Barry Bannan - The New James Milner?

[Caiphus]

It will be hard to play him with Clarke and Delph, aren't they all left footed?

[PaulTheVillan]

It will be hard to play him with Clarke and Delph, aren't they all left footed?

Could work in our favour.

[pedro25]

It makes you wonder what O'Neill was doing offering Osbourne a new 4/5 yr contract, signing Salifou and renewing his contract 3/4 times, signing Sidwell for £5 mill on £40 k per week, and what the club were doing shelling out £8 mill and £70 odd k per week on Ireland.  All that wasted money and the new boss wants to play the centre half and left winger from the youths/reserves and they both do an excellent job.  Why couldn't O'Neill see their potential.

[JJ-AV]

Clarke will still be a centre half I reckon.

Modric is the most obvious comparison to Bannan around at the moment, I reckon.

[PaulTheVillan]

It makes you wonder what O'Neill was doing offering Osbourne a new 4/5 yr contract, signing Salifou and renewing his contract 3/4 times, signing Sidwell for £5 mill on £40 k per week, and what the club were doing shelling out £8 mill and £70 odd k per week on Ireland.  All that wasted money and the new boss wants to play the centre half and left winger from the youths/reserves and they both do an excellent job.  Why couldn't O'Neill see their potential.

He was too busy bitching with Davies, NRC and Luke Young.

[cb]

The hardest job for Villa is will be to keep the likes of Man Ure, Arse etc away. Coming through the Villa academy might buy us some loyalty, but as soon as the $$$$$$$$$$$$ start being flashed about we will see how much loyalty their is. This kid is going to be good no doubt about it.

There is always this every time we bring a young player through. I would say that it is up to the club to create the winning environment around these players, that will cause them to want to stay. Provided we supplement them with the appropriate talent, pay them fairly and begin to look like winning things, then I think you will see them be ready to commit. What they give us is a bit of head start on other sides in the league who have to start from scratch. A few youngsters coming through at the same time, gives us that extra bit of momentum that means that what we do spend in the Transfer market can be concentrated on higher quality players. We already have a very good base at Villa and with these players this means that we just need to go and target the very top quality one or two players we need to make the breakthrough. These will probably have to be relatively young players themselves (prob 20-22 age bracket) but I think they would come to us and I think Randy would fund this. The question for me would be, can Houllier find them and will he be forward thinking enough to mould them into a genuine attacking force in the league?

[Concrete John]

It makes you wonder what O'Neill was doing offering Osbourne a new 4/5 yr contract, signing Salifou and renewing his contract 3/4 times, signing Sidwell for £5 mill on £40 k per week, and what the club were doing shelling out £8 mill and £70 odd k per week on Ireland.  All that wasted money and the new boss wants to play the centre half and left winger from the youths/reserves and they both do an excellent job.  Why couldn't O'Neill see their potential.

To be fair, when the majority the dealings you mention were done, the youth wasn't ready for the step up they've now taken.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Having now watched the Fulham game a couple of times, it will be interesting to see how he gets on against a more physical side, as Fulham were a bit soft in midfield. Not wishing to take anything away from him, he had a good debut and it's great to see a player so comfortable with the ball, even in the tightest of spots.

I would hope Houllier can get us playing the ball more through the midfield rather than Brad, Dunne and Collins hoofing it up the pitch and with players like Bannan, it should be possible.

[cb]

and what the club were doing shelling out £8 mill and £70 odd k per week on Ireland.  All that wasted money and the new boss wants to play the centre half and left winger from the youths/reserves and they both do an excellent job. 

I don't know yet that I see the Ireland money as a waste. There's no doubt that Ireland's character has always been in question (I've questioned it myself on many occasions), but he is a very talented player. He may still come through and be a huge asset. I can see us developing a 4-5-1 formation in the future, where we have a defensive central midfielder (at the moment it's Clark, but this could be a place for a new signing), with Bannan off to the left of centre and Ireland to the right of centre. We can then play two attacking wingers cum strikers (currently two of Young, Albrighton and Downing, but we could also change this particularly if Young were to leave) off an all singing, all dancing centre forward (don't currently have this player). We also have Delph and potentially Gardner to feed into this system. That to me is a really exciting line-up and would represent a British version of the current Barcelona team (plenty of passing ability in the centre allied to pace and ability out wide/up front). There aren't too many sides about at the moment who follow this model in the PL.

Of course, I recognise that it's early days yet, and there's plenty of places this could go wrong, but I think we have to believe in these young players now and use all our resources to build around them, rather than try to completely build the side from scratch, as I simply don't think we have enough money to do it that way and compete at the very top. I think it basically represents a win/no lose gamble. If we bring in the right players to supplement the youngsters AND they achieve their potential then I think we crack the top four; if we were to bring in the good players and the kids don't make it, then we stay in or around sixth and probably have to sell on some players and try again in the future. The one thing I don't think we can do is to not believe in the players and then bring in decent players to take their places, as that is the way towards stagnation and mediocrity. I think Chelsea and Man U are going to go through a transitional period for a couple of years, so if we can get this side together for the coming years, we could have a real chance of having a cut at the top four again, this time with a side that not only possesses pace on the counter, but also some real footballing ability to break down sides who come to VP and defend.

[BILL DE VALL]

Funnily enough
Watching the Fulham game I thought wee barry was doing a passable Iniesta impression
spotting ambitious passes and pulling them off with aplomb
he will certainly be a talent to keep at VP
and is a beacon to all the small lads honing their skills as opposed to pumping iron

[pauliewalnuts]

It makes you wonder what O'Neill was doing offering Osbourne a new 4/5 yr contract, signing Salifou and renewing his contract 3/4 times, signing Sidwell for £5 mill on £40 k per week, and what the club were doing shelling out £8 mill and £70 odd k per week on Ireland.  All that wasted money and the new boss wants to play the centre half and left winger from the youths/reserves and they both do an excellent job.  Why couldn't O'Neill see their potential.

To be fair to O'Neill, he did give Albrighton the odd look in, but didn't he pick up a pretty nasty injury in the FAC against Blackburn in January? Might have featured more had he not.

Although probably just in the cups, to be honest.

[cheltenhamlion]

Yes but it was the Brighton game.

MON was never averse to giving the kids a go to be fair. But it only tended to be in the cup games w didn't give a shit about.

It was the same tried and tested bunch outside of that.

[pedro25]

The composure of Clark, Barry and Albrighton is great to see, unlike the bambiesque Osbourne when he came through.  Gabby lacked composure to when he broke through, and possibly still lacks it.

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe the extra time in the reserves/on loan will benefit them in the long run as it's helped them develop as footballers without the spotlight on them. Being showered with praise and called the new Inesta/Cowans/Morley/Milner etc, or labelled as not good enough after one start is, in my opinion, not a help to them. Either opinion puts the pressure straight on.

I also remember thinking the the likes of Daley/Walters would have benefited form another year or so in the Central League refining their skills rather than becoming first team regulars at the age they did.

[peter w]

Clarke will still be a centre half I reckon.

Modric is the most obvious comparison to Bannan around at the moment, I reckon.

Jaysus. Another good game and it'll be Messi.

He looked good and was the man of the match. Had a touch of Sid about him and his pass for the goal would have been drooled over on MOTD if it had have been one of their darlings who did it. He got tackles in, had a couple of shots, and passed the ball well. I bet he can even take penalties. It was like watching a young Sid on Saturday and long may it continue.

Traditionally we have been at our strongest when we have had a good Scottish influence in the team or the club. Our future is dependant on Bannan coming good.