goon wrote:
I went back to one of my last posts on there and coincidently came across a post from Ricky about JET, agreeing that he looks like a young Thierry 😆
I on the other hand make clear that I have doubts about him.
Bollox did I say that! Maybe I might have compared his style when he was playing right wing for the U21s (as they were then) and breezing past fullbacks like Thierry did on the left, but never obviously in terms of talent and quality.
JET was such a weird one. I didn't rate him much at all, and I was convinced it was just his size and power that saw him do well at youth level, and then he really did start to rip it up. He got serious for a little while and much fitter and good things happened. And I did see him as potentially becoming a very good player as a modern day lone striker. But, attitude and fitness aside, he just wasn't a very smart footballer.
Another thing to learn from his failures, because he really was technically and physically talented, is the extent to which a player's game understanding, decision making, determination, aggression etc., - intangibles that are really, really hard to judge when they can kick back and relax and still tear up the opposition in youth football.
Saka and Nelson are very good recent examples of it being very hard to judge how those intangibles will translate to proper football. I'm not writing Nelson off btw, but he obviously has a lot to learn. Saka stood out as brilliant in youth football, but the problem is all the talented ones do, and that makes it very hard to see how much is down to the fact that they simply move quicker and manipulate the ball better than opponents versus being one step ahead between the ears. Saka was, and even in Premier League football is, elite in both respects.
