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CinCity Noir's avatar

Why would Khan let the Arbeloa rumor catch traction and then suddenly pop up saying there are two additional candidates? This should give Arbeloa a pretty good hint to what he's walking into.

Watching Berge play for Norway immediately tells the tale of how mistreated he was by Silva & staff. He always seemed to be looking over his shoulder for potential Silva wrath headed his way for the slightest misstep, leading to tentative and mistake-prone play. He may fall short of the second coming of Paulhino but he's a whole lot better in the middle than what we've been allowed to see (ManU apparently recognized this). Fear that playing under Arbeloa could be very much the same.

The tale of the academy kid, Olly, is a tale of Fulham academy failures. Maybe he's not the poster boy to illustrate that notion but the dearth of young players coming to the first team is pretty damning. Fulham always seems to be looking to other academies to find youngsters.

lovetempo's avatar

King, de Fougerolles, and Farhaan are all either in the team or knocking on the door. Look around the Prem, that’sz actually pretty good! We’ve developed other players too (Sessegnon, Carvalho), we just weren’t in a position to keep them. Now we are. There’s a lot of Prem teams that only have one or two players in their first team, it looks to me like we are about to turn a corner.

CinCity Noir's avatar

Thinking about it, not to belabor the point, all credit to Fulham for recognizing and developing King. He's the real deal. Fourgerolles playing for Canada is great but let's see if he can rise above Belgium. To me, Faarhan is a talented kid but a long way to go, and a contract the runs out next year. When Sess made it to the first team he looked unprepared and lost. The move to Tottenham didn't improve things for him but truly helped him mature as a player. I did not recall Carvalho came out of the academy but a bit of a shooting star. Compare those with Arsenal's Reece James, Mason Mount, Declan Rice; and Man City's Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, and Rico Lewis (who may be coming to the Cottage, I hear). And, none compare with Southampton, in academy management, though not so great with the first team.

lovetempo's avatar

I thought Sess looked good in the Championship, was just a bit young to succeed in the Prem (even now he’s only what, 25 or 26?). Declan Rice came through the West Ham academy, no?

CinCity Noir's avatar

Rice began with Arsenal and transferred to West Ham

lovetempo's avatar

I don’t think that’s accurate… Google search says that he started at Chelsea as a child, switched to West Ham as a teen, and now of course plays for Arsenal

Jono Whitney's avatar

Who is the second manager…glasner I hope.