New Signing ?

What about the happy chap from the open day?

 

Fair point.

I think those two did have the signatures sorted.

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I've not posted much but I've seen a few names mentioned. Yet again I don't understand the rubbish about games played. It doesn't matter at all. Football's about raw ability and talent along with confidence. Games played is a negative quite often. I've tried to understand it and talked to people about this but I just can't.

I see someone mentioned Matt James. He's a prime example of why you don't get this experience rubbish. The first time he was good. More experienced the second time, played more games and he was awful. He was awful for Bristol a few months ago too and he's got more experience and games played than when he was at oakwell.

Give me a fresh youngster like Brownhill or Pearson than experienced Matt James rubbish any day of the week.

 

I never rated Matt James either. I did rate Morsy, Pearson, Drinkwater and Brownhill but they had their heads screwed on and wouldn't sign for us.

 

Disagree.
You are saying Brownhill and Pearson were better players in L1 for us, than they are now with their current clubs??
They aren't. We had them raw. Now they play with big Mr's pants on.

For every Brownhill, Fletcher, Pearson we have that are clearly going to cut the mustard, then I can show you 2 Ugbos, Kiwomyas, Cameron Parks, Dan Crawleys who were clearly not ready (then) for men's football.

A youngster is a gamble. Simple as.
Some you win, more you lose.

 

Nah, he called them fresh youngsters. They fit that description when they were with us. They are seasoned Pros now, playing at a decent level.

 

If you are saying older players aren't gambles than you are mistaken.

Look at the most expensive players in the world. Experience players most of the time. Awful mistakes too. Lukaku. 80/90/100 Million? mistakes. Ronaldo at Manchester united. whatever they paid for him plus wages. Barcelona spending on Griezmann and Coutinho plus others. Mistakes.

Barcelona is the prime example of it according to Gerrard Pique. Every time they've gone away from the la Masia and youth and spent big they have messed up. (from the overlap podcast with Neville.)

We have it with Connells post-match after the Forest game. His big positive was all the players are a similar age he said.

 

I'm talking about at Barnsley vs James.

 

Talent is obviously pretty important Higgy but when it's raw it's just potential and not refined or polished. Sometimes a very talented youngster can certainly compete with more experienced players and I think back to examples we've had in past years who have been able to do that e.g. Mick McCarthy and David Hirst who right from the off were good enough. But sometimes it's not enough because the stage of development reached isn't sufficient yet. My view is there are many more examples that illustrate that when thinking about youngsters we've seen in a Barnsley shirt in the past. Is it possible you're applying isolated examples to prove the rule when in reality they are more exceptions?

 

I agree that experience is often over rated as there are a lot of players out there that we have signed in the past or some who have signed for clubs in the league we are in now that have been signed simply because they have played lots of games or were good 5/6 years ago and in reality they are not that good.

The point you make about ability, talent and confidence is also one I agree with too. Often confidence in particular is so crucial to how a player performs, I know this from my own game too. I am by no means a pro far from it (I am pretty rubbish) but when I played at uni if I made a good save early on I knew I would probably have a good game as my confidence would lift. If one went in early doors then I knew most likely I would have a bad game etc.

However, you can often get players that a a little too fresh from these top clubs as we have seen many times before with us and other sides in the EFL who get young talents from top clubs and it is clearly too soon for them and they struggle. It is all a balancing act finding those with the skills required to thrive in the league and have an impact now. Ugbo is a prime example and someone I know you have mentioned a few times as people often bring his name up in replies to you. He certainly came to us too soon, had talent but just didn't have the nous or awareness to succeed at that time. Now he has more games under his belt and developed his game etc. he is a good striker and doing really well.

 

That's true. Ask a West Ham fan what they think of Paul Ince...

 

Strange if Connell said that, based on the spread of ages put out, but he is not far off I guess. We got a couple in this time that were a bit older than our usual modus operandi.

Ronaldo carried Man U single handedly. He's done so twice - aged 20 and aged 37. When you are that good, across multiple years, it is no wonder teams still want you.
Interesting about La Masia, but at the end of the day you have to put it into context mate. 'Messing up', at Barca's level, invariably means finishing in the top 3 domestically, and the CL many years on the bounce. Coutinho shone at Villa and Liverpool after a period at Barca where he just didn't fit (or play much). But class is permanent. Same for Griezmann (WC winner). Lukaku is harder to judge - a beast on his day, but simply didn't fit under Tuchel at Chelsea. And suffered for it. No reason why he won't be a main force again this year.

 

Who knows?

 

Finishing work in 20 minutes. I Expect the deal to be announced then

 

That's fine, I don't have an issue with it, and he's actually playing nice today.
I should be working.

 

I have read it all Archey & I think you sum it up perfectly well