Rico Lewis and Oscar bobb

[jimharri]

Your first response is silly, unless you’re saying you think they’re Fodenesque?!

Your second point goes for everyone, including Academy talent that has never seen the First XI.

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion. Some on here might say the same about your original post.

 

[BringBackSwales]

How long was that stoppage? Wonder how much he adds on

 

[ChicagoBlue]

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion. Some on here might say the same about your original post.

And yet many agree…go figure.

I try not to wear my blue-tinted specs.

 

[BringBackSwales]

Looking at the ball recovery stats on UEFA Bellingham hasn’t recovered a single fucking one

 

[jamielowndes]

I completely agree.
City isn’t, or hasn’t been, the place to cultivate youngsters in the first XI, with one glaring exception, whom Pep rates Messi-esque talent wise.

Tbf very few elite UCL contender teams are. You don't really have that luxury when you're chasing a title or a UCL every season. You need players now. So you let other teams do the work and pay them for it.

And Foden was introduced to the starting setup in 17/18. It took him until 2022 to really crack the line-up in a consistent way. So even for our biggest youth product, Pep really made him wait for it.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Looking at the ball recovery stats on UEFA Bellingham hasn’t recovered a single fucking one

Errr, is he Bobb-like or Lewis-like, and do you think he has a future at City?

;-)

 

[Beaker]

I think Rico at right back improves us.

Agreed, and having just watched Walker’s performance for England I think it’s time to let Rico play the right back role, stepping into midfield moving forwards.

 

[manimanc]

I predict NEITHER will be here in 24 months.

Bookmarked.

 

[Vienna_70]

Im torn on Rico. Pep seemed to love him and played him quite frequently but then towards the back end of the season he didn’t have a sniff. I personally think he is a bit slow in the recovery when we lose the ball. Bobb looked good in some games but quite poor in some too so the jury is out on him. I agree he needs more game time.

I can recall Pep saying that Rico has everything except experience.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I can recall Pep saying that Rico has everything except experience.

But we all know that's not really true, he's just praising a youngster who's done well. There's a noticeable drop off when he plays right back instead of Walker against anyone decent. He needs to improve his strength and hold-up play, because opposition attackers target him for pressing. But he's definitely got the talent to become good enough.

The reality is though that 99% of youth players will never make it, and of the 1% that do, 90% will never become good enough to regularly command a starting position. So it's actually a fairly safe bet with any youth player to say that they probably won't be playing for us in a few years. What we're basically asking is whether Lewis and Bobb are going to become amongst the best in the world in their position, because that's the only way they get to play for us. The other possibility is that they are happy to spend their career as a squad player, like Zinchenko was for a while, in which case, they will stay for a while. For the record, I think Bobb looks properly good, and Lewis looks like he could easily have a future as a utility player, if not a regular starter (but you never know).

Having said that, one of the main issues nowadays is that FFP incentivises teams to sell their youth players rather than keep them. Which kinda sums up how stupid the whole system is.