Taylor Harwood-Bellis - move to Southampton completed.

[doobyedoobye]

I love the prospect of Taylor and Garcia forming a formidable center back pairing in the future. That would be a fairy tale, I know, and many things must go right in order for that to happen, but I think they seem to compliment each other just perfectly.

The future is bright.
At least when you're a blue.

I hope they get decent loans over the next 3 years so their development continues at pace

 

[KCblue]

How great would it be to have a CB group of Stones, Laporte, THB, Garcia in a couple years...

 

[Thomas Hearns]

With the first team for pre-season? Amazing news if so. He's a fantastic prospect at CB.

For a 16 year old meeting the game’s best manager his body language and handshake seem remarkably self assured. Good sign I think, good luck to the lad.

 

[WallyA]

For a 16 year old meeting the game’s best manager his body language and handshake seem remarkably self assured. Good sign I think, good luck to the lad.

He's 17.

 

[TheBlueDune]

For a 16 year old meeting the game’s best manager his body language and handshake seem remarkably self assured. Good sign I think, good luck to the lad.

I bet Pep takes that all into account when judging young players - maturity and self-confidence while having humility and determination.
Playing ability can be taught and learned.
Being humble and mature is internal.

 

[FantasyIreland]

He's 17.

He is,but it makes no difference to the point made.

He's mature way beyond his years.

 

[WallyA]

He is,but it makes no difference to the point made.

He's mature way beyond his years.

He is very mature, I just want to correct the facts.

 

[bluealf]

I hope they get decent loans over the next 3 years so their development continues at pace

The trouble with this is finding a club that will play out at the back or it will render them useless when they return to City having spent 10 months hoofing the ball to the half way line.
Backwards step in fact, sometimes it is better to stay and train with world class players on a daily basis than go out to shitkicker land.

 

[doobyedoobye]

The trouble with this is finding a club that will play out at the back or it will render them useless when they return to City having spent 10 months hoofing the ball to the half way line.
Backwards step in fact, sometimes it is better to stay and train with world class players on a daily basis than go out to shitkicker land.

I'm not sure the modern young player is that patient in terms of first team action though

 

[domalino]

The trouble with this is finding a club that will play out at the back or it will render them useless when they return to City having spent 10 months hoofing the ball to the half way line.
Backwards step in fact, sometimes it is better to stay and train with world class players on a daily basis than go out to shitkicker land.

They don't need to go on loans to sides that play just like us. Loans can be for developing weak parts of your game, and if Eric Garcia goes to some championship version of Burnley or someone similar for a year, he won't forget 12 years training from Barcelona and Man City, but he will learn some things he won't have picked up about more traditional backs-to-the-wall defending, he'll learn about playing in high stakes games in front of big crowds.

And then he'll come back a more rounded defender.

Loans at budget copies of City can be useful, but if you only loan players to Celtic, they're guaranteed to win 90% of games in a dominant team and there's a lot of development they don't really get.