Rory Wilson

[PeterWithesShin]

Jimoh is a year younger and is with the first team. Hemmings is 2 years younger.

[eamonn]

So maybe it's harder rather than easier for strikers to come through at top clubs. Less positions on the pitch for a start.

The money invested in Guessand and Sancho means they have to be persevered with. Their game time is pretty limited as things are.

[eye digress]

You'd think that if Wilson really was the dog's bollocks, we'd have seen him in the squad by now.

Granted, there might be special circumstances to consider - injury and the hiatus in contract negotiations (though that was self-inflicted, really). But it's hard to escape the conclusion that he seems to have been on the pot for a while, yet seems no nearer to doing one.

[Gareth]

I get the difficulty in breaking through, yet we have players in the first team squad who are hardly pulling up trees...Guessand, Sancho ?? So there should be opportunities created for the better youngsters.

They might not be pulling up trees but they getting minutes in a team in top 3 of the league so they aren’t terrible.

Would definitely like to see Wilson get some bench time tho.  I know the age group games have had a Christmas break, not sure if they train through that gap or actually have a break if not training with first team squad

[Smithy]

You'd think that if Wilson really was the dog's bollocks, we'd have seen him in the squad by now.

Granted, there might be special circumstances to consider - injury and the hiatus in contract negotiations (though that was self-influcted, really). But it's hard to escape the conclusion that he seems to have been on the pot for a while, yet seems no nearer to doing one.

I'm certainly not writing him off, but we're veering towards him no longer being a 'prospect' and being someone who should be delivering during first-teams games (on loan if not here).  Yes, injuries and the contract situation have certainly hindered him, but I would still very surprised if the club are going to let him get to next summer without kicking a ball in anger in first-team mens football somewhere.

He obviously has talent, I don't think that's in doubt.  The real question is whether it's enough at the top level, and you never really know that until they're out there on the pitch up against proper professionals.

[paul_e]

Forwards do tend to break through more quickly than other positions, so it's a bit surprising we haven't seen anything of him yet.

The week of his 20th birthday, Gabby was scoring the winner away at Leicester in the Premier League, having become a first-team regular.  Darius Vassell was playing in our first-team at 18.   Yes, this is a very good squad to break into, but as we've seen with the likes of Louie Barry, a promising youth career doesn't always translate into appearances for our first team.  They're competing with established internationals these days.

Hopefully the stuttering start to his senior career is down to the contract shenanigans and a few unfortunate injuries, and we might see him flourish on loan in the second half of the season.   But if he doesn't have any senior football under his belt by the summer, you might start to wonder?

Both examples you've given, along with many more who break through at that age, is that their game is based around their pace. Forwards who don't have that exceptional sprint speed tend to come through later because they need to have a much more rounded game, someone like Kane, for example, only started getting game time for spurs at the same sort of age that Wilson is now, Lewendowski similarly only started playing in the top flight in Poland at 20 and was 23 before he was a regular starter for Dortmund and looking like a world class prospect. There are many more examples that are far less extreme.

From what I've seen of Wilson his strengths are linking play and then getting onto balls in the box (and being a very good finisher) which is a far harder thing to do against experienced international defenders. We know he's training with the first team which means that's the standard of player he's up against every day. If Olabe (and by extension Emery) think they can see something in there that just needs to be given a little more time then I'm personally not worried that he's not got any senior football yet. Loans are very useful and play a big part for a lot of players but training against people like Konsa, Pau, etc has the potential to be just as valuable for him.

That said I suspect we will try to get a loan for him this month so he can go out and put that training into practice, I just hope we find a decent standard for him.

[Smithy]

Forwards do tend to break through more quickly than other positions, so it's a bit surprising we haven't seen anything of him yet.

The week of his 20th birthday, Gabby was scoring the winner away at Leicester in the Premier League, having become a first-team regular.  Darius Vassell was playing in our first-team at 18.   Yes, this is a very good squad to break into, but as we've seen with the likes of Louie Barry, a promising youth career doesn't always translate into appearances for our first team.  They're competing with established internationals these days.

Hopefully the stuttering start to his senior career is down to the contract shenanigans and a few unfortunate injuries, and we might see him flourish on loan in the second half of the season.   But if he doesn't have any senior football under his belt by the summer, you might start to wonder?

Both examples you've given, along with many more who break through at that age, is that their game is based around their pace. Forwards who don't have that exceptional sprint speed tend to come through later because they need to have a much more rounded game, someone like Kane, for example, only started getting game time for spurs at the same sort of age that Wilson is now, Lewendowski similarly only started playing in the top flight in Poland at 20 and was 23 before he was a regular starter for Dortmund and looking like a world class prospect. There are many more examples that are far less extreme.

From what I've seen of Wilson his strengths are linking play and then getting onto balls in the box (and being a very good finisher) which is a far harder thing to do against experienced international defenders. We know he's training with the first team which means that's the standard of player he's up against every day. If Olabe (and by extension Emery) think they can see something in there that just needs to be given a little more time then I'm personally not worried that he's not got any senior football yet. Loans are very useful and play a big part for a lot of players but training against people like Konsa, Pau, etc has the potential to be just as valuable for him.

That said I suspect we will try to get a loan for him this month so he can go out and put that training into practice, I just hope we find a decent standard for him.

This is a really good point, and I really don't know enough about his game (barring the clips of his excellent finishing that get shared on here), to know what sort of forward he'll become.