona team. My point was that setting an arbitrary age of when a footballer has to make it by doesn't work. Lewandowski had an average first season after signing for £3mill so hardly setting the World on fire and the others have similar stories. Pirlo only making the bench at Inter didn't stop him going on to be a top player, and neither should Hall playing in the Championship stop him from becoming a good player. They weren't just exceptions to the rule either, I bet there's loads more but they're the ones that sprang to mind. Also, of course the academy's not going to just produce a load of players that are good enough for our first team, every academy has promising players who never really make it
West Ham are ready to battle Tottenham for the signature of Napoli midfielder Blerim Dzemaili, 28. (Source: TalkShite) Like that's a fair fight! If we want that player, he's playing for us. Any even if we don't want that player, he'll probably stay where he is, rather than play for the Spanners.
Blackpool winger Tom Ince, 22, is set to decide between a move to Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle after rejecting a switch to Inter Milan. (Source: Daily Express) With Poch now installed, I think we'll have a much better chance of landing this kind of young talent, more so than under, say, Redknap.
Why turn down Inter Milan? strange, although I expect Inter only wanted him on the cheap so they could make a quick buck and sell him on to an English club.
I Think Tom Ince would be an excellent signing. I watched him recently for England u21's and the kid has talent. Apart from pace and skill he has good strength and can really pick out a pass.
This is excellent news. The guy is a credit to himself, his family and our club. A thoroughly decent man who will be superb in the ambassadorial role the club has given him.
Good to hear he's signed and good to hear he's not trying to player/coach as I didn't really like that idea, It's one or the other for goalkeepers, I think. Friedel always comes across well and I look forward to seeing him on the Beeb's World Cup coverage, although I'm grateful for every pundit there that shortens the amount of time I have to listen to Savage's nonsense
