Semi Ajeyi

[Rjk]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

What on earth are you talking about? Ajayi would have had to be better than at least two of Bamba, Morrison, and Ecuele Manga to play for us in 2017/18, not Ben Nugent!

better than at least 2 to be a regular starter - not to come in and do a job occasionally.
Greg Halford even plyed a few times for us at CB during that season didn't he?

[LeningradCowboy]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

better than at least 2 to be a regular starter - not to come in and do a job occasionally.
Greg Halford even plyed a few times for us at CB during that season didn't he?

But Ajayi would have needed to be playing regular first-team football to develop.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

Colin had no interest in developing him. Why can’t you accept that? Stop making excuses for the mans shortism policies.

Ajayi needed to play. He wasn't as good as Morrison, Bamba or Manga. He went away and played for 2 and a half seasons in League One and Championship. If he was a centre mid, or a winger that's a different story but we had to make a call on Ajayi. You can't chop and change centre halves, especially when Morrison and Bamba were the best pairing in the league arguably. In 17/18 he got dropped a fair few times and ended up playing defensive mid for Rotherham as he was a liability in League One. Ajayi's career is similar to Moore's where he's a very late developer, he signed for us at 22!

We need a better approach to our youth development and some promising signs are there with Harris but I think Ajayi was at a crossroads and was in the wrong place at the wrong time with us. Take Rodon, if Swansea never got relegated I don't think he'd have ever got a look in there. Many Jacks have said the same. I don't see how Ajayi could have got anywhere near the first team in 17/18 or 18/19.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

What on earth are you talking about? Ajayi would have had to be better than at least two of Bamba, Morrison, and Ecuele Manga to play for us in 2017/18, not Ben Nugent!

I would have thought it was perfectly clear what I was talking about. Ben Nugent, a teenager who went on to play for the likes of Gillingham, Crewe and Stevenage, was good enough to come in and play eight to ten times I think it was for a side that won the Championship without having a detrimental effect on results, so I’m pretty sure that Ajayi, who would have been twenty four to Nugent’s nineteen and is now playing in the Premier League world have coped fine if he had to.

[WJ99mobile]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

I have to agree the Morrison Bamba Manga partnership was the most solid defensive setup I have seen for a long time

For a manager to mix that up for no particular reason would be crazy

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

Not good enough for us according to this thread, but just scored a late equaliser for the Baggies at Anfield.

Game finished 1-1.

[Michael Morris]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

Not good enough for us according to this thread, but just scored a late equaliser for the Baggies at Anfield.

Game finished 1-1.

What an athlete he is. And what a header for the goal.

[Croesy Blue]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

He looks a good player whenever I’ve seen him, if he hadn’t trained with Rotherham and played fewer than 100 game for them, he wouldn’t have been good enough for Cardiff according to some on here

Should have been loaned out for that one Sean then given some playing time here.

[life on mars]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

I have to agree the Morrison Bamba Manga partnership was the most solid defensive setup I have seen for a long time

For a manager to mix that up for no particular reason would be crazy

Absolutely just think the lad hadn't matured or shown enough it wasn't until 2017 he must have started to mature through the 90 odd appearances with Rotherham before that he appearances was not good anywhere never mind us



Senior career*

2012–2013 Charlton Athletic 0 (0)
2012 → Dartford (loan) 3 (1 goal)
2013–2015 Arsenal 0 (0)
2015 → Cardiff City (loan) 0 (0)
2015–2017 Cardiff City 0 (0)
2015 → AFC Wimbledon (loan) 5 (0)
2015–2016 → Crewe Alexandra (loan) 13 (0)
2017 → Rotherham United (loan) 17 (1 goals )
2017–2019 Rotherham United 81 (11 goals)
2019– West Bromwich Albion 57 (6 goals )

A lot of managers and coaching staff missed something

[Rjk]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

Absolutely just think the lad hadn't matured or shown enough it wasn't until 2017 he must have started to mature through the 90 odd appearances with Rotherham before that he appearances was not good anywhere never mind us



Senior career*

2012–2013 Charlton Athletic 0 (0)
2012 → Dartford (loan) 3 (1 goal)
2013–2015 Arsenal 0 (0)
2015 → Cardiff City (loan) 0 (0)
2015–2017 Cardiff City 0 (0)
2015 → AFC Wimbledon (loan) 5 (0)
2015–2016 → Crewe Alexandra (loan) 13 (0)
2017 → Rotherham United (loan) 17 (1 goals )
2017–2019 Rotherham United 81 (11 goals)
2019– West Bromwich Albion 57 (6 goals )

A lot of managers and coaching staff missed something

good goalscoring record, with our set piece prowess it'd be great to have had another 6ft 4+ target to aim for

[surge]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

All teams will have players they let go too early or where the players later development makes it seem that way. Which current players are at risk of being the next Ajeyi and what do we need to do in order to keep them around?

[NYCBlue]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

West Brom have conceded the most goals in the Premier League this season.

But we don't play in the Premier League.

[The Bob Banker Spanker]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

All teams will have players they let go too early or where the players later development makes it seem that way. Which current players are at risk of being the next Ajeyi and what do we need to do in order to keep them around?

Joel Bagan maybe?

[Loramski]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

Not good enough for us according to this thread, but just scored a late equaliser for the Baggies at Anfield.

Game finished 1-1.

There's a big difference between not ripping into the club for letting Ajayi go and saying he's not good enough for us. Plenty of the former in this thread but I'm not sure if anyone's saying the latter.

Even with hindsight I'm not sure what more the club could've done. We sent him out on loan twice to get experience, he suffered a head injury at Wimbledon and Crewe weren't in a position to extend his spell there so both loans were cut short. Trollope played him in pre-season for 2016-17 but he missed out as senior players got fit, Peltier was played at centre back in his place. By the time we realised he wasn't needed it was too late to send him out on loan till January so he was left kicking his heels with the under-23s.

Warnock came in and brought Bamba with him so Ajayi moved further down the pecking order. While Warnock might have been an ideal manager to bring Ajayi on and eradicate the dreamy mistakes from his game, there was no urgency to do this as we now had that position well covered and the immediate problems were at the other end of the pitch where we were trying to play a counter attacking game with a choice of Fred, Lambert or Chamakh to provide the cutting edge. The priority was knocking a completely out-of-sorts Zohore into some kind of shape rather than Ajayi.

Ajayi was sent on loan to Rotherham that January and with his contract here running down I'm not sure how we were meant to keep him when Rotherham were playing him every week and offering him a contract to join them. Warnock had three excellent centre halves, we couldn't realistically offer Ajayi first team football for at least a year or two so we'd have had to offer him a long term contract for more money than Rotherham were offering, not to play him but to hope we could keep finding him loan deals until he was 25. Even then Ajayi would probably have moved on.

While the odd mistake was overlooked during Rotherham's inevitable relegation to League 1, early blunders the next season cost Ajayi his place by September. Even though he played a lot through the season, he didn't make the starting line-up for Rotherham's last five league games or either of their play off semi final games (but did make the team for the final). I don't remember too many people on here saying we should've kept him then as we celebrated our promotion.

While we were in the Premier League, Ajayi was back in the Championship with Rotherham. Playing in defence until a 7-0 hammering at Man City saw him moved into centre-midfield where he enjoyed a good finish to the season, including a run of 6 goals in five games. West Brom took a chance on him, played him at centre half and he seems to have gone from strength to strength since then.

Looking back, his best chance to make it here was for Trollope to have played him in his back three and for him to have become undroppable but, as I've said, he couldn't even make a League 1 team's starting line-up at the end of the following season so that would've been unlikely. We could've employed Warnock to save us from relegation and then have a shot at promotion the following season and asked him nicely to try out all our youngsters while he was doing it but he might not have gone along with that. We could've admitted our 'mistake' and tried to bring Ajayi back instead of Flint but West Brom would've probably offered him more money and prospects anyway.

Easy to be wise after the event. I enjoyed watching Ajayi play for the under 23s and it would be great if he was playing alongside Morrison now but I find it hard to be too critical of the club on this occasion.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Semi Ajeyi

Colin had no interest in developing him. Why can’t you accept that? Stop making excuses for the mans shortism policies.

Apparently, the average tenure of a Championship manager is between 12 and 18 months:
(The figures are lower down the page)

https://sqaf.club/average-premier-le...ght%20campaign.