Sorry but it's not that straightforward - there are so many factors that can impact a players career. All those calling the lad out for being too small should think about the fact that Maradona is 1.66 m and Messi is 1.69m- two of the best ever. Clearly height is not an issue at any level. Also the fact he is 22 - so what!! IF anything thats a plus - hopefully he will be a better player than he was at 18. At a team like Chelsea he was never going to start, if he can get a run in our team who knows how he will develop. Just look at how old some of the players below were before they broke through.
Didier Drogba signed his first pro contract when he was 21.
Wikipedia: “Former Le Mans coach Marc Westerloppe later remarked that “it took Didier four years to be capable of training every day and playing every week”. Furthermore, Drogba’s complicated family life meant that he had never attended a football academy and only began daily football training as a fully grown adult.
By age 21, Drogba realized that he had to establish himself as a player soon or else he would have little chance of becoming a professional footballer. He made his first team debut for Le Mans soon thereafter and signed his first professional contract in 1999.
Luca Toni, now 33, was a journeyman of Serie B and Serie C1 before signing for Palermo (then an ambitious Serie B outfit) in 2003. 30 goals in his debut season brought promotion and 21 goals the following year, his first in Serie A, brought acclaim. For Fiorentina he scored 33 goals and for Bayern Munich an incredible 39 goals in his debut seasons for the respective clubs. Luca Toni went from obscurity to being one of the most prolific goal scorers in Europe for five years (and this all happened after the age of 25 in the topflight).
Miroslav Klose worked as a builder and brick-layer before starting football, and while playing at FC Homburg at the ages of 19-20 (who were in the 5th division of Germany when he played) in 1999. After this initial phase of developing his foundations, his talents were fully fledged and demonstrated suddenly and dramatically on the world stage at the World Cup 2002, where he claimed the Golden Boot.
Van Nisterlooy started his career with second division dutch team Den Bosch when he was 19.
Kevin Phillips (born July 25th, 1973) was released by Southampton in his youth and signed for a non-league semi-professional side, Baldock Town, where he was moved to a striker role; eventually he was signed by Watford on 19 December 1994 for £10,000. He went on to play over 500+ games for teams like Sunderland and Aston Villa. He also represented England for a short time.
You never know how a player will turn out - until he has been here a season or two, it's too early to judge.
