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[Albion] Viktor Gyokeres



hans kraay fan club

hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
62,759
Chandlers Ford
Viktor was always a good player in the making. Powerful and direct, with a fantastic work ethic.

And let's face it - he was always going to blossom, given this was posted on the very first page of this lengthy thread...
dwayne said:
Nowhere near good enough for the prem. Just bin him.

Sent from my SM-G977N using Tapatalk
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Braggfan

Braggfan

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded
May 12, 2014
1,982
hans kraay fan club said:
Viktor was always a good player in the making. Powerful and direct, with a fantastic work ethic.

And let's face it - he was always going to blossom, given this was posted on the very first page of this lengthy thread...
Click to expand...
Although it may have been clear he was a good player in the making, I don't think it was clear he would blossom with us. He had loan spells at Swansea where he scored 0 in 11, and at Coventry where he scored 3 in 19. And in the games he had for us he didn't really do enough.

You also have to put in context that we also had Connolly coming through, who was doing more than him when he got the chance in the first team, and below that Ferguson was seen as a player to be coming through. Gyokeres was a player with ability and potential but was also raw. You can gamble on a player and keep him, but it might not work out and it might also stunt the development of other players coming through.

I think what I'm trying to say is, we might admire him now and think we made a mistake letting him go, but he wasn't that player when he was with us, and he only became that player by leaving and going places that he could play week in week out. I don't think would have happened if he'd stayed with us.
 


MJsGhost

MJsGhost

Oooh Matron, I'm an
NSC Patron
Jun 26, 2009
5,022
East
hans kraay fan club said:
Viktor was always a good player in the making. Powerful and direct, with a fantastic work ethic.

And let's face it - he was always going to blossom, given this was posted on the very first page of this lengthy thread...
Click to expand...
If you're going to take that seriously, you may as well Crodo and eNrEsT at face value too.

Just a parody account as far as I'm aware
 


Seasider78

Seasider78

Well-known member
Nov 14, 2004
6,011
Whilst it did not work out for him here it shows our attacking player scouting has been top notch. Wasn’t that long ago it had become a bit of a joke about us scoring goals and signing strikers how times have changed!!
 


Nobby Cybergoat

Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
8,622
Braggfan said:
Although it may have been clear he was a good player in the making, I don't think it was clear he would blossom with us. He had loan spells at Swansea where he scored 0 in 11, and at Coventry where he scored 3 in 19. And in the games he had for us he didn't really do enough.

You also have to put in context that we also had Connolly coming through, who was doing more than him when he got the chance in the first team, and below that Ferguson was seen as a player to be coming through. Gyokeres was a player with ability and potential but was also raw. You can gamble on a player and keep him, but it might not work out and it might also stunt the development of other players coming through.

I think what I'm trying to say is, we might admire him now and think we made a mistake letting him go, but he wasn't that player when he was with us, and he only became that player by leaving and going places that he could play week in week out. I don't think would have happened if he'd stayed with us.
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Agree with this.

The progress of young Viktor should not be painted as a failure to retain talent.

The loan path won't always be right for everyone. But more importantly, there really aren't that many 20, 21 year old strikers scoring regularly. The lad has needed 3 or 4 seasons to learn his trade which is normal for a centre forward.

I actually saw quite a bit of the u23's in that season when him and Connolly were up front. Both were very decent at that level, but Connolly was clearly the better player and more ready for his first team chance at that stage. Progress of young players isn't linear
 




Baldseagull

Baldseagull

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
11,839
Crawley
Braggfan said:
Although it may have been clear he was a good player in the making, I don't think it was clear he would blossom with us. He had loan spells at Swansea where he scored 0 in 11, and at Coventry where he scored 3 in 19. And in the games he had for us he didn't really do enough.

You also have to put in context that we also had Connolly coming through, who was doing more than him when he got the chance in the first team, and below that Ferguson was seen as a player to be coming through. Gyokeres was a player with ability and potential but was also raw. You can gamble on a player and keep him, but it might not work out and it might also stunt the development of other players coming through.

I think what I'm trying to say is, we might admire him now and think we made a mistake letting him go, but he wasn't that player when he was with us, and he only became that player by leaving and going places that he could play week in week out. I don't think would have happened if he'd stayed with us.
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When they were both playing U21's Gyokeres looked the better all round player, but Connolly had the self belief when called up to the seniors, You could see Gyokeres head dropping when he was not quite getting things. I am not surprised he has come on better than Connolly, but I am surprised at how quickly he has gone from being reasonable Championship striker to top Championship striker and now beyond. Thought he might have a Glenn Murray type career, very good in the Championship, and decent in the PL for a middling side. Well done to him in finding his groove.

No idea if it was a club decision to sell him, or if he had indicated he would rather move on and be with a club that really wanted him, rather than go on loan repeatedly, either way, I hope all the lads that we sell on without really having used turn out to be great players, just not as great as the ones we keep.
 




Sheebo

Sheebo

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2003
29,319
One of the very few who we’ve let go and have gone on to prove that decision well wrong.
 




M

Machiavelli

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2013
17,769
Fiveways
Baldseagull said:
When they were both playing U21's Gyokeres looked the better all round player, but Connolly had the self belief when called up to the seniors, You could see Gyokeres head dropping when he was not quite getting things. I am not surprised he has come on better than Connolly, but I am surprised at how quickly he has gone from being reasonable Championship striker to top Championship striker and now beyond. Thought he might have a Glenn Murray type career, very good in the Championship, and decent in the PL for a middling side. Well done to him in finding his groove.

No idea if it was a club decision to sell him, or if he had indicated he would rather move on and be with a club that really wanted him, rather than go on loan repeatedly, either way, I hope all the lads that we sell on without really having used turn out to be great players, just not as great as the ones we keep.
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Worth adding that VG was/is 18 months older than AC, so a direct comparison between them back then would have expected the former to be performing considerably in advance of the latter. That really wasn't the case. All the noise was around Connolly, whose scoring rate was much better in the u23s too.
 








S

sagaman

Well-known member
Dec 25, 2005
1,165
Brighton
Looks to have developed into a fantastic player. Strong runner on flanks and in middle. Composed finisher. You can never have enough strikers!
 












B

Brian Fantana

Well-known member
Oct 8, 2006
7,547
In the field
RandyWanger said:
Who's bright idea was it to let this one go?
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I would imagine it reached a point where the player wanted some more certainty on his future as well as more guaranteed game time, neither of which we could offer him at that point. VG has probably progressed to this level faster than most, if not all, would have predicted. It's totally fine, IMO. We're not going to get every decision right when it comes to choosing which players to keep, which to release, which to sell and which to buy. And that's totally fine too, IMO. Ultimately, if you look at the young players breaking through under RDZ currently, and the overall squad that's been assembled for us to compete at the top end of the PL as well as achieving European qualification, I'd say our recruitment and academy staff deserve a bit more respect.
 


Badger Boy

Badger Boy

Mr Badger
Jan 28, 2016
3,658
Gyokeres left because his career needed it. He wasn't going to play the number of games he needed to in order to get to the level he could get to, he had to drop a level to play Championship football and develop. It couldn't have happened here because he wasn't Premier League ready and we couldn't afford the season of regular games it would have taken for him to maybe get there - but he showed no signs of it. We couldn't just tie him down to contract after contract and then loan move after loan move in the hopes he would eventually become a player.

Full respect to him making the move to Coventry and putting in the work he needed to in order to get a better standard and now he's reaping the rewards and doing brilliantly. I don't think we did anything wrong whatsoever with Viktor, it just didn't work out for him here and he needed a change to fulfill his potential, which he's now doing. Well done to our scouting model which identified what a player he could be and well done to Coventry who signed him and played him and helped him reach the level he's now at.

There is no criticism or blame to the Albion on this one, or Leo Ostigard while we're at it.
 






D

Dibdab

Well-known member
Sep 28, 2021
1,074
Greg Bobkin said:
Tony Bloom, ultimately?? Want to question his judgement on a wider scale, or just criticise him for not being able to predict the future?
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Certainly not Bloom. Decisions like these would sit with the Director of football. Probably WinStanley at the time? Potter would have had input too.
 


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