They shouldn’t be playing any league games yet as they’re not ready. This isn’t fifa or football manager.
You're probably right, but we don't actually know if they are or not, as they haven't played. Conte doesn't believe they are, as he's not playing them. Seems a waste of their time to sit on the bench forever, at least in White's case. It takes him out of contention for U23 games.
Bowden’s nowhere near ready for the first team but White absolutely is, especially cameos off the bench. He’s also currently the best freekick taker at the club too… Until Eriksen and Bale return
If they're not ready, why wasn't White loaned in January, or for that matter Bowden loaned to a club higher in the pyramid (which wouldn't be difficult, you can't get lower than Oldham in the pyramid) What really makes it nonsensical is Conte has given Scarlett cameos off the bench this season, but the likes of White, Devine, Paskotsi, Lavinier and Bowden have all been spectators on the bench, even in games where Ali Dia could've come off the bench due to us being that far over the horizon by the 80th minute
I trust Conte’s judgement when it comes to players. He’s always going to play the best available players, he’s not going to give minutes out just for development. He sees these players in training everyday. You can’t just put a youngster on and give them minutes for the sake of it, especially when you’re fighting for a CL spot.
The experience of being with the senior squad and training with them could be more beneficial than playing games in league one or two?
That's the theory Poch had. Coincidentally, that's the reason Marcus Edwards, Noni Madueke, Samuel Shashoua, Keanan Bennetts, Reo Griffiths, Nya Kirby, Anthony Georgiou and a bunch of others all left between 2017-18 due to the complete lack of football they were getting Once a player turns 18 and is on a professional contract there needs to be a balance between training with the first team but getting no further than the bench and getting minutes on loan elsewhere, as for every Skipp who could be slowly dripfed into the team there's a Troy Parrott who needs a few loans to iron out some of their bad habits as much as there's a Kazaiah Sterling who it's clear isn't going to make it with us but getting some football in his legs will help him in the long run The problem with Poch is we managed to do none of those three options for a couple of years
I know we’ve spoke about this many times but I still don’t think the club did anything wrong with the above names. If you get a player who is good enough then they will get into the first team (Kane and Skipp being good examples)
The biggest issue with having players train with the squad for 2-3 years but never getting minutes is they often fail on both fronts, as they fail to be an asset for the team due to the lack of experience while also failing to be an asset for our bank balance as there's no reason for any club to be interested in them For example, we managed to get £8m for Alex Pritchard based on his loans at Swindon and Brentford given he played a handful of minutes for us, just as we got £12m for KWP based off his loan to Southampton and appear set to get at least £6m for Carter Vickers this summer On the other hand, there's a bunch of players we either saw leave for a pittance like Edwards, Vejlkovic or Bennetts, or we didn't make a penny on like Madueke, Shashoua or Georgiou, all because there was little to no reason for clubs to believe their development was at any level above academy standard
We definitely messed up in letting Edwards go for peanuts even if there is a 50% sell on clause, whilst the fact one of our best talents in Madueke felt there was no path to the first team shows you that we’ve had some real issues in getting players through. Both of these will likely leave their clubs within the next 12-18 months (Madueke possibly this summer) and chances are their combined fees will be around £50m. We messed up with KWP, Edwards and Madueke are at good European clubs challenging for their respective league titles and we’ve currently got players like White (and to a lesser extent, Scarlett) currently getting the KWP treatment now when they’re in desperate need of minutes. Not forgetting we’ve sent some decent prospects out on really **** loans that have done nothing for them. We need more Skipp-Norwich or Parrott-MK Dons loans, not John-Charlton or Clarke-QPR ones. The club needs to do better in this area. Not only are we missing out potential first team/ squad players but also missing out on financial windfalls.
Which debilitating affliction are we expecting to plague the squad this weekend? Black death? Ebola? Typhoid fever? Flu? Poisoned pasta?
I thought QArsenal had bird flu, given their losses to seagulls, eagles, cockerels, magpies and liver birds this season...