So Ramsey is going out on loan. Carvalho became the forgotten man second half of the season. Nunez ended the season out of the side. And Arthur played all of five minutes the entire season.
That’s a pretty shoddy summers business. At least Gakpo seems to have done well since January but unless Nunez comes really good that summer could well be one of our worst for some time.
Hopefully Ramsey gets some fitness and confidence back but with Milner now gone are we shopping for a right back or will it be Trent with Gomez our other option and that’s how we make room for another CB? Matip then goes next summer and we hope Ramsey comes in ready to back up Trent.
I have a suspicion that we might have “managed” Nunez in the end after it became apparent that he was going to take time to settle in. No need to tick those add-on clause boxes if they’re not going to be of much benefit to us.
Don’t worry about Nunez, the guy has it. The ability, the power, the pace, the movement, the hairstyle, the looks. Everything you could think of minus the finishing in some situations and the English language
& I know it feels like an age now but it actually wasn’t that long ago we won the league and went on to do absolutely nothing to help the squad except sign 2 academy graduates.
Ramsay is nineteen and was obviously bought for the future. Arthur was injured nearly all the time he was in Liverpool. Carvalho is 20 and also a prospect. He needs to work on certain aspects of his game. Not surprising for someone of his age.
Darwin is taking time to settle, but has shown signs of what he can do.
Personally I wish we had bought a midfielder, and I wrote that numerous times on here, but now it’s time to look forward.
Carvalho and Ramsay can’t even be put in the same category as the likes of Nunez. They were bought as prospects with a back up role in mind. Ramsay unfortunately missed the entire season nearly with injury and Carvalho got chances but wasn’t involved when we absolutely had to win later in the season.
Nunez got 15 goals from just over 2000 minutes, he’s done fine although he still has plenty to work on - which is exciting not negative.
Ramsay going out on loan was the plan anyway, not a failure. I said this last season that RB is absolutely stacked and we had to try and balance the prospect pipeline. I always saw it as Ramsay backs up Trent for a year (which he missed through injury) while Bradley goes on loan and then they switch roles and Bradley backs up Trent while Ramsay goes on loan. The change of shape may have altered that plan and Bradley’s loan spell was so good we may get some loan offers too good to turn down but my point is it was never the plan for Ramsay to stay here and establish himself, a loan was always on the cards.
Goes to prove that spending money isn’t the only way to improve.
All very valid points.
But rarely do players make it here after a loan spell. We can hold out hope but most of the time that spells the beginning of the end for their career here. Elliott might be the only exception to the rule in recent times.
And the same will apply to Carvalho if he goes on loan. More likely than not it’ll spell the end of his long term future here. Yes he’s a prospect but didn’t play anything down the stretch, not even off the bench in a dead rubber on the last day.
Darwin I have hope for. Wasn’t an easy season to come into the side but we’re still no clearer on his role in the team. Is he best off the left or down the middle? Can he be clinical enough? Does he have the temperament we need? Big season to come for him.
Looking forward is great but it could easily be argued if we’d done Gakpo last summer instead of in January and then no other business, we’d probably been better off than having done the summer business we did.
9 times out of 10 it is if you want to maintain at the top, but of course spent in the right manner. Bringing academy/u21 players is fine but if that’s all you’re gonna do then you’ll have problems.
Teams like Villa Brentford Brighton can continue doing what they’re doing by punching above their weight but unless 1 of them suddenly spends big for a few summers, they’re not getting close.
A loan is essentially a finishing school for a prospect. A way of bridging a gap when the player is too good (or too physical) for youth football but doesn’t have an obvious way of getting chances at first team level, either because the first team is well stocked or there are other prospects getting chances or there is a pressure on the first team for results (this is why you seen a lot of young players leave for loans in January because the second half of the season has more pressure on it).
The club are trying to find out who can play in our first team. The loan spells players go on give them an indication of their level that youth football makes hard to understand.
Elliott came back from his loan and into the first team because he was excellent during his loan. Neco Williams was brilliant for Fulham and earned himself a £20m move - he would have stayed in the first team squad otherwise but Liverpool knew that was a good offer and that they had Bradley and Ramsay coming through.
The unfortunate truth is that some players go on loan and we find that they can’t play at the level we require. That’s the reality for loanees. Its not some rule that “once you go on loan you aren’t coming back”. The ones who play very well will get chances, the ones who don’t will either get another loan spell to try again or be let go.
Examples would be Ryan Kent and Harry Wilson, both of them were dominant youth team players who went on loan and, even though they did ok, didn’t show the talent to play for Liverpool. They were just ok, not great. You need to be great.
Leighton Clarkson will be another example. He’s had an up and down season, ending in a good last few weeks. That’s enough to earn him a move somewhere but not enough to earn him a shot at this club. On the other hand Conor Bradley just shone at a level that has surprised everyone, even knowing how good he is, and could have earned him a chance at first team level or at least a very high level loan spell if the chances aren’t going to be there this season.
Going on loan is not the end of your chances, its just another stage of development as a player, and just like at every other stage of development you have to be excellent to get through it.
It’s not the end of your chances as such, it just the numbers suggest it will turn out to be that way the vast majority of the time.
We’re of a level where if you’re going to come through the academy and are going to be good enough to make it, you’ll break into the first team squad at a young age. If you aren’t doing that, a loan isn’t likely to actually improve the chances of that happening. It’s more likely to result in them going on a series of loans or being sold after the loan ends.
In that sense the loan isn’t a finishing school or a stage in their development as much as it is a shop window. Get them some experience at the level they’ll likely do well and then sell them on thanks to the exposure they get. It’s why I doubt we’ll see Morton around past this summer and even if it’s another loan, it’s because they’ve decided he’s not good enough but can’t find a buyer. Much like Kent, Wilson and many others.
The data tells us that if they’ve the potential to be great and make it here then we’ll likely keep them around. If they’re going out on loan, chances are their time here is done. Elliott is the only example I can think of that bucks that trend.
I think Ramsey’s injury last year is enough of a reason to support the thesis that in his case it is for developmental reasons rather than a not good enough one.
Can someone explain the Ramsey move? Just from the POV that he is like the last RB left at the club after Trent. Am I looking into this too much that it makes me think Midfield Trent is here to stay? I guess if we are targeting another starting quality RB then it means nothing.
I realise he might need this for his development but I’m just thinking how, right at this minute, how short this leaves us at RB.
We still have Bradley and Gomez and if as we have all been saying,that Hendo takes the Milner role at the club then maybe him aswell.
We have also been linked with Tete from Fulham,but how serious that is?
