If all of those things are true then why, may I ask, did he fail to make any impact at all at Blackburn? They clearly don't have a great deal of better options than a guy who apparently is good enough to get games at City given they've spent the entire season in the relegation zone. Surely the point of a loan move is to give players much needed first team experience, and to assess how they cope in "real football" which is a far cry from youth football. Byrne succeeded in Holland to a degree, although Holland is renowned for making players look better than they actually end up being, but you can't call his time at Blackburn anything other than a disappointing failure. He'll have been assessed when out on loan, coaching reports, match reports (for the few times he got on the pitch) etc and those reports can't have been favourable.
We've spent a shit load of money on our new academy. It makes absolutely fuck all sense for your comment "Clearly, hardly any are going to get a chance" to be true. Why spend hundreds of millions on an academy, stock it with players, spend years training/teaching them only to sell them on for not too much money in the scheme of things, and so it all again? We have a sizeable coaching staff, at all age levels, isn't it far more likely that those coaches have over the years, and also over the past few months, assessed Byrne and decided that, although he clearly has some talent, it's talent that isn't going to progress to the point where he'd be able to make a real difference to a title challenging side with the aim of being the bets in Europe?
Your argument is the same each time, "we didn't give them a chance". However your version of "giving them a chance" is always "play them in the City first team and see if they sink or swim" like that's the only proveable way of assessing a players potential. The club, like most clubs, seem to be taking the "watch them for years in the youth setup, send them out on loans, and assess them" approach. I'm not sure why you seem to feel that your method is the right one and the one chosen by the club is so fundamentally flawed, as with most things I'm more inclined to trust the professionals when it comes to their approach then the keen amateur.
Why did Byrne fail at Blackburn ? No idea. Perhaps he was shit.
If he was, it makes no difference whatsoever, to anything . If every player who had a shit spell somewhere was written off, there would be no players & if it applied to managers at new teams, Pep would already be gone. It's a pointless argument which has no relevance to any footballer anywhere ever making it or not making it anywhere ever.
'We've spent a shit load of money on our new academy. It makes absolutely fuck all sense for your comment "Clearly, hardly any are going to get a chance" to be true.'
My comment is about the fantastic genertation of young footballers we had in the U18s a few years ago & it IS true. We will barely see any of them even for 5 mins in the Premier League. They will be gone without ever beeing tested at first team level, in spite of often outplaying other kids in opposing teams who now play in the Prem. Whether they make it or not, anywhere, is completely irrelevant. They were good enough to be used here & there & introduced to top level football, & kept or sold depending on their achievement, just as every other team including our multi title winning enemy from Stretford, has been doing with their kids for the past 50 years & exactly how City had been doing throucgh thick & thin, year in year out, until we got money, where it became easier to buy 2nd rate squad players rather than promote our own. That's how it's done. Always has been, always will be. Kid gets a chance. Assess where he's up to, decide from there.
'isn't it far more likely that those coaches have over the years, and also over the past few months, assessed Byrne and decided that, although he clearly has some talent, it's talent that isn't going to progress to the point where he'd be able to make a real difference to a title challenging side with the aim of being the bets in Europe?'
It's quite possible. It's also possible they think he has a good chance of making it, but no way can Pep give him any game time, whilst he's so busy in his first season, & he Byrne is now too old to be hanging around waiting for a 5 min debut & playing in the 2nd team, where he would be taking the place of other kids who are now in the position he was in, two years ago.
It's also likely, in fact certain, that they don't know, either way. If they did, they wouldn't be coaches, they would be doing Txiki's job, for ten times the money & signing all the kids everywhere who will become top players. All they do, is take an educated best guess at what a player will be.
They get it wrong, often. All of them, at every level, not just at City.
And that includes our title winning coach David Platt, who fucked off £20 mil SWP from Forest.
We have wasted generations of kids & possibly impaired several who might have made it. When I say 'we' it's mostly the managers.
Hopefully Pep will do better. The signs are good.
