History Repeating Itself?

[Philbert]

Just wondered what people thought about the parallels between our crop of youngsters coming through (Kelly, Flanagan, Spearing, etc...), and the group of players that United brought through almost in one 'wave' - Beckham, Scholes, Giggs etc..

 

Ferguson was lucky to have that happen, and it seemed at the time to be a once in a generation event....but I think our lads are going to be even better. What do you think?

 

The key of course, is the impact they have on our trophy winning chances.

 

Discuss.

 

Thanks

[The Woolster]

I've said the same myself, think we have the best group of youngsters coming through all at the same time since the Utd lot.

 

Although I am really impressed by the group that Villa have got coming through, all about 20ish (Albrighton, Clark, Bannan, Delph, Delfuenso), so ours may end up being the best to come thhrough since them!

[TommyW]

I think a 'steady on' is advisable at this point

[Jim MM]

There's plenty of potential there but how they continue to develop is just as important. Looking positive at the moment anyway.

Repped for avoiding the use of the word "Neville" too.

[coop]

Exciting times and with the likes of Borrell and Segura being the coaches that are bringing them through they have a proven track record of success.

 

You will get far more effort from these kids then you would some old has been who is here for one last pay day.

[Carra_is_legend]

Think we will have to wait and see on Speo, Kelly and Flanagan. Hopefully they will all come through and establish themselves but personally I'm not sure.

 

If they do though, that will be truly wonderful. We have too many players in the squad who doesn't quite understand the club yet and it would be good to have some local players with not so much talent but plenty of passion.

 

There is a reason why Bacon face keeps playing O'Shea, Brown, Fletcher etc now and then. And he still has Giggs and Scholes who know what the club is made of. We obviously have Stevie and Carra and if Kelly, Flanagan and Speo can do what O'Shea, Brown and Fletcher has done for them, I'll be delighted.

[dennis tooth]

Bit confusing as Giggs came through years before the beckham generation, scholes came through a couple of seasons after Giggs but before Beckham, along with Butt and so on.

I think the point is if we can recreate that sort of a consistent conveyor belt and put it in Kenny's hands then yes I think we can do it.

[Megadrive Man]

I'd be surprised and delighted if they were to get to the level of the United players you mentioned.

 

I think all 3 can be good squad players here initially, it depends just how much they improve over the coming years as to wether or not they can become established first team players.

 

Its great to see they are being given a chance though, and hopefully this will be the way it is now.

 

Next season i'd like to see the likes of Toni Silva, Andre Wisdom, and Adam Morgan given some first team games.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I think a 'steady on' is advisable at this point

Indeed.

 

Baconface was gifted three world class players - two of whom are still carrying him to this day - plus about four competent squad players, thus freeing even more cash for the other areas of the squad.

 

What the OP is wishing for is (1) a comparable crop of youngsters (2) a manager being given all the time and freedom he needs and (3) owners who are prepared to splash the cash when the manager wants them to.

 

I'd love all three to be true, but... time will tell, eh.

[ReDeus]

Um, while I think the young lads coming through are promising, it's a bit premature to be comparing them to the manc cunts that demento had at his disposal. Okay, it's very premature. Let's give them a few seasons before we can judge if they're even solid long-term prospects, let alone as good as the players that were responsible for making ManU the dominant team in the Premiership.

[RoboRiise]

Think we will have to wait and see on Speo, Kelly and Flanagan. Hopefully they will all come through and establish themselves but personally I'm not sure.

 

If they do though, that will be truly wonderful. We have too many players in the squad who doesn't quite understand the club yet and it would be good to have some local players with not so much talent but plenty of passion.

 

There is a reason why Bacon face keeps playing O'Shea, Brown, Fletcher etc now and then. And he still has Giggs and Scholes who know what the club is made of. We obviously have Stevie and Carra and if Kelly, Flanagan and Speo can do what O'Shea, Brown and Fletcher has done for them, I'll be delighted.

 

 

The other two maybe but as far as I'm concerned the jury has reached a verdict on Kelly. It's not just me, plenty of fans of other teams (including both sets of mancs) have praised him highly, not saying that he's good for a kid but just that he's good regardless of his age. There was serious talk of England call-ups not long back, not that I give much of a fuck about that but it's an indicator of how good he's been. The kid is a player.

[Hermes]

I think a 'steady on' is advisable at this point

 

Exactly. We won the Youth Cup a few years ago under Heighway, have any of those players extablished themselves in the Premier League?

[Beantown Red]

I think a 'steady on' is advisable at this point

 

^^^this^^^

[The Woolster]

Bit confusing as Giggs came through years before the beckham generation, scholes came through a couple of seasons after Giggs but before Beckham, along with Butt and so on.

I think the point is if we can recreate that sort of a consistent conveyor belt and put it in Kenny's hands then yes I think we can do it.

 

They did develop at slightly different speeds, with Giggs ahead of the rest as he was exceptional, but they were all about the same age and came through more or less within a season or 3 of each other. Giggs, Beckham, Neville and Butt all won the Youth cup together, Scholes and Phil Neville got to the final the following year.

 

I would expect the same progression to happen with us as they will develop at different speeds too, especially as the age gap is a bit wider with players like Kelly being 20 down to Sterling at 16. but we've got a group of kids who will hopefully come through about 2 to 3 years apart who could well be good enough to be part of the squad, and that will mean that we can concentrate our signings to spend bigger money on first XI players that could win us things. The issue could be that they aren't quite good enough for regular first team appearances and decide to leave to get that though, bit like Keith Gillespie if comparing to the group from Utd.

 

Still early days, and it is probably unlikely that they will be as good or succesful as the Utd lot, but things are looking promising, and as a group of kids coming through at more or less the same time, there aren't many comparables (apart from the lads at Villa I mentioned).

[sir roger]

It all seems far more positive than the shambles Dave outlined a couple of years ago, but I am in the ' wait & see ' gang at this stage as it is so difficult to bring a young first teamer through to a top premiership team, never mind a string of them.

 

Talking about other teams, one of the most depressing aspects of the Man City circus is the way they seem to have dismantled what was held as the best youth policy a couple of years ago.

[silverlining]

Giggs and Scholes are two of the best players in Premiership history. Even Beckham, overrated as he is, is right up there.

 

So no.

[Hermes]

.

 

Talking about other teams, one of the most depressing aspects of the Man City circus is the way they seem to have dismantled what was held as the best youth policy a couple of years ago.

 

All these great youth "policies" is a load of crap. Usually it's pure luck that a group come through together at a certain club.

 

Over the years we've had Crystal Palace ("The Team Of The 80's), Man Utd, West Ham, Leeds etc.

 

A great "policy" is when players come through over a period of years and keep coming through, not a one-off.

[Duff Man]

I remember reading an interview with one of the youth coaches (forget who) and he said he thought only Suso and possibly one or two others would go on to make it at the highest level.

[Xherdan]

It's easy to pick the likes of suso or sterling out of an academy team as they are attacking players. What is a lot more difficult is havingthe ability to pick a Flanagan or Kelly etc. While good players are good players and tend to stand out, defenders will not normally mature until very late teens or early twenties into what you could then describe as a top quality defender. For me Kelly has this, he is developing very well and can certainly hold his own I'm first team games. Flanagan has been very impressive from what I have seen.

 

There are still several players who can make the breakthrough, as already mentioned, suso, sterling and personally I have always liked amoo when I have seen him but he needs to make the step up next season or it won't happen for him.

 

Overall, everything is very positive at the moment.

 

As a wise man said in the mf;

 

believe

[LFC64]

we didn't do too bad ourselves in the 90's with Mcmanaman, Fowler, Owen, Carragher, Gerrard, Warnock

 

not easy to predict even once they've taken their chance with the 1st team. i thought Otsemobor was a player but he dropped down although to be fair he did get shot in the arse which can't have helped !

[stringvest]

I think we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here. I'm not sure we'll ever bring a 'class of...' group of players through, but if we can encourage youngsters and trust them when the opportunity comes to give them a game, we could, as someone else has pointed out, be in the position where we can offload our non-English 'squad players', in the process saving ourselves tons of money, and use the resources (ideally local) we nurture through our academy and reserve sides to backfill/deputise.

 

That way, we:

 

* save ourselves shedloads of money

* encourage the reserves and academy players as they see opportunities for making the first team

* potentially uncover a jewel (or even two)

* keep the proportion of homegrown/local players - helps with the identity of the club

* provides the opportunity for the first team manager to share his philosophy outside the first team

 

As someone else has said, the best policy is one that regularly and consistently produces young talent fit for the first team over many years. If it's scouse, all the better.

[Dicko]

We had comparable players at the time ourselves.

It's just that they were managed by Ferguson & run by Edwards.

While we were managed by Evans & run by Moores.

[JohnnyH]

Scholes is one of the best midfielders I've seen play. Giggs is one of the best wingers I've seen play.

 

So the answer is a definite no.

 

However, to compare our youngsters to them is very unfair as they are some of the best players around. I am really excited by Kelly and Suso and Mendy and a few others. If we can get a few "1st name on the team sheets" out of current bunch then that would be superb. I think we have the right men for the job trying to bring them through so here hoping.

[silverlining]

 

we didn't do too bad ourselves in the 90's with Mcmanaman, Fowler, Owen, Carragher, Gerrard, Warnock

 

 

Yeah. That's a pretty amazing set of home-grown players alright.

[s(k)aturation]

I think a 'steady on' is advisable at this point

 

Until we can iron out the anomalies between, say, our performance against WBA last week and Citeh yesterday, I'd say caution is the watchword, yes.

 

Optimism another.