You throw us a late bloomer, I'll throw a Luke Chadwick and Francis Jeffers.
+ Ricky Lambert has always got in the team wherever he has been - He has come prominence as he continued to score goals as southampton moved upwards. This is different to MA who at 24 years of age hasn't managed to be a first team regular.
Lambert joined Southampton at 28.
Before that he played for the likes of Rochdale and Stockport. Can you tell me that when Lambert was the same age as Marc (at Stockport) you watched enough lower league football to say he showed more promise than Albrighton?
I'm not saying he will be as good a player as Lambert, and I'm not saying he won't. I can't see how you can write him off when he wasn't given a chance last year due to injury, the season before no attacking player in the team had a good year (due to tactics) and the season before that he played brilliantly.