Is It Time To Give Our Villa Youth More Of A Chance?

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VitalFootballAdmin

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Eddy1 talking about only one Wolves player was over 27 in their win v Sheff Wed. Is it time for us to play our youth players?


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I think so. We have, from what I've seen some very good youngsters at this club. Easah Suliman, Mitch Clark, Jake Doyle-Hayes and Callum O'Hare could all do a decent job for us. That's not to say that they should be starting every game but the odd start and regular appearances off the bench.

We have a big squad but a lot of players who I never want to see in the claret and blue again. Elphick, Gabby, Thor and Richards are all useless. Add to that Onomha who won't be here next season. Then the likes of Samba, Elmo and Snodgrass who were signed in the summer. Samba is a decent centre half but is injury prone, probably won't be here next year, Elmo is totally average and Snodgrass has a good left foot but that's about it. None of these are going to be good enough for the premier league and very few of them will be here next season if we aren't promoted.

The reply that is always given on threads like these is that you need experienced players in this league. When do we play these youngsters then? If we go up we won't, we'll just loan them to a lower league team till their contracts out or sell them for peanuts. If we stay down then we're probably going to sign another load of experienced, average players to block them.

We currently have Terry and Samba out injured. Possibly Jedinak may be fit but let's face it we know he's going to injure himself again if we just chuck him straight back in. The only other options are Easah Suliman or elphick. Now Elphick is someone we're probably going to try and offload in January, he's fucked up in pretty much every game he's played for us. Suliman should be a future captain of this club, represented England at various levels, captained them to a trophy this summer, local boy. Elphick would still, I'm guessing, get the nod over him, even on the bench. Despite everyone knowing he's going to make a cock up. Because he's 29 and Suliman is 19.

This isn't even a criticism of Bruce in particular. English football on whole has created this situation where managers are too scared to play young players. I say this as someone who doesn't like Steve Bruce. If he gave some of these kids a go I'd honestly respect him for it and wouldn't criticise him one bit. We need to do this else what's the point of even having an academy?
 
I think it comes back to who we want to be as a club. What is Aston Villa? What do we stand for?

In an ideal world, I'd love the club to stop buying players are rely solely on developing youth team players. I think it would create a virtuous cycle where the best young players in the country would want to play for Aston Villa because they know they'd get a chance here but I don't think the fans could accept the ups and downs we'd inevitably get from relying on the youth. Would we accept another relegation because we didn't have enough quality coming through?

I love seeing the young players coming through. I'd much rather develop players than buy them in but in reality, you probably need a bit of both.

When the club is on the front foot and there are experienced players in the side, you can afford to play one or two young players.
 
BodyButter - 16/12/2017 11:25


I love seeing the young players coming through. I'd much rather develop players than buy them in but in reality, you probably need a bit of both.
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This is exactly right. You need both but in how many transfer Windows have we brought in a load of average players? Instead we should be spending our money on a few high quality players and filling the rest of the squad with the youngsters.

Plus players like Suliman or Doyle-Hayes would learn more from playing alongside Terry and Jedinak for a few games than they would in 50 under 23 matches I'd bet.
 
If we don't play the youngsters then the only alternative is to sell them, maybe after them hanging around on the fringes for several years, which makes the academy a waste of time. The stated purpose of the club under Xia is to have young players coming through to the first team, but it's not happening enough.

It's not a question of starting them. It's having some on the bench available to make a contribution when the opportunity occurs. It's that which isn't happening enough. The current crop seem to have the confidence and are as keen as mustard.
 
Throwing 3 or 4 in at once would not be a good idea, imo. Given that we have 5 games in 16 days (all against play off rivals) and our injuries, we may well need to call on 1 or 2 of them. It is a big step up from under 23 level so I wouldn’t expect too much this season. I would have O’Hare in the squad but some of the others may benefit more from going on loan to league 1 or a decent league 2 team to gain first team experience, with a view to being more involved at Villa next season, especially if we don’t go up.
 
McParlandTheGreat - 16/12/2017 21:50

If we don't play the youngsters then the only alternative is to sell them, maybe after them hanging around on the fringes for several years, which makes the academy a waste of time. The stated purpose of the club under Xia is to have young players coming through to the first team, but it's not happening enough.

It's not a question of starting them. It's having some on the bench available to make a contribution when the opportunity occurs. It's that which isn't happening enough. The current crop seem to have the confidence and are as keen as mustard.
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Given how thin the squad is with injuries, I'd expect a few of them on the bench.
 
BodyButter - 16/12/2017 13:30

McParlandTheGreat - 16/12/2017 21:50

If we don't play the youngsters then the only alternative is to sell them, maybe after them hanging around on the fringes for several years, which makes the academy a waste of time. The stated purpose of the club under Xia is to have young players coming through to the first team, but it's not happening enough.

It's not a question of starting them. It's having some on the bench available to make a contribution when the opportunity occurs. It's that which isn't happening enough. The current crop seem to have the confidence and are as keen as mustard.
Click to expand...

Given how thin the squad is with injuries, I'd expect a few of them on the bench.
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BB me old mate, the first team squad is not thin on numbers, 29 to be exact.
What the squad is paper thin on is quality, of any kind.
 
I've asked this question in the match thread a little while ago but as this is specifically about the youngsters I'll ask it here as well.

What message does it send to the young players at the club when we've brought Gabby and elphick onto the bench today over Suliman and O'Hare? Elphick has been nothing short of a disaster for us and Gabby is a disgrace to himself and the club. What is the point of having an academy or young players when we'd rather give Gabby his 1054674th chance than put a young player on the bench.
 
1958Villan - 16/12/2017 23:43

BodyButter - 16/12/2017 13:30

McParlandTheGreat - 16/12/2017 21:50

If we don't play the youngsters then the only alternative is to sell them, maybe after them hanging around on the fringes for several years, which makes the academy a waste of time. The stated purpose of the club under Xia is to have young players coming through to the first team, but it's not happening enough.

It's not a question of starting them. It's having some on the bench available to make a contribution when the opportunity occurs. It's that which isn't happening enough. The current crop seem to have the confidence and are as keen as mustard.
Click to expand...

Given how thin the squad is with injuries, I'd expect a few of them on the bench.
Click to expand...


BB me old mate, the first team squad is not thin on numbers, 29 to be exact.
What the squad is paper thin on is quality, of any kind.
Click to expand...



:26:
 
I see our ex youth player Hogg was sent off for Huddersfield at the weekend

It got me thinking [rare at the weekend]
Apart from the obvious stars we didn’t want to lose: Young, Milner, Barry, Benteke, Delph
Or who came on loan and wouldn’t stay [unlike Milner] such as Walker & Bertrand

How many of our failures/rejects are now playing in the premier league?
Cahill obviously
But also
Lowton, Gueye, Clark, Hogg
Are there anymore?
Have any of our other youth players made ?
 
distefano - 17/12/2017 16:39

I see our ex youth player Hogg was sent off for Huddersfield at the weekend

It got me thinking [rare at the weekend]
Apart from the obvious stars we didn’t want to lose: Young, Milner, Barry, Benteke, Delph
Or who came on loan and wouldn’t stay [unlike Milner] such as Walker & Bertrand

How many of our failures/rejects are now playing in the premier league?
Cahill obviously
But also
Lowton, Gueye, Clark, Hogg
Are there anymore?
Have any of our other youth players made ?
Click to expand...

Here's a few (non-youth): Westwood, both Ayews, Collins
Youth: Albrighton, Steven Davis

Edit: of course, we only had one of the Ayews.... doh!
 
Thanks
I meant to put Albrighton in but I had forgotten about Ayew
Davis has had a really good long career hasn't he?
Collins, I think, had to get moved on although he's a real trier on the pitch

An interesting article on Wolves in the Guardian a couple of days ago
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/14/wolves-romain-saiss-busquets-morocco-world-cup
I don't think Romain Saïss had a very high opinion of Lambert
'Lambert was replaced by Nuno Espírito Santo in May after Wolves finished 15th. Saïss says the Portuguese’s approach has been integral to the club’s rise to the top of the Championship and the upswing in his own fortunes.
“We have a new way of playing and you can see that some players who had difficulties are able to express themselves better than last season,” says Saïss. “The relationship between manager and players is very important and [Santo] is very close to us. And his style of play is ideal. When he came he told us his plan and started putting it in place from his first training session. I realised straight away I was going to enjoy playing in his system and with his style. I like running but not just for the sake of it. I like to have the ball and play. That’s how it is now.”
 
Once again tonight we had a bench that included Tommy Elphick, a guaranteed fuck up who hasn't had a good match in a villa shirt. Bjanarsson who is one of the worst I've ever seen play for us. Hogan who barely looks like a pub player now and last and most certainly least Gabby.

All of these players are either total losers who have proved themselves unworthy of wearing the claret and blue or in Hogans case just miles off form and bereft of confidence.

Suliman, Doyle-Hayes, O'Hare could all have been on the bench for elphick, Thor or Gabby. Why weren't they? Why are we so scared of trying someone new? How could those 3 young players be any worse than the 3 "experienced" ones that were on our bench tonight?
 
O'Hare's proved he can worry defences. And he creates for others. Think him a Jack could make a really interesting duo. Doyle Hayes is at least worth a place on the bench. Not giving Suliman a look in is plain crazy.

Is it that Bruce has so little confidence he can't bring himself to do this?
 
No expert on Wolves and Ill happily stand corrected but as far as I know their "success" seems to be down to fantastic recruitment and a manager who wants to play decent football. We paid 7 billion for Hogan and have a manager who wants to play huff and puff style. The game is currently changing right before our eyes the old school managers are dying out before us due to the coaching standards being raised.

Yes we need to give our young players a chance but we also need a manager who understands them and the modern game.
 
Yes Bikini, a lot of old style managers are being found out these days.

I see Moyes lost to Newcastle today.
 
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