Good point. We better drop Murray immediately
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[Albion] Aaron Connolly - Just a thought?
- Thread starter GooGull
- Start date
Good point. We better drop Murray immediately
- Apr 13, 2015
- 3,953
What are you suggesting then?
Loftus-Cheek, Chelsea, PL.
2014-15 three appearances;
2015-2016 thirteen appearances (although I don't knowhow many of those were before his 20th.birthday in January 2016).
Incidentally, his teammate at Chelsea, Izzy Brown, played in the PL for two different clubs before his 20th.birthday - in his case though, only substitute appearances.
Oh, and another one for you - Ross Barkley made several MOTM performances for Everton in the PL before he was 20. It's amazing how many PL teenagers pop up if you start looking. A lot more common than rocking horse shit, would you not agree?
Blues Rock DJ
New member
Krauts sniffing round Connolly.....................
Can't remember which thread it was I posted on Aaron several months ago when someone was wondering when someone would break through from the Youths. I made reference to him.
Once in a while you get a ''gem'' who can break through without necessarily going out on loan. Being in the PL now it is going to have to be someone very special. This lad is very special but I can't find the thread where I posted it.
D
Deleted member 2719
Guest
Let's get him on the bench and experience first team football, NOW.
albionalex
Well-known member
Que?
Taybha
Whalewhine
Sky reporting Hoffenhiem Man City Man Utd interested , them and pretty much everyone else .
nwgull
Well-known member
Izzy Brown was toilet though.
Connolly is 18 and has no experience beyond U23 level football and a sub appearance v Barnet, so I can't see him throwing his weight around with regard to getting in the first team squad. At the same age, Harry Kane was being loaned out to Orient in League 1, and was loaned out for the 2 seasons after that as well. This sort of progression to PL football is far more common than the exceptional teenagers that are good enough at 18-19.
I didn't say how good or otherwise Izzy Brown was/is - just that he played a little PL football as a teenager.
You perhaps don't seem to think much of the 'if he's good enough, he's old enough' theory, which is presumably why you quoted the part of my post about Izzy Brown, but not the mentions of Loftus-Cheek and Barkley. Just because it is unusual for teenagers to break through to the PL, it's not that unusual; there are plenty that do get given a chance.
Uter
Well-known member
From his Instagram account in Feb: "Delighted to have signed a new contract with Brighton & Hove Albion, looking forward to the next few years at the club".
That suggests he's contracted for at least the next 3 seasons, so I expect he's signed until the end of the 2020/21 season. If that's the case then I think the media suggestion that we are struggling to keep hold of him are a bit wide of the mark.
I wonder if the next RoI manager will adopt a similar policy to Wales and cap young players even if the have little or no first team experience, like Ethan Ampadu or Rabbi Matondo. It would be great for him if they did, although I suspect the Wales policy is as much about tying down players at an early age who could also represent England.
A Hoffenheim loan could be excellent too, but I doubt there's any substance behind the story. It's certainly been a smart move for Reiss Nelson.
That suggests he's contracted for at least the next 3 seasons, so I expect he's signed until the end of the 2020/21 season. If that's the case then I think the media suggestion that we are struggling to keep hold of him are a bit wide of the mark.
I wonder if the next RoI manager will adopt a similar policy to Wales and cap young players even if the have little or no first team experience, like Ethan Ampadu or Rabbi Matondo. It would be great for him if they did, although I suspect the Wales policy is as much about tying down players at an early age who could also represent England.
A Hoffenheim loan could be excellent too, but I doubt there's any substance behind the story. It's certainly been a smart move for Reiss Nelson.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
Rocking horse shit, I would agree, but as to your broad point, I wouldn't.
OK, so I'll add to my broad point: Ashley Cole, teenage PL player at Arsenal. Plus Beckham, Giggs (although he was a couple of years pre-PL) and G. Neville. Of course, you can't win anything with kids, we all know that..................................
Machiavelli
Well-known member
You're actually confirming my position. Those examples are from decades ago. Teenagers in the PL are getting rarer.
nwgull
Well-known member
And Beckham’s not a great example either, seeing as at age 18/19 he was being loaned out to Preston North End and didn’t make his Premier League debut until about a month short of his 20th birthday. Teenagers playing in the top division are definitely unusual, and most players, including some of the best, get loaned out and have to wait until their early 20s before being a regular part of the match day squad.
2 aspects of this pointless debate posters don't seem to be taking into consideration:-
1 - CH's flat refusal to change his team.
&
ii - The Albion's front line consists of an old man, a failure & statistically a probable failure.
It's almost as if who's done what when has no bearing here and now.
1 - CH's flat refusal to change his team.
&
ii - The Albion's front line consists of an old man, a failure & statistically a probable failure.
It's almost as if who's done what when has no bearing here and now.
No matter how short of their twentieth birthday they are, they're still teenagers.
I'm not going to bother trawling the internet to find more teenagers who have played in the PL, good examples or otherwise. They exist, have existed, and will exist. Oh well, some people still seem to cling to the idea that if they're U23, they should be playing for the U23s until they're 23. Fine, whatever.
nwgull
Well-known member
Connolly is still only 18, so you can hardly claim he’s being held back if he doesn’t get into the match day 18 and gets loaned out to a lower league club for a season.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
I'm not of that view. There are other alternatives beyond the binaries you offer. I actually think Connolly should go out on loan in January to prove himself at a higher level. Either the Championship, or something similar to Hoffenheim would be the best option.
We play one up-top. Murray is in possession of the shirt at present, Andone offers an alternative and deserves the chance to prove himself. Locadia is, how shall I put this, a 'work in progress'.
Murray isn't going to last too much longer. Finding a replacement is going to be extremely difficult, and we'll need a range of different players who can play up front. I think that Connolly could be in that mix, but he hasn't done enough yet to demonstrate that he'll be able to bang them in in the PL let alone contribute in other areas that the role requires. If he can prove himself at Championship level or a decent league like the Bundesliga, he ought to be included permanently in our 25/18 next season (when still a teenager).