So what went wrong with Barry Bannan?

[LeeS]

It doesnt take a poor attitude and arrogance to turn a promising youth player into lower league fodder. But having those things doesn't help.

Plenty of talented and dedicated players just didn't cut it at the very highest level. However good Cowans et al were, they weren't playing in the premier league 2013 where competition for places comes from the very best footballing talent on the planet (n.b. I am not suggesting Cowans wouldn't have made it in today's game). It is a tough, tough environment and these are absolute elite players. Only the best can make it in Bannan's position, with his physical attributes. We've named a few of them on here already - superstars of the game.

Bannan was always fighting the odds and, his mental approach and personality have tipped those odds too far against him.

[LeeB]

Good luck to him, I had high hopes when he first broke into the team but it's all fizzled out a bit and he needs to kick start himself again.


 

[Ron Manager]

Too small I think. His ability made up for it to a certain degree but he didn't have quite enough. Look at the players his size who have made it - they are absolutely worls class. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Maradonna. Can't think of any more.

No. How about Billy Bremner,Johnny Giles, and Zola for starters.

Its simple really. He flattered to deceive. Nothing to do with size. He was not good enough. Thats why he is going for less than a million!

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Delfounso, like Moore before him, just looks like he isn't interested. 

I agree entirely about these two with their body language and whole demeanour on the pitch.
Then again, Brian Little always looked like that to me.

[Ron Manager]

Delfounso, like Moore before him, just looks like he isn't interested. 

I agree entirely about these two with their body language and whole demeanour on the pitch.
Then again, Brian Little always looked like that to me.

Asprilla always looked that that as well for the geordies. He could score a fantastic goal and look totally unconcerned.

[SX150]

Maybe a little biased here but comparing his ability to Cowans??? In fact I'm struggling to think off a player of any Club that has stroked a ball about effortlessly like Sid did. He wasn't too bad at other aspects of the game either even tackling with his slight frame.
Bannan is probably a Championship player (not Dog Shit) but did look at one point that he might make it higher.
I would say good luck to him apart from his off field antics like abandoning a Range Rover in the fast lane of a motorway.

[Yossarian]

Lionel Messi was not born Lionel Messi the greatest player on earth. He might have been born with the potential to become the greatest player on earth but it was only a possibility. Other possibilities might have been Lionel Messi the baker or Lionel Messi the ex footballer who went to Barcelona but didn't quite make it and is now plying his trade at the local second division Argentinian team. Without luck on his side he could have been any of those people but what made Lionel Messi, Lionel Messi-the-greatest-player-on-earth was his "ten thousand hours of purposeful practice".

Barry Bannan did not have the grit and determination to put the long hours of slog in. It sounds like Barry Bannan was too busy being Barry Big Bollocks to bother to put in the time. Perhaps the academy is brilliant at developing the skills required to be a top class footballer but not the mentality. There are few places that can do this. Barcelona's academy seems to have it.

The world is littered with people who could have been a contender. Barry Bannan is now another one of them.

[damon loves JT]

Not quite good enough to cut it in the top flight. A team full of similar players would play nice football most of the time, but lose more games than it won and be relegated.

He had a good run in the team, a generous opportunity to prove himself and came up a bit short. I hope he does well at Blackburn.

[Bigmelonface]

Sometimes Players burst on to the scene then get found out by the senior players in the league and they are easy to handle, because of this they lose confidence, then the senior players of other teams use this to step them into the floor further, happens at all levels, the ones that can handle this and have all the necessary skills to become a premier league player make the ones that don't, don't.

Sometimes players just aren't good enough, all fans of clubs like to see a player make it / come through its disappointing but it happens all the time.

Personally i never rated him, i never thought he was that good in terms of the class of player we needed, but that's just my opinion, in real terms he is a player that will go on to become a senior player himself just at a lower standard Villa will ever play at.

[villa kicks]

Not quite good enough to cut it in the top flight. A team full of similar players would play nice football most of the time, but lose more games than it won and be relegated.

He had a good run in the team, a generous opportunity to prove himself and came up a bit short. I hope he does well at Blackburn.

I think this is the case too. He may turn up again in future at top level like peter whitingham with a promoted club l but for now no. not quite good enough.

[Percy McCarthy]

Too small I think. His ability made up for it to a certain degree but he didn't have quite enough. Look at the players his size who have made it - they are absolutely worls class. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Maradonna. Can't think of any more.

No. How about Billy Bremner,Johnny Giles, and Zola for starters.

 

All exceptional footballers. That's my point, you have to be exceptionally talented to make up for lack of physical stature and presence. I think Bannan has the ability but lacks the 'wiry strength' of all the others mentioned. If he was a bit taller I don't think his ability would be an issue.

[Mortimer's Bear]

I wish him well wherever he ends up, not the greatest player but I do think he got a raw deal on here at times.

[Steve R]

Are we being over-critical of our academy?
How many players end up becoming first team regulars at the club where they started in the academy? - the drop-out rate is phenomenal and clubs operate on such short-term timescales that the odds of making the transition right through the system are terrifically high.
BB has done ready well to be a survivor in such a system and now needs much greater personal application to kick on to the next level.
Good luck to him - one day he might well be a premiership player.

I suspect that a league table of total appearances by ex academy as a percentage of total appearances in all would have us at the top.

It's not that we are bad at developing players after they graduate from the academy,more a case of until recently we have hardly tried. No manager has been that willing to take the short term hit. Most every other premier league team is the same.

Regardless of whether they will ultimately be good enough or not, many other academy players have faced the 18-21 year old gap but have belatedly been given opportunity. Clark, Baker, Weimann all are better players now than they were a year or two ago. Bannan doesn't seem to have changed at all. He has to take a lot of responsibility for that himself.

[Clark W Griswold]

Never liked him, surly arrogant twat who would drift in and out of games. You need more than the ability to pass a football accurately to make it at the top level. He didn't even do that brilliantly because his decision making on who to pass to in a given situation was often poor.

[Monty]

Too small I think. His ability made up for it to a certain degree but he didn't have quite enough. Look at the players his size who have made it - they are absolutely worls class. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Maradonna. Can't think of any more.

No. How about Billy Bremner,Johnny Giles, and Zola for starters.

 

All exceptional footballers. That's my point, you have to be exceptionally talented to make up for lack of physical stature and presence. I think Bannan has the ability but lacks the 'wiry strength' of all the others mentioned. If he was a bit taller I don't think his ability would be an issue.

It's not about strength, it's about brains and reactions. Bannan was lauded by managers from Holloway to Lambert via GH for his talent, but it's quite clear his brain has let him down. He never learned about the game he should be playing, never learned the subtleties of being a midfield playmaker.

I do think some blame has to go to MON, whose preference for technically limited, overpaid, senior jobbers set back the progress of a few of our youth teamers. However, though being inferior in talent, Clark and Albrighton have worked hard and are being given another chance by Lambert, whereas Delfouneso and Bannan are off. The reason: mentality. Fonz absolutely thought he'd made it far too early on, and I think Bannan suffered from a combination of resting on the laurels of his Fulham and Man Utd performances and of Eck being too footballingly limited himself to tell him not to go it there, give it the Billy Big Bollocks and spray the ball around flashily and aimlessly.

He still has a chance to make a decent career for himself, but he'll never be as good as he could be because he never bothered to learn. A great example of how being a good footballer isn't entirely dependent on technique - as SGT said to that reporter at half time, 'you play football with your heads.'