Funny really, Bale was nearly booted out of White Hart Lane as Redknapp thought he wasn't going to make it, he got in the side because of an injury to another player and now look at him (though I still dispute he should have been player of the year last season). Walcott...nobody's really sure where to play him or if he'll be the player they hoped he would. Both are good illustrations that the most brilliant of 16 year olds don't always maintain their early standards. Hopefully for Oxlade-Chamberlain he'll do better.
Hammond has been in great form. He's a workhorse, puts himself about and constantly wins the ball back before distributing to cork/schneiderlin or one of the wide men. Pops up with 5-10 goals a season as well which helps.
Did Rupert Lowe build your academy? I must say, it does seem rather easy to pluck players from other clubs before they are of a certain age, if one has the facilities in place.
Schneiderlin is absolute quality, on his day, our best player. Him, Cork and Lallana are probably the ones that PL clubs would look at.
To an extent, but our quality youth system was in place before him. It was more Georges Prost and Malcolm Elias that made it what it is with a bit of help from Hew Jennings. No, we're ploughing more money than ever into it.
Did Lallana come from Bournemouth?
The ever keen Matt Le God has been telling all and sundry about the plans for the academy and the new buildings.
Did Lallana come from Bournemouth? Did you pay anything for him? Did you pay Swindon anything for Walcott? Just interested.
Fair enough, to be honest I know absolutely chuff all about Schneiderlin, he's not one of the headline grabbers.
Lallana, for me, is the one who would have the top Premier League sides looking. I guess Saints probably don't need to sell him, given that finances appear to be relatively rosy, so in January it'll be a case of weighing up the ridiculous money against the potential damage to a promotion campaign (assuming you're still up there) if he's allowed to leave.
More likely to leave in the summer, I reckon.
The ever keen Matt Le God has been telling all and sundry about the plans for the academy and the new buildings.
Did Lallana come from Bournemouth? Did you pay anything for him? Did you pay Swindon anything for Walcott? Just interested.