Should the Premier League’s best talent go out on loan with lesser clubs or stay training with the first team and keep match fit with the reserves?
So what should club do with your young prodigies? Should they go out on loan, or not? Certainly they’ll be many thinking yes send them out to a top championship side or a lower Premier League outfit to learn a bit more about the English game.He’ll be able to get some first team practice and bulk up to come to terms with the sheer physicality of our style of play.
Others might be thinking please don’t send our Vladimir Weiss or Machida out on loan. What if we need him? After all, he has just starred in an international standard World Cup qualifying campaign, so surely he can cope with club football.
One argument would be that certain types of players suit certain types of loan deals. Meat and veg British style defenders like Jon Terry and Jamie Carragher for example would certainly benefit from the physical competition of the Championship or even the first division.
Then there are young players who are beasts at the age of sixteen like Micah Richards, Wayne Rooney, Tom Huddlestone, Carlton Cole and Michael Johnson need no introductions to the rigours of English football and can cope with the physical demands from day one.
Players blessed with very high technical skills fall into the same bracket as these guys but for different reasons. Ryan Giggs, Ronaldo and Joe Cole are players who possess speed, quickness of mind and lightning reflexes which enable them to effortlessly bridge the gap between Youth team and first team.
Sending out a Jack Wiltshire on loan to Bradford City would enable him to experience the ferocity of the lower leagues, but it could also result in a nasty injury if he becomes a marked man for being that ‘Winker-like Kid’ from the Premiership.
Sending him out to a Bolton or Stoke who are decent Premier League teams but play far from expansive football, may be detrimental to the lads development.
Psychology is definitely a major factor in a deciding whether a player is ready or not. If you believe in yourself then you have won the first battle and Vlad like Daniel Sturridge and Micah Richards before him has that belief to be a Premier League footballer.
Contrast this with the young international Welsh battering ram that is Ched Evans who often spoke of the difficulties he had in adapting to the step up to top level football. He was phased by the prospect of playing with Europe’s elite and is now plying his trade in the Championship.
A Vladimir Weiss doesn’t need to be loaned out because he is good enough to play with the City first team, learning from players great technical players like Robinho and Carlos Tevez.
Chelsea’s Gaël Kakuta certainly thinks playing against lower Premier League opposition like Wolverhampton Wanderers is much easier than playing in the reserve team games.
In an interview given after his Premier League debut Kakuta suggested he had found life easier in the Premier League with the club’s first team. He stated
“Premier League football is easier than in the reserves, because the game is much quicker, you have more choice when you play and you can play one-touch or two-touch. So it is much better.”
I waited a long time for Saturday and I am really happy. All of the players were behind me, helping me and talking to me, so that was good.”
And the eighteen year old Chelsea hotshot will now go straight into tonight’s reserve team for the game against Birmingham City.
His comments are interesting as he shows how playing at a high level with top quality players can be nothing but beneficial. Just look at Arsenal’s Young Guns who will be playing in the quarter finals of the cup.
Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey are all examples of diminutive players taking their chance when given an opportunity. So maybe its time to blood a few of our young guns against Wenger’s lot.
There’s another good reason to keep a young star in the first team squad and that is to put pressure on a first teamer.
A young hungry academy star waiting in the wings is just the same as a new signing in your position. Its competition for places and keeps you on your toes.
