Patrick Roberts - signing confirmed 19/07

[Neville Kneville]

Why doesn't he get in the Fulham team? Have they got a good player in his position, or a manger who doesn't look at yoth so much or something? Or is he just not quite ready at 18? Just curious - not doubting the lad isvery talented

How many games did SWP get under Joe Royle ? Then I seem to remember Keegan picking people like Richard Dunne as a wingback. Then one day, he decided to attack, with SWP, Benarbia, Berkovic etc & we battered everybody.

Suxdenly the idea from City fans that SWP was too small & not ready physically, too much of a risk, disappeared. But until then it was a common argument from City fans & obviously the view of managers too.

It's a common trend in modern football imo. If it was 1976 about ten of our kids would have played for the first team by now & some would have come on in leaps & be regulars.

Teams/ managers are scared now & prefer big lads.

 

[BigOscar]

That whole "he's ready but the manager is too afraid to play him" line would make more sense in regards to Roberts if he hadn't been given 17 games for Fulham last year.(mainly as a sub) Obviously they wanted to try and integrate him into the first team but found he wasn't quite ready for what they needed from him at that time, so dropped him back down to the reserves for the second half of the season.

He is genuinely tiny, so it's not too surprising that they didn't play him week in week out in a relegation threatened team. He is a bit of a luxury player anyway, not exactly the type you'd really want playing in a backs to the wall effort like Fulham seemed to be in most weeks. He'll be far better suited to our type of team than one where he'll need to do a lot of defending

 

[Daz_Blue]

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/socc...gree-deal-for-fulhams-patrick-roberts-sources

5m up front

 

[ninjamonkey]

Exactly the type of homegrown player we should be signing. I'd much rather take 2/3 chances a season at £5million a time on the best 17/18 year olds around before they make a big name for themselves than wait 2 seasons and pay £20+million for a kid that still might not be good enough in the long run.

 

[Bootador]

Not featured much for Fulham (and wrongly so from what I've heard, lots of 10 min cameos) but I remember him making his debut from the bench against us the season before last and he gave Zaba a very difficult time so happy for us to bring him in.

 

[jpinblue]

Could be a great signing, looks promising.

He looks unbelievable in this

 

[jpinblue]

Is Patrick Roberts a better option than Sterling all together?

 

[kun]

Is Patrick Roberts a better option than Sterling all together?

No because Patrick Roberts only has a handful of 1st team appearances and isn't ready for the first team, whereas Sterling could slot right in and is exactly the type of player we need.

 

[southamptonblue]

Is Patrick Roberts a better option than Sterling all together?

At the moment one plays for England and one struggles to play for Fulham......will only know for sure in few years time.

 

[sam-caddick]

Kit Symons said he doesn't think he is physically ready for Championship football if I remember.

He is only 5 foot 5 and only just turned 18 and physically he does look like he will be a late developer.

I am very excited we have potentially got him.

He dribbles a bit like Messi but I can the Lopes comparisons.