Match Thread: FA Cup 4th Round Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool

[Steveo]

We shouldn’t forget Neco Williams either. Won a Premier League medal and earned the club £17m when he joined Forest where he’s still a starter. I liked the lad a lot and still wonder where it all went wrong having just signed a long term contract.

We aren't producing that much.. Usually we end up poaching like with Nyoni from Leicester and most recently Ngumoha from Chelsea

No point trying to say otherwise. Without going into specifics this is something I know a thing or two about. yay..

Our Academy is decent but relative to the past we are struggling compared to Arsenal and Chelsea and Southampton

[BOBPAISLEYFAN]

Exactly Jozza Kev’s just talking shite because a cobbled together second string lost a game

Arsenal have Saka & now this new lad, yeah that means they have a conveyor belt of top youngsters 😂

Kevs just probably pissed as usual, we’ve had Trent Bradley & Jones which is about as much as any other Prem side in the last 10 years

If your Club is consistently a Top Four Club, and it is also competing on the biggest stages in Europe, the higher the standards required to even break into the squad never mind the starting 11…

The likelihood that a kid from the Academy is going to blossom and do that at such a young age is extremely unlikely, it’s possible for sure, because we have all seen examples that we can all refer too…Macca, Fowler, Owen, Carra, Stevie, Trent and now Jones and Bradley … an impressive bunch thats for sure, but that list is spread over 35+ years… so it’s a panning for Gold approach that offers no guarantees.. we just have to be very grateful when they do actually come along…

It is not an exact science thats for sure…

[sydenham red]

Not an exact science no, but eg if we'd held onto Solanke a little longer we'd have saved ourselves a fortune not buying Nunez say. We seem to make our mind up pretty quickly on the academy prospects and mark most of them as "for sale" after a few 1st team appearances or their loans.

[Insidious]

As for Quansah, he is another player that has very quickly got an OTT amount of hype and praise. Just like Gomez he has had a few decent games here and there, but he's also prone to making errors. He's young and there's still a chance he could be a success, but if I were a betting man I wouldn't put much money on that happening despite me wanting every one of our players to be a success.

To be fair to Quansah, he is 22.

Van Dijk left Celtic at 24 - he had played 2 seasons for Celtic, so I presume he was 22 when he left Groningen.

Nobody is saying Quansah has as high a ceiling as Van Dijk or anything - but it's exciting to see centre-backs close to the first-team (or indeed getting starts as Quansah was) at that age, as he is a "baby" in centre-back terms, where experience is all the more important and mistakes all the more subject to scrutiny.

I'm cautiously optimistic that he'll be useful for us. That may be as a squad player, or it may be via a sale that helps us purchase someone else - time (and opportunities taken or not taken) will tell I guess.

[Insidious]

Not an exact science no, but eg if we'd held onto Solanke a little longer we'd have saved ourselves a fortune not buying Nunez say. We seem to make our mind up pretty quickly on the academy prospects and mark most of them as "for sale" after a few 1st team appearances or their loans.

Works the other way too to be fair and it is a ridiculously tricky business in terms of making those sorts of calls - I'm including youth players we purchased in this context as well as those we bring through the Academy.

Take Ibe and Brewster - to have received combined fees for those two that was greater than the cost of Mac Allister looks like stellar business all-round and I think if you get even 50% of these calls right you're doing pretty well.

A shame it didn't quite "happen" to the fullest extent for Solanke in a Red shirt as he is doing well these days, though we'll never have a 100% success rate or even close.

[Kev0909]

Why'd we get rid of sepp van den berg? too, he's actually better than Quansah

[jozza800]

Chelsea have had plenty.


Jamal Musiala
Rice
Gallagher
Guehi
Tammy Abraham
Fikayo Tomori
Mason Mount


Nobody should give 2 fooks about the FA cup exit tho total blessing and a clear dodge by Slot - well played

A decent crop of players there. And Chelsea always seem to do weel in the Youth Cup.

[teesred]

Why'd we get rid of sepp van den berg? too, he's actually better than Quansah

Maybe they view Quansah as a better option going forward?
He's barely played, it's too early to write him off.
Van Den Berg has been in loan fir a full season and that's no doubt helped him. Murillo has been played every week for a team that doesn't have the options we have. If Quansah had been on loan and played as many games as both of those I'm sure he'd look way better.
He's unfortunate in the sense he only gets used when it's absolutely necessary. It's not helping him or the team but it's a rock and hard place.
Slot in my opinion likes to play his first choice team as often as possible, I think there is an element of him not trusting some of them but right at this minute stakes are obviously very high.

[Kev0909]

Well I don't think slot rates him full stop.

[Insidious]

Why'd we get rid of sepp van den berg? too, he's actually better than Quansah

He wanted out, we had an evaluation and it was met. One of those "good for all parties" transfers as far as I see it. I rate him.

"You haven’t radiated confidence in me all this time, but you do want to hinder my future" was a quote of his, about what he perceived to be bothered a lack of minutes to develop (fair comment really) and a price tag that may inhibit his chances of a move - which I totally understand from his point.

Lad wanted to play football and improve, kudos to him. We wanted to make what we deemed fair compensation for a lad with potential. I think it worked out ultimately and I don't begrudge him having resented our inflexible stance as it's tough for players in his sort of situation who don't want to stagnate.