Again I'll ask why he shouldn't have played for us when we're throwing Bolasie out there every week who's regularly put in 3/10 performances...He'd likely offer more threat than Rooney or Davies as an AM in certain games when we actually need someone to create on their own. I agree he SHOULDN'T be considered a PL starter, but for us, we've got enough dross that he at least should've been seeing regular minutes and growing here.
even if he had, say 30 mins every other week, and 10 mins or so, and then U23 action, I think it would be useful. I am sure it's hard to manage young players Under the age of 22/24 who have had a taste of first team action, but I wish we had a proper director of football who managed their careers and encouraged them to be patient - it's surely better - unless you're an exceptional player like Ronaldo/Messi - to have a good base in developing squads, and get onto the first team scene at the right time, rather than being on the fringes.
I know this is fantasy football stuff, but I would manage Vlasic, Lookman, Dowell, DCL, Davies, Kenny, and maybe connolly and holgate like this
Think of them on one month cycles, they should make:
2 x Matchday squads
2 X U23 matches
2 X subs appearances of around 15 or 30 mins
obviously this won't always work out, but in our team I think that each of them can be a legitimate understudy to our 'senior players'
What do people think? I know it might be a nonsense idea, but i'm just trying to think that the biggest problems you have in retaining young talented players are:
- patience (keeping them long enough in your squad)
- loyalty
- managing expectations
- keeping their fitness and physical development on track
- managing their confidence, talent and progression
(PS it's a shame about Browning, Penningtonand Galloway - they're just rubbish now are they?)