19 Sep 2021 09:10:15
Wad good to see Summerville get a game against Newcastle. Indicates that Bielsa is ready to trust him with the next stage I his development. Looking forward to seeing more of the lad in the coming games (although hopefully not at Raphinha's expense)
19 Sep 2021 11:53:02
With you on that one alf, he has been getting a lot of rave reviews for the U23s and its great to see that Bielsa does have this process of blooding the youngsters and seeing how they react to "proper" football.
He has already bloodied Struick, Huggins, Davis, Stevens and Gotts and it looks like Struik had the right temperament for the next level. Hopefully, after spending more on the next tranche of youngsters, we have a greater percentage of players who can cope with the next level. I am thinking of Drameh, Cresswell, Gelhardt and Greenwood. I am not so naive as to think they will all make it however a 50% success rate would be fantastic for the club.
19 Sep 2021 13:17:18
The more recent tranche of external recruits have all been brought in with Bielsa’s stamp of approval, presumably because he agreed they appeared to have a range of attributes suited to Bielsaball, the rigours and detail of which they will have been learning from day one. Those factors would seem to make it likely that the success rate will be significantly higher than for the previous tranche. That rate is likely to be lower for those who were already younger members of the u23s when Bielsa arrived, or who have moved up to the u23s subsequently, as those lads had not been specifically chosen for Bielsaball. However, they will have had significantly more development within this system than those who’ve gone before them, so even they should stand a greater chance of making the grade.
As you say though, it would be naive to believe that all of even the recent external recruits to the u23s will progress to the first team squad. I have a feeling it could be higher than 50% though. Even those who don’t make the grade should move on at a reasonable profit, given the relatively modest outlay on each of their transfer fees.