Brandon Barker

[Neville Kneville]

What's happening with this lad next season? Not heard anything about him rumour-wise. Will he be loaned out again or sold?

We're using him as an example to get kids like Sancho to sign up.

Not.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

We're using him as an example to get kids like Sancho to sign up.

Not.

What would you have the club do? Stick a kid who was never remotely good enough in the first team? The bar at City is higher than just about any other club in the world. Heck, Solanke, who was the best forward I've seen in years at Youth Team level, couldn't get a sniff at Chelsea, so why would you expect first team football at City for Barker? Sancho and Diaz are the most likely breakthrough players we've produced since Sturridge, but they're barely 17 and lightweight almost by definition. They'll get their chance in due course, hopefully this season, but if they want instant stardom and acclaim then they're probably at the wrong club

 

[Cobra]

Barker was definitely good enough for the EDS in the 14/15 season to be given a few minutes off the bench for the first team, but he wasn't and since then his career seems to have regressed. He'll be 21 soon so you'd have to think he'll be sold, hopefully he can rebuild his career in the lower leagues.

 

[FantasyIreland]

We're using him as an example to get kids like Sancho to sign up.

Not.

That really is a daft statement.

Perhaps if Brandon was anywhere near the level required,or if his attitude wasnt one of someone who didnt really give a shit,then perhaps he may have been such an example,and just like kids such as Foden and Diaz.....he would be on the preseason tour with the first team.

The only way Brandon is going to realise that early potential is by sorting his head out and knuckling down,something i'm not sure his character will allow.

 

[Neville Kneville]

What would you have the club do? Stick a kid who was never remotely good enough in the first team? The bar at City is higher than just about any other club in the world. Heck, Solanke, who was the best forward I've seen in years at Youth Team level, couldn't get a sniff at Chelsea, so why would you expect first team football at City for Barker? Sancho and Diaz are the most likely breakthrough players we've produced since Sturridge, but they're barely 17 and lightweight almost by definition. They'll get their chance in due course, hopefully this season, but if they want instant stardom and acclaim then they're probably at the wrong club

The bar at City shouldn't be higher. It should have a reputation for giving kids an opportunity with wonderful players alongside, not ignoring them & buying average players to fill out the squad.

I would have played about ten more of them on different occasions, in the last 3 or 4 seasons. Even if it's only for 5 mins. But it's SO important to give Demichelis a run out, or Nasri hasn't played for 2 months even though his attitude stinks & needs the fitness, Kolarov looks angry, ooh look it's Bony, etc etc etc. Fuck them.

People always think it's dead simple, that kids can motivate themselves. They can't. And most top kids in any walk of life, cannot stay at one level when they are tearing it up. They either go up one or it's all over. A few manage, like Ian Wright, to keep the passion & come through later after all the fucking no marks maquerading as football managers have missed them. But most don't.

The fucking idiots on here see that failure as almost a badge of honour 'see, I was right'.

You ONLY learn about these kids by playing them. In Barker's last game, he attacked the Chelsea fullback exactly how anyone would have wanted & was causing big problems, so what happens? That **** Kolarov steps forward & pushes Barker back to pick up loose balls when he fucks up.

Ending with Barker sprinting back 70 yards to try & stop a Chelsea break which the half arsed senior players couldn't give a flying fuck about. Then, unbelievably, there were utter fucking WANKERS on here, slagging Barkef off for not trying.

The poor excuse for a manager, saw Barker attacking the fullback & unlike City managers of the past, who would see that as a possible weapon late in games, instead of rewarding a bit of flair & pace, he was sent back to the City equivalent of a South American labour camp & never seen again.

It doesn't matter if these kids become Aguero.

Some would likely have become useful squad players. The results would be no worse maybe even better by giving them a few more minutes here & there & City"s reputation for bringing through kids would be Sky high.

A kid like Sancho would be thinking 'I've got a chance here'.

 

[Neville Kneville]

That really is a daft statement.

Perhaps if Brandon was anywhere near the level required,or if his attitude wasnt one of someone who didnt really give a shit,then perhaps he may have been such an example,and just like kids such as Foden and Diaz.....he would be on the preseason tour with the first team.

The only way Brandon is going to realise that early potential is by sorting his head out and knuckling down,something i'm not sure his character will allow.

Brandon was at the level required for a late sub, a whole year before he reached that position of watching inferior others play instead of him.

If his attitude was so bad, what the fuck was he doing on the subs bench ?

All bullshit to excuse disasterous managment.

 

[Cobra]

The bar at City is higher than just about any other club in the world.

Is it? Because I could have sworn that in the past few years I have seen the likes of Clichy, Navas, Bony, Bravo, Demichelis, Mangala, Nolito, Kolarov, Delph & Fernando put in countless terrible performances for us. Jesus Navas can play 183 games for us, but heaven forbid we give Brandon Barker 15 minutes off the bench.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Is it? Because I could have sworn that in the past few years I have seen the likes of Clichy, Navas, Bony, Bravo, Demichelis, Mangala, Nolito, Kolarov, Delph & Fernando put in countless terrible performances for us. Jesus Navas can play 183 games for us, but heaven forbid we give Brandon Barker 15 minutes off the bench.

We have spent much of the last few years trying to cement our relatively recently acquired status as a top four club. With FFP hanging over us and the media ready to undermine us on behalf of the old Sky 4 at every opportunity, gambling on untried homegrown youngsters hasn't really been much of an option for us. The only side at the top that has really, has been the rags, and even then their use of youngsters has been spasmodic. Rashford got a chance ONLY because literally every other striker at the club happened to be injured and other than that Mensah and Borthwick-Jackson are the only others I can think of to have been afforded the odd appearance, and even then one has to consider that the rags have long geared their youth set up to churning out large and athletic specimens able to make the step up physically.

That notwithstanding, the rags also have the inbuilt luxury of it not mattering a toss if they miss out on the Chimps League, because as they have demonstrated with Pogba and Lukaku, their fanbase and finances are so infinitely large that they can still go out and spend grotesque sums of money on whomever they want. As to other rivals, Spurs have brought Kane, another very robust physical specimen, through, but that's about it, Chelsea, despite having had the best youth team set up in the country for the better part of a decade, have given no-one a proper chance, and the dippers, who've won fuck all, have only done so in nothing Capital One contests away at places like Exeter and Northampton.
That, along with the fact that Barker, and I cannot stress this enough for those deluded enough to regard him as some Messi-esque undiscovered diamond, was neither talented enough nor mentally strong enough, to warrant a first team opportunity, is reality. It's far easier for players to progress to the first team at places like Southampton and Leicester than it ever will be at City and Chelsea, but it'll be the latter two clubs that contest all the trophies.

As to the 'crap' players you list that our kids could/should have gotten the nod over, there's one or two I might concur with. I hated Nolito with his stupid hunched demeanour and phenomenal lack of pace, and Bony, who's hardly played anyway, was simply ill-suited to our style of play, but as to the others, Kolarov and Clichy are experienced professionals with a welter of medals to prove it and whatever their faults it's only in the last 18 months that the latter went completely to rat shit (and even then would you really have selected Angelino over him? I wouldn't), Navas, despite his dire crossing and lack of goals, was an incredibly useful asset for us, who could be relied upon to keep possession superbly, and I would have selected him over Barker 100 times out of 100, I'd be interested to know which youth team centre half might have done a better job than Dimichelis, Delph has been almost permanently injured and Alex Garcia was afforded plenty of starts when Fernando was fit.

Sancho, Diaz, Foden and even maybe Nmecha and Buckley-Ricketts should buck the trend over the next couple of years - even though 3 of them are still not ready physically IMO - because they are genuinely, genuinely talented individuals with a skill set commensurate with that expected of one of the best clubs in Europe, but the constant clamour for their inclusion in the first team does no-one any favours. I accept the premise that the odd appearance is necessary pour encourager les autres, but for me City are rightly nurturing their best youngsters slowly and attempting to manage expectation.

 

[BigOscar]

Compare him to Rony Lopes, who can feel far more aggrieved at not getting a proper chance, he readily went away, worked hard, stayed positive and has nothing but good things to say about City and about how he wants to work hard and get back here someday. Or Celina, who again did all he could with his chance but got farmed out and all he can do is talk about how he's going to make it here, even if he has to leave and come back. Brandon gets one loan move that doesn't work out and he falls apart. If you're going to become a top footballer you need to be a hell of a lot more resilient than that, you can't just give up at the first sign of adversity.

It's a huge shame as he has all the ability in the world, I thought he could be out Arjen Robben, he just doesn't look to have enough fight in him.

 

[Cobra]

We have spent much of the last few years trying to cement our relatively recently acquired status as a top four club. With FFP hanging over us and the media ready to undermine us on behalf of the old Sky 4 at every opportunity, gambling on untried homegrown youngsters hasn't really been much of an option for us.

People seem obsessed with it being a ‘gamble’ to give a youth player a chance, as if we’re suggesting that we should be starting 4 Academy players away at Utd or something. There are so many example where we could have given a youngster a chance but chose not to. Are you telling me that we couldn’t have stuck Byrne or Barker on the bench for this match and given them 30 minutes - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/32571671. How about George Evans only being given 1 minute in the League Cup game vs Sunderland when we were 4-0 up at half time? Or Pellegrini bringing on Sinclair instead of Ambrose vs Palace? Diaz scored a hat-trick for the EDS vs Chelsea in Feb – our next match was the Cup replay vs Huddersfield and guess what, Diaz was nowhere to be seen. We did bring Navas on when we were 4-1 up though.

And Barker was very good for the EDS in 14/15 and deserved a chance, what’s happened to him since doesn’t change that fact.

Utd have given a lot more players than that a chance by the way – Love, Blackett, McNair, Wilson, Perreira, Varela, Janujaz etc.