Bold Tone wrote:
I would like to start by stating that i am not an expert on the youth teams although i always maintain a keen interest in the players.
Is it "one eyed syndrome" on my part that makes me think we have too many players who look like diamonds (JET anyone?) at 17 yet never cross the divide?
I am still infected with it as i think the Z-man is special yet the vibes i am getting seem to suggest that players i rate such as Eisfeld and Olsen are not all that. Worrying that Eisfeld hardly played this tour and those that remained got battered 1-3 at Underhill!
I have half-mentioned it previously but is it our training?
Is our reputation for developing young players overstated?
Before anyone says "mentality" and "lack of discipline", i would have thought this is what "development" is all about.
You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
It's about a player never feeling like he's 'made it', always pushing and striving to be better. All of the players that get marked out as talents at 17 at a club as fantastic as ours are very good footballers. There will be aspects to their game, usually technical qualities, that are impressive for someone of their age, but that's it; there will be other areas of their game that are average, or worse. If they don't work hard to improve their areas of weakness and instead sit back and bask in the praise that the strong part of their game attracts, then they're done.
Any one of Eisfeld, Olsson and Zelalem could make it here. They each have outstanding parts to their game - Eisfeld with his efficiency both in moving the ball on to a team mate and in putting it in the back of the net, Olsson with his outstanding touch and control under pressure that gives him more time on the ball to hurt the opposition, Zelalem with an ability to execute incisive passes that some of the best creative players in the world would struggle with.
It's true they're not all equal, Zelalem's passing is a more honed skill than Eisfeld's finishing or Olsson's touch, and Zelalem can probably also match them on efficiency in his passing and in his touch and control - so he is streets ahead of them right now. If he works really hard to improve in the next few years - to make his left foot reliable, to improve his shooting ability, to learn to tackle, to make sure that his fitness levels are comparable to other top level footballers, to make sure that he watches lots of football, listens to all the instruction he's given and learns from the game time he's afforded - then he'll become a midfielder of the highest quality. And the same is true of Eisfeld and Olsson - only in their case the list of things to work on is much, much longer. Until now Zelalem has out-worked them and thus is more developed at age 16 than they are at 18 and 20, so the signs point to Zelalem succeeding and them coming up short, but who knows what they're respective work ethics will be in the coming years? If Zelalem comes back from this pre-season and rests on is laurels then he'll stagnate, and it could throw him enough off course that he doesn't make it here, or even anywhere. The coaches could talk to him, try to encourage him to work harder, punish him even, but you can't make someone put in 100% or to dedicate themselves to their improvement if they don't want to.
The club's job is to make sure that every young player has access to instruction and guidance from world class coaches, the opportunity to develop at a world class training facilitiy, and is encouraged to work hard and rewarded with contracts and playing time when they do. The club do their part well, about as well as anyone. Ultimately, whether or not these young kids make the improvements to their game and to their fitness that is required is entirely down to them.
