The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 30 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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Wurzel said:
Is DS utilising our youth players? Are our youth players that bad?
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He's not and I'm honestly not sure. I've said twice on the Hull thread that I don't understand why when we've no central midfielders on the bench that O'Hare and JDH were playing for the under 23s on Friday night. Since Grealish got injured we've been trying slightly different variations of the same midfield. McGinn, hourihane and one of Barney or Whelan. It's not worked in any game.
 
JW1985 said:
He's not and I'm honestly not sure. I've said twice on the Hull thread that I don't understand why when we've no central midfielders on the bench that O'Hare and JDH were playing for the under 23s on Friday night. Since Grealish got injured we've been trying slightly different variations of the same midfield. McGinn, hourihane and one of Barney or Whelan. It's not worked in any game.
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Youngsters should be brought in slowly preferably in an ok team not brought in as saviours in front of a turning crowd.
 
Really? Even when the seasoned pros keep underperforming? Surely a few young guns on sub seats would be worth a try?
 
Villan57 said:
TBH They have played the last 3 games like they want him out, with exception of John McGinn they don't even try.
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It can look that way but I don’t believe anyone can go out and play badly intentionally. I saw the effort in the first ten minutes and in the second half but I also saw poor players whatever the effort put in. I can see lack of belief all over the pitch and fear of making mistakes. That’s worse than just being poor players and I put Bolassie and Adomah in that category.
 
Wurzel said:
Really? Even when the seasoned pros keep underperforming? Surely a few young guns on sub seats would be worth a try?
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They’ve got be able to compete with the physicality of the championship and Dean and co see them every day. However, I’d keep Andre in and give Davis an opportunity ahead of Kodjia.
 
Wicked Messenger said:
Youngsters should be brought in slowly preferably in an ok team not brought in as saviours in front of a turning crowd.
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But if the team is doing “ok” you will say let’s not risk it by bringing in the youngsters so the end result is they never get a chance.

I think we should be utilising them on the bench and looking to blood them in gradually.

When you look at the hideous fees and wages we have paid for players who have barely made an impact in the past couple of season I think it shows where youth development can significant benefit the club, not necessarily because they are better but because they are far cheaper and probably no worse when it comes to squad players
 
The fans won't turn on a young lad from our youth scheme anywhere near as quickly as they turn on some loanee from Everton on 80k a week or whatever he's no,
Players that have been at the club since they were 5 or 7 years old love the club and it shows with the effort they put in, which is a sight more than the players we have brought in
 
david-avfc said:
Well next season when our finances are fucked we will have no other option but to utilise the academy and search for bargain buys.

To be honest I believe that process should have started as soon as we were relegated instead of all of those crazy signings in the first season
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Next season we will have some big earners off the books, grealish will be gone for 20m+, that in itself will cover this seasons parachute payment.
 
Because this is the snowflake generation and they will spit the proverbial dummy if he criticises them.

Keep criticism in-house where it belongs.
 
I presume there's a lot of work going on on the training pitch. From what I hear he goes over each match and deals with the mistakes that have been made and where we near to improve. I think that's why he's still trying out different combinations of the senior players just to find out exactly what he can get out of the existing squad. If he simply bins them and drafts in the youth he's on a hiding to nothing. But I think it's only a phase. There will come a point where he's clear about the way ahead.

Sarri has come out with describing Chelsea players as being "very difficult to motivate". It's not just our problem.
 
JW1985 said:
What I want to know is how many of these players have earned the right to have a big ego? Who do we have in our team that can say they're some top player that has the right to be arrogant?

Pretty much all our squad are either players who failed in the Premier league after only a season or two or players where this is the highest level they've ever gotten to. Any arrogance or ego in this squad comes entirely from whatever ridiculous wage we're paying them rather than ability or achievement. If it's true that there's a group of big egos who don't want to listen to Smith then they're the problem not him. They need to be surgically removed from the club and not allowed to rule over it.

One of the worst mistakes we made in the Premier league was allowing the likes of Gabby, Dunne, Collins and warnock to think they were bigger than the club. After Mon left they didn't like Houllier so downed tools on various occasions yet they won the fight. I didn't like it when we had players who were actually premier league players so I'm not having it with this bunch of chancers.
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Short answer to your question. NONE OF THEM. Long answer: It's the nature of modern football that salary and club size lead to players having a "higher profile" and more often than not an ego to match. It's not right, not justified and an insult to the core of the fanbase, but it's reality.
You are 100% correct that they are the problem, but it doesn't eliminate the problem. Much cheaper to sack a manager than to cancel contracts of underperforming players. Look at the Rodwell situation or even our own with N'Zogbia / Richards / Flabby / McCormack.
Ron Saunders would've binned (or chinned) all of them. Players now are so well protected by their contracts, written by agents and solicitors that they can do virtually whatever they want....
 
gmvillan said:
Short answer to your question. NONE OF THEM. Long answer: It's the nature of modern football that salary and club size lead to players having a "higher profile" and more often than not an ego to match. It's not right, not justified and an insult to the core of the fanbase, but it's reality.
You are 100% correct that they are the problem, but it doesn't eliminate the problem. Much cheaper to sack a manager than to cancel contracts of underperforming players. Look at the Rodwell situation or even our own with N'Zogbia / Richards / Flabby / McCormack.
Ron Saunders would've binned (or chinned) all of them. Players now are so well protected by their contracts, written by agents and solicitors that they can do virtually whatever they want....
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The club doesn't have to sign the contract. The contracts we've signed have been appalling. There's no need to have players on 5 year contracts, unless they really are an established proven star player already in the side and you reckon they are going to be worth far more in future.

Spurs were paying their players peanuts when we were loading ours up with dosh. Too many of our current players are on £30K pw or more and they're nowhere near that value.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
The club doesn't have to sign the contract. The contracts we've signed have been appalling. There's no need to have players on 5 year contracts, unless they really are an established proven star player already in the side and you reckon they are going to be worth far more in future.

Spurs were paying their players peanuts when we were loading ours up with dosh. Too many of our current players are on £30K pw or more and they're nowhere near that value.
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Again, not disagreeing with you in any way, but would these players have come to us if we hadn't dangled the big contracts? We should have had the resolve to say no and go "young and hungry" but the last time we did that we ended up with Westwood, Okore, Helenius, Bowery and Sylla....
 
gmvillan said:
Again, not disagreeing with you in any way, but would these players have come to us if we hadn't dangled the big contracts? We should have had the resolve to say no and go "young and hungry" but the last time we did that we ended up with Westwood, Okore, Helenius, Bowery and Sylla....
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Or we could just not offer stupid money to average players. Hogan was on about 5k a week at Brentford and we are apparently giving him 40k a week. Hourihane was on 7k at Barnsley now he's on 30k. Were the players we've signed so in demand that the only way to sign the was by increasing their wage 8 fold in some cases.
 
gmvillan said:
Again, not disagreeing with you in any way, but would these players have come to us if we hadn't dangled the big contracts? We should have had the resolve to say no and go "young and hungry" but the last time we did that we ended up with Westwood, Okore, Helenius, Bowery and Sylla....
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The genius that was Paul Lambert's direction left us with a growing wage bill remember.

Not that he likes to be reminded about facts like that given his wibbling.
 
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