Rony Lopes

[Neville Kneville]

With the exception of Real where he didn't get a chance - and he still tried.

He wanted to play Negredo - but Perez bought Benzema and then Ronaldo, which meant there was absolutely no room for him. He did bring through Marcelo, who was 21 at the time, and very much a fringe player, made him a starter. And he brought Ezekiel Garay (21 at the time) back from loan and made him a regular player.

His youth record is fantastic. A couple of season here when no academy players were ready to play in the senior team doesn't change that.

'Youth' is not 22/23 year olds.

On 18 May 2008 Racing sold Garay to Real Madrid, but received the player again on a season-long loan.

Marcelo made his debut as a substitute in the 2–0 defeat against Deportivo La Coruña on 7 January 2007. On 14 April 2007, then coach Fabio Capello gave Marcelo his first start for Real Madrid against Racing de Santander.

In the 2007–08 season, Marcelo had started nearly all of Madrid's league games under the new manager Bernd Schuster. His ability, speed running across the field, attack, and defence had enabled him to become a very important player for Real Madrid.

 

[g180aj]

Khaldoon said in his interview that there would be no compromise on the first team, a young player will only play if he can improve the starting 11, is lopes better than nasri or silva ?

Answer NO

Even though I'm no nasri fan.

If the so called big players are fit they will always start above the youngsters.

Personally I'd like to see them blooded and would love to see denayer lopes and keletchi start at WBA in place of Mangala bony and nasri.

The problem is you are still referring to Nasri as a starting 11 player and at this moment in time I wouldn't put him in our strongest 11 ( personally I'd put Rony in that ahead of Nasri anyway) and then if we add Pogba and big Kev where does that leave him!

The other point is Nasri could be sacrificed in order to get Pogba and his place would need filling in the squad.

 

[domalino]

'Youth' is not 22/23 year olds.

On 18 May 2008 Racing sold Garay to Real Madrid, but received the player again on a season-long loan.

Marcelo made his debut as a substitute in the 2–0 defeat against Deportivo La Coruña on 7 January 2007. On 14 April 2007, then coach Fabio Capello gave Marcelo his first start for Real Madrid against Racing de Santander.

In the 2007–08 season, Marcelo had started nearly all of Madrid's league games under the new manager Bernd Schuster. His ability, speed running across the field, attack, and defence had enabled him to become a very important player for Real Madrid.

Under the next head coach Manuel Pellegrini, Marcelo consistently featured in the starting XI for his versatility and pace along the left flank in offensive and defensive roles. He continued to be employed as a left-winger under Pellegrini, and reached the top of the assist charts of La Liga in the 2009–10 season. He admitted in a press conference at the end of 2009, "I now feel better playing as a winger."[11] His successful performance in Madrid's 2009–10 campaign earned him a contract extension on 5 February 2010 with the club until June 2015.[12] This season proved to be his break-through season at the club.

21/22 year olds are youth. Especially at clubs with the starting quality of Real Madrid or ourselves. That is the key difference between top clubs and the rest. 17 year olds don't break into great teams - there are no 17 year olds who can compete with world class players. But by 20/21 they can manage it if they are good enough.

 

[kunaguero10]

Who gave him his debut? Rony has a massive future at the club he won't be getting sold anytime soon!

Mancini.

 

[kunaguero10]

Khaldoon said in his interview that there would be no compromise on the first team, a young player will only play if he can improve the starting 11, is lopes better than nasri or silva ?

Naïve from Khaldoon. Very few youth players will improve their starting 11 at any club - by their very definition as they play for an inferior side within the club.

In his words, sometimes you have to 'take a pinch', this time in the form of a bit of extra risk in the short term, in order to reap the rewards of these excellent prospects in the long term.

When we are 3-0 up v Crystal Palace does the player need to be an improvement on the player he is being substituted on for? Was Scott Sinclair better? No, that was shite.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Under the next head coach Manuel Pellegrini, Marcelo consistently featured in the starting XI for his versatility and pace along the left flank in offensive and defensive roles. He continued to be employed as a left-winger under Pellegrini, and reached the top of the assist charts of La Liga in the 2009–10 season. He admitted in a press conference at the end of 2009, "I now feel better playing as a winger."[11] His successful performance in Madrid's 2009–10 campaign earned him a contract extension on 5 February 2010 with the club until June 2015.[12] This season proved to be his break-through season at the club.

21/22 year olds are youth. Especially at clubs with the starting quality of Real Madrid or ourselves. That is the key difference between top clubs and the rest. 17 year olds don't break into great teams - there are no 17 year olds who can compete with world class players. But by 20/21 they can manage it if they are good enough.

Nobody has mentioned 'breaking into' great teams. It's getting some time on the pitch which is important imo, so that you are ready to 'break into' the squad as a trusted player, rather than the team, when the time comes.

Have a look at the age rags & Arsenal are starting their kids off. And how old they used to be when City started them. Or how old Sterling was.

I don't know for a fact, but I recon it's nailed on that City & Chelsea are two of the worst teams in Europe for giving kids first team experience, in recent years. Because basically, we don't.

 

[SuperBlu]

I disagree yes he needs game time but he doesn't need burning out! More importantly he needs to be around the world class players in our squad learning!

If you keep Sinclair with world class players he will not end up being Arjen Robben.

Hazard become one of the best players because he was playing regularly when he was 18 years old, the same thing apply for Sterling , Rooney ....etc

 

[bugsyblue]

Under the next head coach Manuel Pellegrini, Marcelo consistently featured in the starting XI for his versatility and pace along the left flank in offensive and defensive roles. He continued to be employed as a left-winger under Pellegrini, and reached the top of the assist charts of La Liga in the 2009–10 season. He admitted in a press conference at the end of 2009, "I now feel better playing as a winger."[11] His successful performance in Madrid's 2009–10 campaign earned him a contract extension on 5 February 2010 with the club until June 2015.[12] This season proved to be his break-through season at the club.

21/22 year olds are youth. Especially at clubs with the starting quality of Real Madrid or ourselves. That is the key difference between top clubs and the rest. 17 year olds don't break into great teams - there are no 17 year olds who can compete with world class players. But by 20/21 they can manage it if they are good enough.

Fabregas, Messi, Aguero were all first team players at big clubs when they were 17,18, 19. Obviously they are fantastic talents so an exception to the rule. However I would agree with Neville that once they are over 21 they can't be classed as youth.

 

[aguero93:20]

Even then Pozo was still a goal line clearance from bagging a debut goal.

Not sure about Pellegrini's record with youth though to be honest, exceptional talents like Isco, Cazorla and Godin don't disprove the counter argument much, IMO. He'd be an absolute fool to not utilise talents like that.

Suppose we'll see what will happen in the coming months though, Denayer should definitely be getting some minutes as far as I'm concerned.

He'd also be an absolute fool to keep throwing youth players in regardless of whether they're ready or not, it's a balancing act. He has 3 now, arguably 4 including Manu Garcia, who look ready to be in and around the first team, let's see how much he uses them before getting the pitchforks out.

 

[twosips]

Nobody has mentioned 'breaking into' great teams. It's getting some time on the pitch which is important imo, so that you are ready to 'break into' the squad as a trusted player, rather than the team, when the time comes.

Have a look at the age rags & Arsenal are starting their kids off. And how old they used to be when City started them. Or how old Sterling was.

I don't know for a fact, but I recon it's nailed on that City & Chelsea are two of the worst teams in Europe for giving kids first team experience, in recent years. Because basically, we don't.

100%.

Guarantee you that if Barker, Maffeo, Angelino, Gunn, Bryan, Celina, Pozo, Ambrose, Evans, Ntcham etc were United or Arsenal players they would have had five games each at least by now at United or Arsenal, some maybe with more, because they give kids a go in cup runs and use them as the odd impact sub. Call that step 'A'. This obviously then starts to slowly prepare them for the age of 20 when they start to get 10-15 appearances as a squad player (step 'B') and then they usually leap up around 21-22 to becoming proper first team regular members getting 30+ games. Step 'C' if you like. But you can't get to 'C' if there isn't A & B first. You have to gradually ease them in.

Even arguably the greatest player ever did similar. Messi at Barca

2004–05 La Liga - 7 appearances
2005–06 17
2006–07 26

etc etc...

John Terry... 1st season 2...then 4, then 22, then 33.

As it stands, talented players like Barker etc will get to 20 and have 0. Thus meaning they have to suddenly leap to being good enough for 30 plus games, or we risk letting them go stale by the age of 21/22 and halt their progression.