Who the fuck are ebbsfleet?
Non league side from Kent I think. About 10 or 15 years ago I think it was they gained some attention after letting fans vote on who to sign.
Thank fuck that idea didn’t catch on.
Imagine where Liverpool would be now if we’d resorted to making signings as voted by our fans.
Who would you buy? - The Albert - THE ANFIELD NOISE
Shudder 
Didn’t they also have online votes from members for tactics and starting line ups?
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I’m surprised more clubs haven’t gone to the wall because this won’t be a massively extreme example I guess.
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Excellent news.
https://twitter.com/bbcsport/status/1681367852039667713?s=46&t=WmjWm_FqqFdVHHP8b7dN9A
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This lad was a really exciting prospect as a youngster. I thought he would have a memorable career but he didn’t really progress
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Similar to Owen as injuries at a young age really hurt his speed, which in his youth days was explosive.
Off the pitch he never seemed to get into any dramas (maybe Arsenal and his agent were very good at sheilding him and getting them buried) and came across as a fairly likable lad.
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Injuries a major factor. Not sure he was quite as talented as Owen was in terms of his finishing ability, and is one of those players in my view that perhaps lacked a clear position to thrive in.
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Yeah, I Owen was overall a much more serious talent, he had more than natural pace. Walcott had some pretty good seasons, in which he scored good number of goals. Did well. You have other “speed merchants” who don’t even achieve what he has.
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Does anyone know why they are playing Champions League 3rd Qualifying Rnd tomorrow night?
Oh shit - never heard that.
Football is coming secondary in a lot of these events now…
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There was also a case of too much too soon for him that robbed him of critical development in a key period of his career.
There was a lot of contentiousness over his move to Arsenal, but in the end what it meant was a 16 year old playing regular football at a club that does right by young players moved to a club competing at the highest level with technical and tactical requirements far beyond what this raw kid could match. He spent 6 months playing no meaningful football at all, got taken the world cup by Sven anyway, and then came back for the following season with expectations that far surpassed what he was ready to deliver.
A friend of mine who at the time was working at a high level in youth development is adamant that coming on the back of Owen and then Rooney taking to senior football then international football without any trouble made those in the game collectively expect too much for the next generation of star kids, Theo the most prominent. The expectations saw them just remove 3-4 steps from the developmental ladder thinking they were not necessary anymore.
I wonder how much different his career would have been had he stayed at Southampton until he was old enough to be on a pro contract, then moved to a middling prem team, like Villa or Spurs for a few years would he have got the development on that path to have allowed him to move to a Utd or Arsenal as a 22 year old as a far more complete player.
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