BillyShears said:
Giving a player a singular appearance does not in my book constitue bringing a player through.
There's an argument in this. Don't forget that we are working at a much higher level than ever before, and the cost of failure is much personally higher for any manager that we've had in the last 20 years. Football is as such now whereby you don't just throw youngsters out there and see if they sink or swim any more; this is stupid development. Firstly, you can wreck a player's confidence, you can wreck the confidence of the team mates in the player and you can wreck your plan to win the game. At the level we operate on now, we can't afford passengers.
However, the double edged sword is that if you think like this, you'll never bring anyone through.
To be honest, when Mancini first came in, he needed to make a statement to the fans, the board and especially to the players. So, instead of playing someone out of position in the centre of defence, he gave Boyata his debut in the Derby and told him to mark an in-form Rooney. That told every young player in the squad that if you're good enough, he'll put you in the game.
This aside, you can't just give every player a baptism of fire. I'm not sure what you're suggesting, that we should have dropped on of our £30m strikers to play John Guidetti? There's no proof that John Guidetti is good enough to play at this level. People criticise Jo because it's become a bit of a meme. At the end of the day, Jo is a well liked character who keeps his mouth shut and does his job. Couple of goals against Salzburg and Juve and a few assists this year in the cups; nothing special or anything but he's played pretty much all over the field in a time when he was needed. He always starts in the games that the youth players play in anyway, so it isn't like he's taking somebody's place. The people who are suggesting that Guidetti should have filled the specific role that Jo did have either never seen Guidetti play or never seen Jo play. Jo is a player who sits back and brings down the ball, then passes it to a man, Guidetti isn't.
I think that you need to be clearer on what exactly is "brought through". How many appearances counts? Mancini has shown a willingness to put youth on the pitch so that they can have the opportunity to showcase themselves. So far, only Boyata has made the leap to regular, but to be fair after looking through that list and thinking back, there's only really Razak who I thought looked like he belonged on the same field as the first 11, so it's not like he can pick inferior players.
I take your point about Boyata - I didn't realize he'd played quite so many times post Arsenal.
You know me well enough to know that I couldn't give a toss whether you or anyone else thinks I'm showing myself up. Everyone on this board, you included, does it from time to time. My opinions of Mancini may be extreme in your eyes, but there's enough who agree with them for me to not feel like the leper some of the Mancini trolls would like me to feel like...
My entire problem, is that you aren't looking at this the right way. You already have an opinion and you're looking for things to support your case, rather than looking at things and forming an opinion over them. And you're smart enough to know that just because one or two share your outlandish views, it doesn't mean that they are any more valid.