Jump to content

Why persist with likes of Fox when we could blood youngsters?


captainchris
 Share

Recommended Posts

Why do we persist with playing a player like Fox who is without doubt very dodgy when we could blood some of our youth who we say we wish to push on and yet we prefer to persist with a very very poor player. Shaw is living proof that age does not matter if you are good enough. If Fox was at all close to being a prospect for next year fair enough but he's not. So why no use of the younger prospects when the opportunity presents it's self.......?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since Luke Shaw broke into the team, Fox has started 4 league games, all of them due to injury. I'd hardly say that's "persisting" with him.

 

Matt Targett seems to be the next left-back coming through the system but I assume he's not deemed good enough yet. Let's face it, Shaw's the number one and we're unlikely to sign another left-back who's either a) better than Shaw, or b) good enough to challenge to be a first-choice Premier League left-back but happy enough to sit on the bench behind someone who will be 18 years old next season. For the low number of games where Fox is going to be needed, he'll do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why do we persist with playing a player like Fox who is without doubt very dodgy when we could blood some of our youth who we say we wish to push on and yet we prefer to persist with a very very poor player. Shaw is living proof that age does not matter if you are good enough. If Fox was at all close to being a prospect for next year fair enough but he's not. So why no use of the younger prospects when the opportunity presents it's self.......?

 

Shaw is living proof that if you are good enough then you are good enough. He is not living proof that all young players are good enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do find this sort of question foolish and normally ignore them but they are becoming the staple fodder on this board. We have blooded a youngster at left back and he is now first choice, Fox is an experienced if somewhat limited left back, tough not as badb a many make out. Just how many promising left backs do we have in the academy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If JWP is the next man up on our conveyor belt of talent, it can't say much about the readiness of the rest of our youngsters.

 

F*cking hell, talk about unrealistic standards. JWP looked decent enough throughout this season against some of the better sides in the division. And he's 18 years old.

 

We're not going to produce a Luke Shaw, Walcott, Bale etc every single season. It won't happen. We'll also not realise the quality of some of our talent until they're in their early twenties.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What level was that do you think as he has played at all levels and to me he has been found wanting at every one.

 

He was a constant feature of a side that was never outside the top two of the Championship in a promotion season.

 

If he was found wanting I'd have thought he would have been replaced more often that he was. Especially so considering we had other left back options available to us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since Luke Shaw broke into the team, Fox has started 4 league games, all of them due to injury. I'd hardly say that's "persisting" with him.

 

Matt Targett seems to be the next left-back coming through the system but I assume he's not deemed good enough yet. Let's face it, Shaw's the number one and we're unlikely to sign another left-back who's either a) better than Shaw, or b) good enough to challenge to be a first-choice Premier League left-back but happy enough to sit on the bench behind someone who will be 18 years old next season. For the low number of games where Fox is going to be needed, he'll do.

 

Hate to agree with a Mod but I think she has a good point

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also there is a little case of 800K per league position.

 

Yep. The concept of a dead rubber game in the Premier League really isn't true. (Unless it's the final match and there are 4 points between you and the sides both below and above you.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

F*cking hell, talk about unrealistic standards. JWP looked decent enough throughout this season against some of the better sides in the division. And he's 18 years old.

 

We're not going to produce a Luke Shaw, Walcott, Bale etc every single season. It won't happen. We'll also not realise the quality of some of our talent until they're in their early twenties.

 

Don't disagree. But the point about Fox is that we need players for the here and now, not their future talent -and players should largely be selected on that basis.

Rereading the posts on JWP earlier on the season, some of the hype he was getting was frankly ridiculous; "Davis is ****, we won't miss Morgan, we've got JWP etc". He's got a long way to go -at least 2/3 years IMO- longer than some on here would admit. All perfectly reasonable and natural given his age. But even if's that the case and he's the cream of the crop (behind Shaw), it puts the idea of blooding youngsters in a slightly different light.

Edited by shurlock
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't disagree. But the point about Fox is that we need players for the here and now, not their future talent -and that should be the main basis for their selection.

Rereading the posts on JWP earlier on the season, some of the hype he was getting was frankly ridiculous. He's got a long way to go -at least 2/3 years IMO- longer than some on here would admit. All perfectly reasonable and natural given his age.

 

Amen to that.

 

But even if's that the case and he's the currently cream of the crop (behind Shaw), it puts the idea of blooding youngsters in a slightly different light.

 

Amen to that too. I've said it before, but even if we had kept every single one of our youth products over the years (never going to happen) it takes us further than where we are, but not enormously further. Blooding youngsters is great; expecting it to push us on to CL qualification is a bit naive IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If JWP is the next man up on our conveyor belt of talent, it can't say much about the readiness of the rest of our youngsters.

 

No English 18 year old played as much in prem this season.

(There is a 17 year old!)

 

One 19 year old played more (AOC).

 

No 20 year olds.

 

18 is incredibly young for prem CM.

 

Plays England u19....

 

Think most clubs would be excited if that was indication of ability and readiness of youths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shaw is living proof that if you are good enough then you are good enough.

 

Didn't someone not a million miles from here mock my policy of "having better players to be better" in reference to Lambert a few weeks back ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As for the OP.

 

Our first choice left back is 17. Half the team is under 25 and most of them have under a year's Prem experience. How are we meant to improve on that in terms of blooding youngsters ? I suppose we could throw Targett in, but if he's not ready yet, why risk ruining him when the first few appearances are very significant in a player's development in terms of confidence and comfort at that level ? In addition, for as long as he's in the youth structure and has NEVER been in contention, he's not getting frustrated with a lack of opportunities and threatening to leave. If he gets a sniff and then nothing it could also damage his chances - but hopefully Shaw's sticking around and will be tough to displace.

 

Also, blooding new players is a dodgy game when the difference in prize money from 9th to 16th positions could probably pay for a significant chunk of the cost of running the Academy. That said, you have to do it at some point and I wouldn't be surprised to see Ward-Prowse getting a start or two in the last few matches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.....psychologically-speaking, I wouldn't introduce anyone else .....at present, not until we've got Shaw's signature on a five year contract anyway.

 

I've watched a few U21 games (on stream)....and Matt Targett looks promising, but wouldn't want to throw him into a Prem. game just at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because since Shaw cemented his place at left back Fox has upped his game and has been a more than capable deputy.

 

This - Fox is not as bad as the blinkered ones insist. He's an adequate cover until we have a better option and actually adds to one aspect of our game with his dead ball crossing ability.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some good points not totally disagreeing with lots of them. I just think Fox is a long way short and that we are badly lacking in this area if we don't have anyone coming through who is remotely going to challenge him....thought Reeves was looking good a little while ago and would have done at least as good a job as Fox who hasn't improved. In other positions we mostly have seem less cover or options now, however in the left back position we are exposed without Shaw.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some good points not totally disagreeing with lots of them. I just think Fox is a long way short and that we are badly lacking in this area if we don't have anyone coming through who is remotely going to challenge him....thought Reeves was looking good a little while ago and would have done at least as good a job as Fox who hasn't improved. In other positions we mostly have seem less cover or options now, however in the left back position we are exposed without Shaw.

 

Reeves wasn't anywhere near close to ready for the first team when he came on against Norwich at SMS. Good prospect for the future, but right now I'd far rather have Fox there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reeves wasn't anywhere near close to ready for the first team when he came on against Norwich at SMS. Good prospect for the future, but right now I'd far rather have Fox there.

 

Reeves isn't even a LB anymore.

 

To be honest, he won't make it with us. He's coming on to 22 now and he's still wandering around in L2. Will be a decent lower league player, but that's it. Not really a prospect for us to get excited about anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... Rereading the posts on JWP earlier on the season, some of the hype he was getting was frankly ridiculous; "Davis is ****, we won't miss Morgan, we've got JWP etc". He's got a long way to go -at least 2/3 years IMO- longer than some on here would admit. All perfectly reasonable and natural given his age. But even if's that the case and he's the cream of the crop (behind Shaw), it puts the idea of blooding youngsters in a slightly different light.

 

Good point, I too remember the massively premature 'JWP is the next big thing' hype from the early days of this season. I'm pleased to see the forum seems to have calmed down a tad on that front of late.

 

Whenever I see this youngster in the first team I must say he doesn't look out of his (energetic) depth playing in this division - and that's a real achievement for one so young - but I can't honestly claim he has made an especially outstanding contribution so far either.

 

So it's just too early to say for certain how good he will become as his body, technique and level of experience matures naturally over time. If you twisted my arm and forced me to guess however, I'd rate him as a decent prospect rather than a outstanding one in the class of previous academy products such as AOC, Bale, Walcott, or even his contemporary Luke Shaw.

 

As ever, time will tell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reeves isn't even a LB anymore.

 

To be honest, he won't make it with us. He's coming on to 22 now and he's still wandering around in L2. Will be a decent lower league player, but that's it. Not really a prospect for us to get excited about anymore.

 

tbh, I've seen very little of him apart from the Norwich game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fox is just about adequate as cover.

 

But I think I'd prefer the cover for Shaw to be switching Clyne to left-back and putting Cork (or maybe even Richardson) to right back.

 

I'd actually prefer Fox at left back than Cork at right back, where he's been absolutely useless every time I've seen him there (viz him covering against Newcastle there for their first goal, though of course Fox wasn't without error in that match either). Moving Cork also weakens the midfield. Haven't seen enough of Richardson at this level to know if he'd cope, but I think that's what Pochettino is doing with Fox before considering other options.

 

Fox doesn't look so exposed now he's not being asked to push forward all the time, as I pointed out before Shaw got his run, he looks competent defending for Scotland when he's asked to actually defend. I'll still struggle to say he's starting on merit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...