I’ll admit I’ve not watched Swansea at all since about October but they were anything but an attacking team in the first part of the season. All behind the ball and hoof it forwards.
If Bournemouth or Brentford go up I’d look at them two, I think one of our youth coaches went to Bournemouth and since then they’ve improved a lot with a lot better attack.
I think if we end up in the Europa he might stay.
I think he’ll go back to the Championship if he doesn’t stay here.
18 year olds generally don’t start for Premier League sides, the odds on Elliot playing week in week out are probably very slim.
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Loan to Brighton?
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agree with this.
for a loan player to get regular game time he needs to contribute, and contribute significantly.
brighton et al arent going to develop our talent for shits and giggles, quite to opposite, they just wont be arsed developing talent for us for noble reasons, he needs to hit the ground running and perform.
to put it into perspective, for an 18 year old to contribute immediately he needs to be better than Ronaldo at the same age, who, lets not forget, was all tricks and no product in the first period after to getting to England.
infact, you could spin it the other way completely, if we have an 18 year old who will be relied upon week in, week out for a mid to bottom half prem club as a loan player, we’d be bloody mad to let them have him, as despite what they might commit to, push comes to shove, they are using him to whatever ends suits themselves…better he gets sporadic game time with us.
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Yeah, this is a great perspective. It’s almost catch 22. Even a midtable prem team will be looking over their shoulder at the prospect of relegation and so tend to be quite risk averse. If they are going to use a young player who is a borderline first team talent then they’re not going to do that to a player who isn’t their asset. So, if we have a player on loan he’s only going to get real minutes if he is more than a borderline player from day 1, and if he is then he’s likely good enough to get meaningful minutes with us.
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The way I see it, Elliott isn’t in the same league (pun intended) as Salah, Mane, Jota, and Firmino; not even close. But very few PL teams have such an enviable attacking quartet. So he is likely to get more opportunities with another PL team than with us.
Elliott has to play regularly in a competitive environment. He has graduated to a stage where training under the watchful gaze of a maestro isn’t enough,
Completely disagree and think Elliott would develop fine with us next season. Think he’d play plenty for a lad at his age. Think he will have learned all he can at Championship level. Minutes at our level will develop him far more than ten times that many minutes at Championship level.
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I’d rather he stay here and get some sporadic game time. Get rid of Shaqiri, he’s not particularly useful.
Once again, although game time is obviously important, I think it is massively overrated. Games develop your ability to play in a game, understanding match situations and following tactics but you don’t improve your “skill” through playing matches that is a training issue and the best place to train is with us, with world class players not Championship standard players.
At 18 Elliott doesn’t need to be incredibly well versed in tactics, he just needs to keep getting better, fitter and stronger while trying to make an impact in matches he is used in. I can’t imagine he would be any less effective than Origi, Shaqiri or Minamino. Keep him and play him.
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Yep, the last 3 players who have made the jump from youth to senior football fully - Gomez, Trent and Jones all didn’t have loans. If he’s good enough he’ll make it without “loan game time” as you say.
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I think the key to their success was also a decent string of games in their early years.
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I’d actually look at loaning him to a Bundesliga or Lique 1 team for a season. He should be able to get more gametime and have some “higher level” games.
Not sure about the fixation on keeping him within the English system. If it is one year, he’ll still be homegrown.
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Not really, I think thats a bit of a red herring. Top talents for the most part end up making it if they have the right mentality.
Yes Trent got his break due to injuries, but he would have progressed anyway maybe just a year later.
Look at Foden, the media constantly said he should leave City to get the gametime or he’ll never progress… Just didn’t happen, look at him now… Making the step to 1st teamer at 20 and looks an absolute baller sadly.
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Yeah, I think there is a lot to that, but obviously Gomez is a bit of a different beast because he did get to experience real games in the Championship before coming to us.
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He’s a very good example. The idea that going to play at Bournemouth would have been better for him than training with and playing against David Silva every day was always flawed. Iron sharpens iron, I think that’s the phrase, and it applies here. You have the best AM in the history of the PL and a young guy trying to take his place… make him earn it every single day in training.
I like loans, they’re useful, but they aren’t a magic bullet for player development and can often not go as planned. In my mind, Elliott has proven he’s far ahead of where he “should” be for a 17/18 year old and I now want him to be in and around our first team on a regular basis.
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Not really, Gomez before he came here maybe and a run when he first arrived due to injuries (which could also end up happening for Elliott) out of position at left back. But apart from that it was a slow build up for Gomez. I actually referenced how little Trent played in his first season or two a few times when I was trying to dampen people’s expectations on Brewster. And Jones still isn’t playing loads. He’s probably further down the pecking order in midfield than Elliott will be in attack.
Foden is a hard one to compare since he’s already providing real quality from various positions and for some time now. That’s a pretty rare example to be honest. Like Sterling was at the time with us, too.
Elliot is talked about in the same way, he is compared to your Sterling, Foden, Sancho, Trent etc. And I’m talking about Foden at 18.
This is a good article;
“Numerous loan moves were offered but Foden took Guardiola at face value when he said he would help turn him into the player he evidently had the capacity to be.”
Shows how by staying put Foden has caught up to Sancho who are I’d argue similar levels of ability.
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