87 | James McAtee - 2024/25

[Norman kneejerk]

Be surprised if we made the squad even smaller after what's just happened with injuries.

 

[OntarioBlue]

How has he gone from being the Salford Silva to not being able to get a game even when half the squad is injured ?

 

[Delphinho]

Good enough to play regularly for a handful of PL sides. Wouldn’t blame him if he left. I find it very hard to understand how he’s only got 1 minute of PL football given the state of our midfield this season. Start him in a near full strength team, where the stakes are higher than in a rotated side for a Carabao cup game, and you’ll see a different player

 

[Norman kneejerk]

How has he gone from being the Salford Silva to not being able to get a game even when half the squad is injured ?

You would hope we took note of how well a lot of the players do after leaving, they are not exactly difficult to spot but that doesn't seem to deter us.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

It must be disappointing for the player, on the one hand to receive acknowledgement of his ability from Pep, and yet not get selected for any meaningful time on the pitch.

I see this as a potential on-going problem for young players, but the club seem to accept it and appear happy with the sales with potential add-ons, so my opinion is not going to change that stance.

Pep isn't going to change. Using a very small squad is his preferred option.

It must be very hard to see a future at our club for the younger players.
Apart from Palmer, you have Harwood Bellis and Morgan Rogers getting an England call up, Gittens, Lavia, Doyle and several others getting regular game time.
If we had held on to one of Callum Doyle, Kabore or Yan Couto, it would have given us a little more cover for our ageing and more injury prone back line.
The probability is that if they were still here they would be in the same

 

[Gabriel]

No point in allowing him to leave. He signed up for the season knowing game time would be precious but that the learning experience would be invaluable. The mooted fee feels ridiculously low.

For me, he should be playing on the right and partnered with Doku on the left. Similarly, Grealish should be partnered with Savinho. Partnering Doku and Savinho may well be exciting but it’s also prone to us losing the ball more. We desperately need Foden/Bernardo/de Bruyne to control the middle spaces and McAtee could offer greater balance on the right; after all, he played much of last season there for Sheffield United.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

He’s going to end up being another palmer, , Lavia, Rogers or Delap. We could save ourselves 50m here, but we have no patience and want ready made players. He hasn’t been given a chance at all.

Our record with young players recently has been poor in my opinion. It’s been all about making profit, but we’re producing some of the best players for other clubs now in my opinion. Players that would be in our first team.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

He’ll leave next summer and end up going to the World Cup with England.

 

[domalino]

He is behind them but he still should get minutes. Bournemouth away is a game he should have featured in even if 15/20 mins as a sub. There have been other games too.

He’s about 100 minutes behind Grealish for playing time this season. He’ll probably end up with 1200 minutes by the end of the season if we have a decent fa cup run which is roughly what Foden, Rico and Bobb clocked up in their first season with the first team.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

They'll jump on him, if there's any truth to this.