Neville Kneville
Well-Known Member
there are quite a few teams that play good football in the lower leagues though and dont just kick it long and every team isn't full of 6ft + huge players. brentford, leeds, reading, huddersfield all play pretty good passing football. i dont think the loans to holland are working tbh - the quality of football over there isn't great and theres almost no physical element to it and i dont think it prepares them at all for premier league football. its a tough one though and i understand what you mean, but i wouldn't say all lower league loans would be a waste of time.
You have mentioned a handful of clubs, most of whom would be very demanding of any loanee. They are not going to give someone like Diaz a bunch of games to adjust. He would have to hit the ground running immediately, or be benched, or even stuck in their reserve team. In the case of Brandon Barker for example, he did absolutely fine at a middling team & still got benched, which has even happened to Zinchenko in Holland tbf, he's barely put a foot wrong & been one of the best players when played, can't get on.
When kids have done everything asked of them, they have had no reward. Jack Byrne outperformed some big names over there & we sold him without even one first team game as reward. Denayer comes back from Glasgow one of the most rated kids in Europe & ends up working for Moyes two years later, again without even one first team game. Marcos Lopes did well in our team, did well on loan, sold. Playing every week in France. Not good enough to be a sub at City.
Those kids would each have five/ten games at the swamp as it's good for the club to promote your own players over signings whenever possible. One or two would probably be playing tonight.