Ross Barkley

[jimbopm]

Meyer's biggest weakness is Barkley's biggest strength. And the one thing which will set him apart on the PL. Power. Allied with excellent technical ability he's the prototype PL midfield player.

Meyer may well turn out to be a good player, but Barkley is already proving to be better and he's doing it in the PL. We get far too wrapped up in the cost of players. He's either good enough or not, and if he is whether he costs 30 million or 60 million should be irrelevant to us as supporters.

But it does matter though doesn't it? We have a spending cap, are you really advocating spending that much of our budget on a player who may or may not be (i'd say the odds will be stacked in favour of the latter) the best midfielder in England?

They were saying the same about Wilshere 3 years ago.

If people don't rate the player fair enough. However at some point we are going to have to sign some English players unless we expect the academy to produce 5/6 who are good enough to play at the highest level in the next two years. I'd rather we bought someone like Barkley (or Shaw), than ending filling the squad with shite like Sinclair just to make up the quotas.

Again, I would argue that it is precisely the plan for the academy to start producing maybe not 5/6 as you put it, but certainly 3/4 quality home grown players to groom for the first team.

Signing Barkley would not give us a better reputation, we're bound to pay a fortune for him and the media will just run with a storyline akin to us scooping up young British talent because we can't nurture our own. The media want us to go down this route because they can start having a dig at our academy failing.

 

[Bill]

Miss this lad at our peril.

as in go for him this window? Given the ffp constraints who would you sell, or would you not buy an expensive CB?

not sure how we could work it but I'd be thinking of giving Everton players rather than money, will still be costly but I think Martinez would prefer it rather than hard cash.
barry
rodwell
Sinclair.

and a few quid.

plus loan him back for season.

 

[Anonymous]

Again, I would argue that it is precisely the plan for the academy to start producing maybe not 5/6 as you put it, but certainly 3/4 quality home grown players to groom for the first team.

Signing Barkley would not give us a better reputation, we're bound to pay a fortune for him and the media will just run with a storyline akin to us scooping up young British talent because we can't nurture our own. The media want us to go down this route because they can start having a dig at our academy failing.

Don't agree. The plan might be to produce players, but you can't predict which ones will make the grade in the first team and which ones won't. Therefore ignoring the very real necessity for English players in the hope that your academy will see you through is short term thinking. Particularly as you're going to have to rush some of those players through just to fill quotas.

I don't agree about your take on the media either. Barkley's transfer fee will be seen as worth it. The comparisons to Rooney have already begun in the media and lad is going to be England's new golden boy from a footballing perspective. His commercial value alone makes any transfer fee value for money.

People looking for the academy to bare fruit in the next couple of years aren't being realistic. The drastic changes to coaching staff over the last few years means that it'll be at least four or five years before we really see it's worth. Young players need consistency to the quality of coaching they have and also to the type of coaching they have IMO. What excites me is the fact our younger age groups (under 12's, under 16's, etc) are performing to a very high level already. It's from age groups that far down that I think we'll see 3/4/5 players moving into the first team. When I look at the current EDS crop, with the exception of Lopes and Ambrose, I'm not sure any of them are good enough.

 

[andyhinch]

Again, I would argue that it is precisely the plan for the academy to start producing maybe not 5/6 as you put it, but certainly 3/4 quality home grown players to groom for the first team.

Signing Barkley would not give us a better reputation, we're bound to pay a fortune for him and the media will just run with a storyline akin to us scooping up young British talent because we can't nurture our own. The media want us to go down this route because they can start having a dig at our academy failing.

Don't agree. The plan might be to produce players, but you can't predict which ones will make the grade in the first team and which ones won't. Therefore ignoring the very real necessity for English players in the hope that your academy will see you through is short term thinking. Particularly as you're going to have to rush some of those players through just to fill quotas.

I don't agree about your take on the media either. Barkley's transfer fee will be seen as worth it. The comparisons to Rooney have already begun in the media and lad is going to be England's new golden boy from a footballing perspective. His commercial value alone makes any transfer fee value for money.

People looking for the academy to bare fruit in the next couple of years aren't being realistic. The drastic changes to coaching staff over the last few years means that it'll be at least four or five years before we really see it's worth. Young players need consistency to the quality of coaching they have and also to the type of coaching they have IMO. What excites me is the fact our younger age groups (under 12's, under 16's, etc) are performing to a very high level already. It's from age groups that far down that I think we'll see 3/4/5 players moving into the first team. When I look at the current EDS crop, with the exception of Lopes and Ambrose, I'm not sure any of them are good enough.

Mybe we've saved the money on the Cesc deal to pull this off, every cloud and all that.

 

[RandomJ]

Again, I would argue that it is precisely the plan for the academy to start producing maybe not 5/6 as you put it, but certainly 3/4 quality home grown players to groom for the first team.

Signing Barkley would not give us a better reputation, we're bound to pay a fortune for him and the media will just run with a storyline akin to us scooping up young British talent because we can't nurture our own. The media want us to go down this route because they can start having a dig at our academy failing.

Don't agree. The plan might be to produce players, but you can't predict which ones will make the grade in the first team and which ones won't. Therefore ignoring the very real necessity for English players in the hope that your academy will see you through is short term thinking. Particularly as you're going to have to rush some of those players through just to fill quotas.

I don't agree about your take on the media either. Barkley's transfer fee will be seen as worth it. The comparisons to Rooney have already begun in the media and lad is going to be England's new golden boy from a footballing perspective. His commercial value alone makes any transfer fee value for money.

People looking for the academy to bare fruit in the next couple of years aren't being realistic. The drastic changes to coaching staff over the last few years means that it'll be at least four or five years before we really see it's worth. Young players need consistency to the quality of coaching they have and also to the type of coaching they have IMO. What excites me is the fact our younger age groups (under 12's, under 16's, etc) are performing to a very high level already. It's from age groups that far down that I think we'll see 3/4/5 players moving into the first team. When I look at the current EDS crop, with the exception of Lopes and Ambrose, I'm not sure any of them are good enough.

Exactly. Our academy is probably about 10 years away from producing any real potential stars so in the meantime you need to buy up young talent when it's available. Barkley will be expensive with the English tax but he would more then pay for himself as you would get a player who will only keep getting better for at least the next 7-8 years. He has refused to extend his contract until after the world cup that tells you he wants out and I think he;s going to have a great tournament so his price will only keep going up. It's this summer or never really.

 

[LoveCity]

Exactly. Our academy is probably about 10 years away from producing any real potential stars so in the meantime you need to buy up young talent when it's available.

Really? Are you talking about academy players produced from the ages of 8-10 or any player in the academy? We already have several potential stars in the 16-21 age group, one of them being Lopes.

 

[BlueDejong]

Exactly. Our academy is probably about 10 years away from producing any real potential stars so in the meantime you need to buy up young talent when it's available.

Really? Are you talking about academy players produced from the ages of 8-10 or any player in the academy? We already have several potential stars in the 16-21 age group, one of them being Lopes.

Manu Garcia will be world best mid-fielder.

 

[nmc]

Miss this lad at our peril.

as in go for him this window? Given the ffp constraints who would you sell, or would you not buy an expensive CB?

not sure how we could work it but I'd be thinking of giving Everton players rather than money, will still be costly but I think Martinez would prefer it rather than hard cash.
barry
rodwell
Sinclair.

and a few quid.

plus loan him back for season.

We could always chuck in Milner aswell if he's hell bent on leaving.

 

[TueartsOHK]

Our problem is the bad press we've been given with English players. The media still rant on about Adam Johnson, Jack Rodwell and Sinclair - ignoring the fact that there were mitigating circumstances why all three never fulfilled their potential at City. Journalists are keen to emphasise these stories and young English players to a certain extent are nervous about coming to City as a result. But I think that Barkley would learn a lot playing alongside our midfield and if we invested that amount of money it wouldn't be to bench him.

 

[ped]

Again, I would argue that it is precisely the plan for the academy to start producing maybe not 5/6 as you put it, but certainly 3/4 quality home grown players to groom for the first team.

Signing Barkley would not give us a better reputation, we're bound to pay a fortune for him and the media will just run with a storyline akin to us scooping up young British talent because we can't nurture our own. The media want us to go down this route because they can start having a dig at our academy failing.

Don't agree. The plan might be to produce players, but you can't predict which ones will make the grade in the first team and which ones won't. Therefore ignoring the very real necessity for English players in the hope that your academy will see you through is short term thinking. Particularly as you're going to have to rush some of those players through just to fill quotas.

I don't agree about your take on the media either. Barkley's transfer fee will be seen as worth it. The comparisons to Rooney have already begun in the media and lad is going to be England's new golden boy from a footballing perspective. His commercial value alone makes any transfer fee value for money.

People looking for the academy to bare fruit in the next couple of years aren't being realistic. The drastic changes to coaching staff over the last few years means that it'll be at least four or five years before we really see it's worth. Young players need consistency to the quality of coaching they have and also to the type of coaching they have IMO. What excites me is the fact our younger age groups (under 12's, under 16's, etc) are performing to a very high level already. It's from age groups that far down that I think we'll see 3/4/5 players moving into the first team. When I look at the current EDS crop, with the exception of Lopes and Ambrose, I'm not sure any of them are good enough.

Exactly. Our academy is probably about 10 years away from producing any real potential stars so in the meantime you need to buy up young talent when it's available. Barkley will be expensive with the English tax but he would more then pay for himself as you would get a player who will only keep getting better for at least the next 7-8 years. He has refused to extend his contract until after the world cup that tells you he wants out and I think he;s going to have a great tournament so his price will only keep going up. It's this summer or never really.

we have some fantastic players,the floodgates will open,in the next 2/3 seasons