2020/21 Thierry Small

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Arsenal's new (second choice) left back scored on his debut today. It's up to you, Thierry, but the competition looks fierce there as well.
 
10, 11 & 12 year olds do the same thing and they generally don’t have agents. It’s written in your schoolboy contract what you have to do if you’re playing at the club your registered to.

We lost what would’ve been our best u16 this forthcoming season in a similar manner 4 years ago when he was u12.

Small will only be here because he did the same thing as he’s doing now 4 years or so ago.
Who was this or who to so we can prepare the banners
 
He doesn't have a professional contract at Everton.

So? Name another 16 year old in English football not showing up to pre-season training as required?

No defence of him. He either has an attitude problem and is unprofessional, or he's badly advised/thick. Either way, I'm not going to be depressed when he leaves.

I hope for his sake he really is the new Cafu/Roberto Carlos, because he'll need to be if this is his approach to the game.
 

So? Name another 16 year old in English football not showing up to pre-season training as required?

No defence of him. He either has an attitude problem and is unprofessional, or he's badly advised/thick. Either way, I'm not going to be depressed when he leaves.

I hope for his sake he really is the new Cafu/Roberto Carlos, because he'll need to be if this is his approach to the game.

My knowledge of 16 year old highly rated prospects coveted by many clubs isn't that good to be fair.

Idealistic notions of professionalism are a nice idea to cling to but the reality is very different. The reality is that very few players conduct themselves with the utmost professionalism when they desire a move and downing tools or being a pain in the arse in one way or another is pretty much the status quo to force a move and has been for a long time. Potential suitors will be more than happy to see him forcing a move and doing anything that lowers his value. His agent / advisors will know this and will have danced this dance many times before.

Selling clubs know it as well so talk of "not for sale" often turns to a reluctant admission of powerlessness and then feeding character assassination pieces to favoured reporters in order to convince of the wisdom of getting shut of a bad apple.

If the boot was on the other foot and Everton were hovering around a young talent they'd absolutely be onto his agent to advise their client to do what's needed to facilitate a move.

It's as "professional" as it gets.
 
My knowledge of 16 year old highly rated prospects coveted by many clubs isn't that good to be fair.

Idealistic notions of professionalism are a nice idea to cling to but the reality is very different. The reality is that very few players conduct themselves with the utmost professionalism when they desire a move and downing tools or being a pain in the arse in one way or another is pretty much the status quo to force a move and has been for a long time. Potential suitors will be more than happy to see him forcing a move and doing anything that lowers his value. His agent / advisors will know this and will have danced this dance many times before.

Selling clubs know it as well so talk of "not for sale" often turns to a reluctant admission of powerlessness and then feeding character assassination pieces to favoured reporters in order to convince of the wisdom of getting shut of a bad apple.

If the boot was on the other foot and Everton were hovering around a young talent they'd absolutely be onto his agent to advise their client to do what's needed to facilitate a move.

It's as "professional" as it gets.

He doesn't have to miss training to "facilitate a move" - he's not under professional contract, he can go wherever he wants. There's nothing Everton can do. He has no value to lower - we'll get a development fee decided externally.
 
10, 11 & 12 year olds do the same thing and they generally don’t have agents. It’s written in your schoolboy contract what you have to do if you’re playing at the club your registered to.

We lost what would’ve been our best u16 this forthcoming season in a similar manner 4 years ago when he was u12.

Small will only be here because he did the same thing as he’s doing now 4 years or so ago.

Better than Lawrence mate?
 
He doesn't have to miss training to "facilitate a move" - he's not under professional contract, he can go wherever he wants. There's nothing Everton can do. He has no value to lower - we'll get a development fee decided externally.
Some of those points were made in reference to his lack of "professionalism". From what I can see his actions are no worse than most wantaway players. Especially those heading into a preseason with no signed deal for the forthcoming season.

As for the development fee then not being present for training at the start of his first year eliglible as a pro may affect the training costs that factor into the development fee. I have no real idea how they work but certainly training costs are a thing and where a player is at 17 is another factor. I think it might be buttons initially but could affect future transfers until 23 in terms of a percentage which may well not be buttons.

And who knows, Everton might be a horrible place to go and "work" if you aren't playing ball with Uncle Uzzys money men. If it was my kid at 16 and he/she was getting daily grief or hassle from somewhere they really didn't need to be with a load of other options on the table I'd not be telling him to stick at it.

It's a wild guess as I have no idea what's actually going on but it's as valid a guess I've read on here about his terrible attitude and poor little Ev being held to ransom by a wicked 16 year old and nefarious outside influences.
 
So? Name another 16 year old in English football not showing up to pre-season training as required?

I doubt most people can name another 16 year old in English football (bar Zat :p) let alone ones that fit that criteria... its not really something you monitor unless its your club and a supposed hot prospect. Im sure it's happened before. It's weak but it will be on advice of his agent and i imagine he and his family will be taking said agents advice hence why they hired him.

At the end of the day he's 16 years old and almost certainly doing what adults around him have advised him to do, not really worth getting angry about, certainly not worthy of attacking his character. If he was a full blown adult in his mid 20's or whatever then it might be different.
 
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Not sure about this but if the lad hasn't got a contract with us at the moment then why would he turn up to training? Not defending him but maybe he's not interested in getting injured before he signs a contract with whoever has tapped him up.
 
I doubt most people can name another 16 year old in English football (bar Zat :p) let alone ones that fit that criteria... its not really something you monitor unless its your club and a supposed hot prospect. Im sure it's happened before. It's weak but it will be on advice of his agent and i imagine he and his family will be taking said agents advice hence why they hired him.

At the end of the day he's 16 years old and almost certainly doing what adults around him have advised him to do, not really worth getting angry about, certainly not worthy of attacking his character. If he was a full blown adult in his mid 20's or whatever then it might be different.

All day long.

Amazing the number of grown men going in two footed on a 16 year olds character for deciding he want's to start his professional career elsewhere. More so when these grown men have never met the lad and know absolutely nothing about whatever goes on between him, his representation and the club.

Any noises coming from his camp have been about not seeing a pathway to the first team. That's entirely understandable given Everton's recent poor development of young players, especially those who've come through the academy from a young age. It's even more understandable when you see the past season and the refusal to promote young players who are 2 or 3 years ahead of Small.

It's not him saying "I want it now" but seeing no evidence of a path to the first team for young players even when the first team is entirely inadequate. Playing Iwobi ahead of Nkounko when Digne was injured is a clear illustration. Persisting with what has been shown not to work. Choosing not to fill a bench despite often putting two keepers on there is another.

Rooney, Hibbert, Osman etc are the last time Everton consistently gave meaningful chances to players from the academy as opposed to 1 or 2 getting five minutes at the end of a game....they've all now retired as players and made their debuts before Small was born.

The best our current crop of youngsters have seen is sending an U23 side out to Limassol in a dead rubber that the manager can't even be arsed attending.
 
All day long.

Amazing the number of grown men going in two footed on a 16 year olds character for deciding he want's to start his professional career elsewhere. More so when these grown men have never met the lad and know absolutely nothing about whatever goes on between him, his representation and the club.

Any noises coming from his camp have been about not seeing a pathway to the first team. That's entirely understandable given Everton's recent poor development of young players, especially those who've come through the academy from a young age. It's even more understandable when you see the past season and the refusal to promote young players who are 2 or 3 years ahead of Small.

It's not him saying "I want it now" but seeing no evidence of a path to the first team for young players even when the first team is entirely inadequate. Playing Iwobi ahead of Nkounko when Digne was injured is a clear illustration. Persisting with what has been shown not to work. Choosing not to fill a bench despite often putting two keepers on there is another.

Rooney, Hibbert, Osman etc are the last time Everton consistently gave meaningful chances to players from the academy as opposed to 1 or 2 getting five minutes at the end of a game....they've all now retired as players and made their debuts before Small was born.

The best our current crop of youngsters have seen is sending an U23 side out to Limassol in a dead rubber that the manager can't even be arsed attending.

No one cares about that. We just did the same thing to Forest with Okoronkwo. It's a case of "whatever".

No, it's the fact he's just decided not to turn up for pre-season training. You're defending him on grounds that don't exist.
 
No, it's the fact he's just decided not to turn up for pre-season training. You're defending him on grounds that don't exist.
He didn’t have to come in though. He’s not contracted to come in.

If he wants to leave then not coming in is exactly what he has to do.
 
S
No one cares about that. We just did the same thing to Forest with Okoronkwo. It's a case of "whatever".

No, it's the fact he's just decided not to turn up for pre-season training. You're defending him on grounds that don't exist.
Sunderland
 

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