87 | James McAtee - 2024/25

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uwerosler28 said:
We bought Bobb , not an academy player.
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That is inaccurate!

We bought him when he was 16. Not only is he considered an academy player, he's considered home grown as well!

Thankfully we got this done before Brexit.. but now we can't sign anyone from EU till they're 18.
 
King Jay said:
I guess the most great one are somehow born in Barcelona then? Most of the current players within the squad wouldn’t play if it wasn’t for an injury and economical crises. When you look at O’Reilly I think there were more options within the academy who could’ve such an impact. Not saying the club needs to give every talent a chance but sometimes you don’t need to buy from outside
Without Dembele moving to PSG. Yamal still wouldn’t start.
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We both preach from the same book mate, I just don't think there's been the depth of talent in the Academy to justify two ir three 'graduates' in the first team on a regular basis. The pressure on the club to succeed is too great and Pep has become risk averse in the last few seasons.
 
Lavinda Past said:
We both preach from the same book mate, I just don't think there's been the depth of talent in the Academy to justify two ir three 'graduates' in the first team on a regular basis. The pressure on the club to succeed is too great and Pep has become risk averse in the last few seasons.
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He does give academy and newcomers a shot in the first half of the season where he rests the veterans for the run in.. but if you fail to impress.. he goes back to what he trusts.

Delap.. trusted till Leicester
Gomez.. trusted till Copenhagen
Pusey.. trusted till Feyenoord
McAtee.. trusted till Feyenoord
Nico O'Reilly trusted till Southampton??

Bobb/ Rico/ Nico are obviously still trusted.. but if you let Pep down and don't follow instructions.. you get put on the shit list.
 
He is an average (actually, below average in some key points) player. We should have let him go a year ago, but we were, and perhaps will be for a couple of years, obsessed with the “Palmer’s complex.” I saw him, and Palmer, several times with the younger teams, and he was no Palmer, not even close. Never impressed me at any stage of his career. He would struggle adapting to any decent team. I would consider him a success if he could secure AND maintain a job with a mid-table team, which is also debatable. Also, if he made a bang in Germany, we should know it doesn’t mean much because the Bundesliga is NOT the PL (a totally different level of intensity, and not even that intense as Championship). Remember when Sancho made a bang in Germany? Good luck for him.

That aside, I will never understand the obsession of some fans with academy players. When it comes to real (first team) football, not kids football where many players falsely excel, academy players: 1) are “mostly” below average; 2) few are average; 3) very rare are exceptional. If today we, as some wish, have 5 (~50%) players in the team from ex-academy players, we would be largely a mid-table team. It won’t be surprising that in some seasons we would be fighting relegation. Any club with aspirations should never turn into an orphanage for their academy players. As for loss of identity, that concept doesn’t exist in modern professional sports including football. Actually it didn’t exist for long time now. You must be pragmatic or you will just disappear in the black hole. Clubs with aspirations look to consistently win trophies, and in the current world of professional football, having 4-5 players from the academy together in a team will just not allow that. I understand rare exceptions happen, but I don’t see this exception coming from our academy players, at least the ones I have been seeing for the past few years. The hype of academy players is mostly created by the fans who are obsessed with the idea of “academy players should dominate the team.” They creat the myth, then they live it, and then they want everyone else to believe it. I am very glad these fans have no saying running the team or we will be doomed. The very rare, exceptional academy players (definitely McAtee is not one of these) are to be given a time-framed opportunity, and the majority to get rid off as early as possible to make some revenue. More or less, that is what the Club have been doing.
 
While limited, here are McAtee's stats from this season in prem and champ league (cup games omitted), in comparison with the eye test it does reveal some interesting things:
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McAtee in his time this season has gotten into some brilliant positions for scoring goals, and while unlucky on some goals, has done very well in this regards anyways. In fact, looking at this one would think he would make a decent backup striker, or a good option as an inside forward on the right side.

He also seemingly has had decent defensive contributions.

The issue is then in the other aspects he is lacking, almost contradictory to what academy watchers have seen.

He creates basically nothing for a player in his position, almost suggesting he plays the safe pass nearly every time but his pass% is quite low for someone who does this.

Now to caveat all this, he is almost always coming on as a sub player, but I think this coincides with what I've seen in general, brilliant at getting in goal scoring positions, is willing to tackle, but not much else?

I wouldn't mind keeping him but I don't think we can give him the game time he needs.

Savio and Bobb (and soon Cherki) play basically in his positions of RW, or RAM. And I think those 3 are more worthy of minutes at the moment.

We may regret letting him leave, but have young options there already, and we can't make everyone happy.

Have a good career James.
 
WallyA said:
He creates basically nothing for a player in his position, almost suggesting he plays the safe pass nearly every time but his pass% is quite low for someone who does this.
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Honestly, when you watch him, he just doesn't seem to be in the game much at all, but then he'll sometimes pop up in a great position to score.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
Honestly, when you watch him, he just doesn't seem to be in the game much at all, but then he'll sometimes pop up in a great position to score.
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Which in itself is a great quality to have.

But I think this coincided during a time we played without Haaland, with 2 false wingers, and teams were perhaps slightly confused on how to deal with this with no true striker to mark, so both found spaces like this that Haaland might not.

But if he has to play with Haaland, I would suspect that quality gets diminished somewhat, and the other areas he lacks aren't being shown (for whatever reason because I feel he CAN create and dribble).
 
dhruvblue said:
Some players are given first season benefit some are even given 5 years but just 1 dysfunctional season was enough to judge mcatee

Hopefully he tear up where her goes
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Mad isn't it. Would like to have seen him when we're firing. I always thought he either looked really good or was anonymous - which you'd expect from a kid playing once every four weeks
 
A little sad to see him go but ultimately unsurprised. There's a rare quality to him with finding himself on the end of chances, kind of similar to Raz in that regard. Maybe it's his overall quality outside of that lets him down.

Wish him the best wherever he ends up.
 
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