alexis nicolas

[Les Biehn]

Maybe a complete reshape was need after the relegationand the mass contracts that were up?

Well said lover.

 

[Black Country Seagull]

Why is everyone one so pessimistic about the youth signings. We are a lg 1 club whose youth team showed they are better than most Prem youth teams, surely this shows the quality we have and why they have been signed. Having watched about 10 youth games last year I can say that all the ones who were signed on deserved their contracts.

how many of those premiership youth players were signed on pro contracts i wonder?
I don't wish to be pessimistic and hope they all fulfill their ambitions, but people on here are placing to much hope on 8 youngsters who perhaps won't be physically upto first team football this season

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

how many of those premiership youth players were signed on pro contracts i wonder?
I don't wish to be pessimistic and hope they all fulfill their ambitions, but people on here are placing to much hope on 8 youngsters who perhaps won't be physically upto first team football this season

Id rather sign 8 and one of them turns out to be good enough than sign 4 and 2 that didnt get a deal go on to play for another club.

 

[Black Country Seagull]

Looking at the play of last year I would say the latter, just without the coaching staff.

I hope it is the latter, wendy new how to distribute set plays and the next couple of years could be promising

 

[Les Biehn]

how many of those premiership youth players were signed on pro contracts i wonder?
I don't wish to be pessimistic and hope they all fulfill their ambitions, but people on here are placing to much hope on 8 youngsters who perhaps won't be physically upto first team football this season

Far from placing all my hope on them I think they need to be slowly bleed into the first team. However I don't think there is any arguing with the fact that they deserved their contracts. We have a good youth infrastructure because we need it being a selling club so what is the point of casting doubt over its validity when it bares fruition.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Also, do you think Crewe fans question the amount of new youth players are signed on>?

 

[Black Country Seagull]

Id rather sign 8 and one of them turns out to be good enough than sign 4 and 2 that didnt get a deal go on to play for another club.

So on that theory we should sign 8 of them each year to improve the laws of average ratio?

 

[Black Country Seagull]

I agree a youth policy is the way forward whether your a selling club or premiership side, i personally have been through the YTS network and hands up was not good enough and James Hayter was. Yet I'm not saying they don't all deserve their contracts - I never saw them play and could not past judgement on them, all i'm saying is we should not be placing great emphasis on them.

 

[British Bulldog]

Now on trial at Barnet!

He's on trial at Rotherham now! Could be playing for them against Sunderland on wed.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Now that could be interesting!

 

[Silent Bob]

And perhaps not - How is Wilkins going to help him?

Wilkins was a midfielder....

 

[caz]

he was utter f***ing shit, i said so as soon as he started playing. Another one of the 'oh he's foreign/young/non-league discovery, so he must be great' players who some cretins here seem to think will save us - he offered absolutely nothing of value, but soaked up thousands of pounds of wages and was at best a third rate substitute. The sort of player that if they are in your first team squad near enough means you are surrendering to relegation as you couldnt get anyone worthwhile so wents for dregs instead. See El Turi, Molango, Piercy etc for further details. (expecting a bite re: piercy(he wasnt ALL bad... NICHOLAS was though!!!)). Well done Dean Hammond for being a far better player.

Interesting references are:

http://85.234.132.19/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32303&highlight=finbar

best quote from someone was 'if we let him go just watch him go somewhere else and succeed!' -LOL, Barnet - only club with 3 mis-prints on their tickets, including mos-spalling the werd Barent!!!

http://85.234.132.19/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32586&highlight=finbar

Get your eyes tested you idiot, if you think Hammond is a better player than Nicolas.Nicolas was born in London.

 

[Rookie]

Nicolas is a good player he does the dirty stuff that goes manily unnoticed.
Look at Hargreaves same type of player mops up the loose balls gives it to someone else, everyone had a go at him till they actually looked at the job that he does.
I believe that a midfield of Nicolas and Hammond could have worked but our tactical genius manager decided against it so oh well what can you do.
Wish him all the best tho

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Crab is the best way I can sum him up, everything went sideways or backwards. Is that really what we need this season?

Yes.

I assume you'd describe Claude Makelele as a "Crab"?

 

[TSB]

Alexis Nicolas=Complete waste of time

 

[Don Tmatter]

Is Jacques Williams any better than Alex?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

where people not saying the same thing about Hargreaves.

 

[London Irish]

I get your point - but is that Nicolas's fault if the person he passes too hoofs it?

A thousand times yes.

If Nicolas's pass backwards puts a central defender or full-back under pressure (it often did), then that is as good as losing the ball because it forces the long-ball.

What Nicolas was appalling at was making a pass that would put his team on the front foor going forward. People slag off Oatway but this is what he succeeded in doing more under McGhee than before, playing the ball into the channels that the forwards could latch on to.

What I found maddening about Nicolas was that he looked to have the talent to be more of a playmaker - but he totally lacked the confidence and composure to take on that responsibility.

Put him anywhere near the opposition penalty area and he would melt - a rubbish shot or a rubbish panicky lay-off. Can anyone think of a single assist he made in all the games he had? (and he had plenty in 2004-5).

It was this above all that got him dropped for the likes Chippy, Hammond and Carpenter. These players, regardless of their technical ability and it was wayward at times there is no denying that, at least TOOK A LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY in the midfield by trying to CREATE play. Nicolas never did this - he was the ultimate pass-the-buck player.

 

[London Irish]

I agree a youth policy is the way forward whether your a selling club or premiership side, i personally have been through the YTS network and hands up was not good enough and James Hayter was. Yet I'm not saying they don't all deserve their contracts - I never saw them play and could not past judgement on them, all i'm saying is we should not be placing great emphasis on them.

Were you around in Hayter's day? - if so, do you know how he got from our youth scheme over to Bournemouth's?

 

[LANGDON SEAGULL]

A thousand times yes.

If Nicolas's pass backwards puts a central defender or full-back under pressure (it often did), then that is as good as losing the ball because it forces the long-ball.

What Nicolas was appalling at was making a pass that would put his team on the front foor going forward. People slag off Oatway but this is what he succeeded in doing more under McGhee than before, playing the ball into the channels that the forwards could latch on to.

What I found maddening about Nicolas was that he looked to have the talent to be more of a playmaker - but he totally lacked the confidence and composure to take on that responsibility.

Put him anywhere near the opposition penalty area and he would melt - a rubbish shot or a rubbish panicky lay-off. Can anyone think of a single assist he made in all the games he had? (and he had plenty in 2004-5).

It was this above all that got him dropped for the likes Chippy, Hammond and Carpenter. These players, regardless of their technical ability and it was wayward at times there is no denying that, at least TOOK A LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY in the midfield by trying to CREATE play. Nicolas never did this - he was the ultimate pass-the-buck player.

Chippy and Carpenter?