Robinson: Elliott is currently the best teenager in world football

[Lee909]

Don't know all of them but plenty of 19 year old and under are playing regularly in the Champions League and high level league football. Until Elliot performs for the first team and the highest level it's all promise. Though he has plenty of time to catch up with them. 

[Colonel Bumcunt]

10 hours ago, Code said:

I see a lot of shite players on that list and no evidence of them being a bigger talent.

 

I ask again, how are they bigger talents, and more importantly, who the fuck are they?

If you read their wiki pages you'll see that they have either made a few first team appearances for big clubs, or have played a lot of u19 or u21 national football, or have scored goals at a professional level, or been transferred for big money. 

 

Elliott is the level below these, very likely to break into this category, but not there yet. 

[Saintslfc13]

I think it's harder to break into a top side which is why so many of these "wunderkind" players we sign never seem to work out for us*, and it's even harder in England given the state of the league with it being an arms race every summer and with the physicality of the league. Some players might genuinely have the technical ability but never develop the physical attributes required whereas they could probably be very successful in a league like Italy's or for a German or Spanish side outside of the big ones. The culture in football as a whole with a lot of clubs having a revolving door of players and even managers also makes it harder. The staff and manager who signed you could all be gone by the time you've grown into your body and by then the new people have a different set of attributes they want in a player or maybe just want to bring their own guys in.

Calling him the best teenager in the world is a stretch but I do think he's a very good talent from the little I've seen of him. I also imagine that Robinson wasn't really thinking of Haaland or Camavinga as teenagers since they're already somewhat established first teamers despite their age. Probably should've phrased it differently.

* - I know you can argue that on the pitch we've only relatively recently become a top side again, but the expectation has always been there which leads to a lack of time for these younger players to develop and new talent for them to compete with constantly coming in.