Lopes played 23 league games in his first season for Lille, he would have played more but he suffered a few injuries.
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Edward Francis
- Thread starter headtheball
- Start date
Lopes played 23 league games in his first season for Lille, he would have played more but he suffered a few injuries.
Centurions
Well-Known Member
Lopes plays for Monaco and has done very well. Players have to develop and that’s what he was doing in Lille.
He's doing well now after nearly 4 years away, are you agreeing that we did the correct thing in selling him to develop elsewhere then?
Can’t be arsed digging out the Jason Sancho quotes but there was a few along the lines he’s more trouble than he’s worth.
Not
then?A number of posters said Jason Sancho would amount to nothing
Do you think it’s great that our Acadeny hasn’t delivered a first team player yet. I know the completion for places is very intense.
Phil Foden says Hi.
Tim of the Oak
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He's doing well now after nearly 4 years away, are you agreeing that we did the correct thing in selling him to develop elsewhere then?
Not then?
Phil Foden says Hi.
You calling Phil Foden a first teaser when he didn’t start at Leicester when we had most of our midfield out. I am excited by Phil’s prospects but he is a fringe squad player.
Lopes has being playing well for a good couple of years.
You seem to accept poor results from the Academy
Nelly's Left Foot
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IMO Lopes was nearly good enough to make it with us but not quite. A bit like Dennis Suarez. Diaz might be a bit closer to good enough but something over the last year has made me think another one not quite there. Maybe wrong but only time will tell.
Sancho is something else altogether. I always thought he was special and we have made a mistake. I agree with TS re Francis. No doubt a decent player but not good enough for a top side and I don't even think prem level. I wish him well ( especially as he is a big City fan). He will start with the under 23's so their management can have a good look at him but my gut says he won't get there at Wolves.
Sancho is something else altogether. I always thought he was special and we have made a mistake. I agree with TS re Francis. No doubt a decent player but not good enough for a top side and I don't even think prem level. I wish him well ( especially as he is a big City fan). He will start with the under 23's so their management can have a good look at him but my gut says he won't get there at Wolves.
cleavers
Moderator
Another thread in the Academy forum that forgets we are aiming to be top dog in europe (world), and they expect every tom dick or edward to be playing in the first team at 18/19/20.
In reality there is no chance of that, and to describe Foden as a "fringe" player in our midfield, a midfield that has Fernandhino, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, and KdB in it ahead of him. The same 18 1/2 year old Foden that has somehow played in 17 out of our 35 games this season, and has scored 3 of our 99 goals in that same squad.
In reality there is no chance of that, and to describe Foden as a "fringe" player in our midfield, a midfield that has Fernandhino, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, and KdB in it ahead of him. The same 18 1/2 year old Foden that has somehow played in 17 out of our 35 games this season, and has scored 3 of our 99 goals in that same squad.
Another thread in the Academy forum that forgets we are aiming to be top dog in europe (world), and they expect every tom dick or edward to be playing in the first team at 18/19/20.
No, what people expect is our promising youngsters to occasionally be given chances in the first team. As it stands we’ve had one academy player start a Premier League game in the past 6 years, and even then it was due to a massive injury crisis and he was played out of position. And fwiw I don’t include Francis in that as I don’t think he’s anywhere near good enough.
And whilst we may want to be the best team in the world, there’s a real possibility that by the end of this season we’ll have won just 1 of the past 5 league titles. So it’s not like you can even say we’ve been justified in continually overlooking the academy with all the trophies we’ve won.
I think we have to accept that people see the Academy role differently, otherwise, the forum ends up with the same arguments cropping up for every single academy player, especially those who move on.
I have been a City fan since I was born in Moss Side in 1968. As a fan who is not used to success, any success is an incredible bonus to me; I will always be a fan, regardless of results. As a consequence, I like the idea of bringing Academy players into the fold and there are very few things I would like more than a local lad making it into the highest echelons of the European game, which is where we are now. In fact, I would be happy for the club to integrate more young players even if it meant that we were not so successful in all competitions, perhaps focussing the cup competitions on blooding 3-4 young players in every match, or certainly having one academy player on the bench and taking part in each PL game for more than the typical five to ten minutes.
Conversely, the board have said that they will not compromise the quality of the first team at any cost. This is at odds with my own opinion, but I have absolute respect for the board as they have given me a quality of football that I never believed I would see, and a quality of facility that is beyond anything I experienced before the takeover. They have an absolute right to direct the club in the way that they wish.
The club philosophy, therefore, demands that only the young players that they believe do not compromise on first team quality will be given a chance. I suspect we are therefore talking about a maximum of one to two at each age group. That means a lot of young players leaving us, and we have to accept it. We will make good money from them because they are generally of very high quality, just not quite good enough for us. We will also make some mistakes on the way and the media will crucify us for every one of those because it is valuable click bait driven by worldwide United support.
Of those coming through, obviously, Foden will make it. Behind him, we have some real quality in Garcia, Doyle and Nmecha where, I suspect others like Richards, who has quality, will not wait for his chance, and it may not come anyway.
I have been a City fan since I was born in Moss Side in 1968. As a fan who is not used to success, any success is an incredible bonus to me; I will always be a fan, regardless of results. As a consequence, I like the idea of bringing Academy players into the fold and there are very few things I would like more than a local lad making it into the highest echelons of the European game, which is where we are now. In fact, I would be happy for the club to integrate more young players even if it meant that we were not so successful in all competitions, perhaps focussing the cup competitions on blooding 3-4 young players in every match, or certainly having one academy player on the bench and taking part in each PL game for more than the typical five to ten minutes.
Conversely, the board have said that they will not compromise the quality of the first team at any cost. This is at odds with my own opinion, but I have absolute respect for the board as they have given me a quality of football that I never believed I would see, and a quality of facility that is beyond anything I experienced before the takeover. They have an absolute right to direct the club in the way that they wish.
The club philosophy, therefore, demands that only the young players that they believe do not compromise on first team quality will be given a chance. I suspect we are therefore talking about a maximum of one to two at each age group. That means a lot of young players leaving us, and we have to accept it. We will make good money from them because they are generally of very high quality, just not quite good enough for us. We will also make some mistakes on the way and the media will crucify us for every one of those because it is valuable click bait driven by worldwide United support.
Of those coming through, obviously, Foden will make it. Behind him, we have some real quality in Garcia, Doyle and Nmecha where, I suspect others like Richards, who has quality, will not wait for his chance, and it may not come anyway.
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Centurions
Well-Known Member
No, Lopes played well last season, he's barely featured this due to injuries and you can't just assume he'll have a 2nd good season.You calling Phil Foden a first teaser when he didn’t start at Leicester when we had most of our midfield out. I am excited by Phil’s prospects but he is a fringe squad player.
Lopes has being playing well for a good couple of years.
You seem to accept poor results from the Academy
You seem determined to write the academy off. You started out by comparing Francis to a talent like Sancho and when you were firmly put back in your box you just brought up a random former player as an example to try and prove you were correct all along.
Tim of the Oak
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No, Lopes played well last season, he's barely featured this due to injuries and you can't just assume he'll have a 2nd good season.
You seem determined to write the academy off. You started out by comparing Francis to a talent like Sancho and when you were firmly put back in your box you just brought up a random former player as an example to try and prove you were correct all along.
I’m not writing the Academy off. It had performed fine commercially but it is currently failing in its main objective of developing the players ready for the first team. Hopefully, Phil Foden breaks the mould
blueyorkie
Well-Known Member
Good luck to Ed, he & his family sit behind us at the Etihad, he was there last week ironically against Wolves, a really nice lad from a lovely family, hope he does well in the future