Mattyp_avfc Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 West Brom (you know, them currently sat 4th in the league) signed Billy Jones at the age of 24, but that's not even my favourite one; they brought in Gareth McAuley at the age of 31. Thirty-one. Neither had kicked a ball in the Premiership until then and both would stroll into our team at the moment. THIS!! I'm happy to sign lower league players that Lambert thinks will improve us, Chester came through United's academy with Shawcross and usually they produce decent players.... even if he doesn't play that well for us we could sell him for around the money we would pay!! Also... Lowton came from L1 and well I'm a big fan of his, for me he's been one of our better players! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Young players with potential tend to have alreday moved on to better things before they are 24. If they havent there is a reason. If he's good enough for PL, I'm happy to sign him We'll be well up the table by January Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 West Brom (you know, them currently sat 4th in the league) signed Billy Jones at the age of 24, but that's not even my favourite one; they brought in Gareth McAuley at the age of 31. Thirty-one. Neither had kicked a ball in the Premiership until then and both would stroll into our team at the moment. That's because WBA have a far better squad than us so you can integrate the odd lower league player into it. Look at our defence for example, they have virtually no PL experience amongst them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 A (almost) whole team of lower league players will more than likelly bring lower league football, the odd 1 or 2 might work, not 5 or 6 along with what we had over from last season. Chester might be a good signing for the future, but that future is in risk of being in the Championship. Honest friendly question to Gareth: Did Billy Jones walk straight into the WBA starting 11 or did he have a settling in period? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I equate this to playing Russian Roullette with our Premiership survival. Some posters are clearly happy to play the game, I'm not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Young players with potential tend to have alreday moved on to better things before they are 24. If they havent there is a reason. Drogba, Ian Wright, Kevin Phillips didnt do too bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Drogba, Ian Wright, Kevin Phillips didnt do too bad Is that the Drogba who was a regular for the Ivory Coast, scored almost 20 goal in Ligue 1 and 5 in the champions League with Marseille and was player of the year the season before joining Chelsea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 If signing mainly lower league players is the right approach why are we the only club to be doing this? And why has no club achieved any sort of success doing this? Seems strange given how much money you save. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 That's because WBA have a far better squad than us so you can integrate the odd lower league player into it. Look at our defence for example, they have virtually no PL experience amongst them And of that "far better squad" how many of them had this coveted Premier League experience prior to signing for West Brom? Jonas Olsson? Signed from Holland, aged 25, no PL experience. Youssouf Mulumbu? Signed from France, aged 22, no PL experience. Claudio Yacob? Signed from Argentina, aged 24, no PL experience. Zoltán Gera? Signed from Hungary, aged 25, no PL experience. Peter Odemwingie? Signed from Russia, aged 28, no PL experience. Markus Rosenberg? Signed from Germany, aged 29, no PL experience. Gabriel Tamas? Signed from France, aged 25, no PL experience. Goran Popov? Signed from Ukraine, aged 27, no PL experience. In fact, of all the defenders to make league appearances for West Bromwich Albion this season, only Steven Reid and Liam Ridgewell had ever played in the Premiership beforehand and of those that hadn't, the youngest was Gonzalo Jara; signed at the age of 23. Bottom line; the quality of a player takes priority over their age, and it most certainly takes priority over wherever the hell they came from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Is that the Drogba who was a regular for the Ivory Coast, scored almost 20 goal in Ligue 1 and 5 in the champions League with Marseille and was player of the year the season before joining Chelsea? but didnt sign for Marseille until he was 25. before that was around lower leagues of France Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Gareth I couldn't agree more with your last line. I read the phrase 'young and hungry' a lot on here. Rarely read the word 'quality' Young and hungry gets you relegated with a bunch of Marc Albrighton's trying really hard. We need quality. If this kid has it great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 If signing mainly lower league players is the right approach why are we the only club to be doing this? And why has no club achieved any sort of success doing this? Seems strange given how much money you save. Norwich and Swansea seem to have done OK. Where did Arsenal get Jenkinson from? he is probably ther best defender. Smalling is another who came from nowhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 West Brom (you know, them currently sat 4th in the league) signed Billy Jones at the age of 24, but that's not even my favourite one; they brought in Gareth McAuley at the age of 31. Thirty-one. Neither had kicked a ball in the Premiership until then and both would stroll into our team at the moment. McAuley I agree would walk into the team but not sure on jones...the majority of Albion fans I know think he is a terrible player and the weak link in there side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Based on Lamberts "young / hungry" signings so far - Bennett Lowton Westwood KEA, coupled with the "young/hungry" lot he inherited - Clark Bannan Weimann etc I don't think we can play anymore players like this or it's Championship ahoy We need some proven quality experience now, let's start with Robbie Keane and take it from there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Honest friendly question to Gareth: Did Billy Jones walk straight into the WBA starting 11 or did he have a settling in period? He made his first start for the club in October and went on to start in a further 16 games over the course of the season. Of the games he featured in, he missed only 12 minutes of football through either being substituted or waiting to be subbed on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 And of that "far better squad" how many of them had this coveted Premier League experience prior to signing for West Brom? Jonas Olsson? Signed from Holland, aged 25, no PL experience. Youssouf Mulumbu? Signed from France, aged 22, no PL experience. Claudio Yacob? Signed from Argentina, aged 24, no PL experience. Zoltán Gera? Signed from Hungary, aged 25, no PL experience. Peter Odemwingie? Signed from Russia, aged 28, no PL experience. Markus Rosenberg? Signed from Germany, aged 29, no PL experience. Gabriel Tamas? Signed from France, aged 25, no PL experience. Goran Popov? Signed from Ukraine, aged 27, no PL experience. In fact, of all the defenders to make league appearances for West Bromwich Albion this season, only Steven Reid and Liam Ridgewell had ever played in the Premiership beforehand and of those that hadn't, the youngest was Gonzalo Jara; signed at the age of 23. Bottom line; the quality of a player takes priority over their age, and it most certainly takes priority over wherever the hell they came from. Please stop googling WBA players to prove a point It's not big and it's not clever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Norwich and Swansea seem to have done OK. Where did Arsenal get Jenkinson from? he is probably ther best defender. Smalling is another who came from nowhere Read what I said. Majority of signings from lower league. And now Swansea have survived they've bought in some quality players from abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Please stop googling WBA players to prove a point It's not big and it's not clever Well, I do apologise for the inconvenience; it's a fault of mine, but you see I do much prefer to provide evidence to support a point rather than resorting to ham-fisted diatribes. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 It's sad that people are judging players based on their experience and what league they play in without actually having watched them. People are going massively overboard with this obsession with experience. @Gareth: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 21, 2012 Amazing. gareth provides evidence to a point he's made, and CI (aka the biggest troll on VillaTalk) dismisses it because it's been googled. CI, you're a wind up. I'd count yourself lucky you haven't been banned by now. Cheers for quoting that, Gareth, it would have gone unnoticed for me if you hadn't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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