Giggs speaks so highly for him, really strong praise
+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Giggs speaks so highly for him, really strong praise
It's great that we seem to have so much promise developing in the Welsh set up.
I can't remember a time when either the england or wales setups had as much talent coming through, driven largely by big investment at the biggest clubs.
Which begs the question
Is the big clubs hoovering up all the talent then loaning them out actually better for the national teams then lower leagu clubs developing them
Why isn't there much scottish or Irish talent seemingly coming through?
Is it me or is this a bit disappointing? Surely a full Welsh international should be playing on loan at Championship level?
I think that can happen with the Welsh lads as they can get promoted to senior level pretty quickly sometimes. Emyr Huws is one who falls into that category, on Man City,s books as a youngster, signed by Wigan then by us, very disappointing with us and now in league one with Ipswich I think . He made about 10 senior appearances with Wales. The current crop seem better than that though I do wonder if for example Morrell and Matt Smith will make it as Championship regulars
Giggs’ policy of capping youngsters in competitive games early is working out so far, hasn’t been detrimental to results. It could be classed as a bit of a scattergun approach as some may fall by the wayside but if one or two who are also English qualified turn out to be top class it’s not a bad plan, whilst the ones who don’t kick on can still tell their grandkids that they’ve got a Welsh cap.
I think that England setting up their Natiinal training centre at St George's Park must be greatly responsible for the younger talent coming through.
How many players who came through that and, through dual-qualification, eventually went on to play for Wales instead of England I'm not sure, but it must be a factor.
Levitt has played exactly two competitive games against men's teams in his short career, with one of them being a full international! This in itself must be some kind of record? Besides that, there are videos on YouTube that show a level of passing ability that many pros won't ever achieve in their lifetime. I can see why Giggs is excited about the player, he has been compared to Paul Scholes at Man Utd, but everybody needs to keep a cool head and see how things turn out, as it's still early days.
Not so long ago players like Ampadu would have been playing in the first team at 17 or 18 and learning on the job, but nowadays there is a reluctance to give young players a chance. It's down to the Premier League clubs shopping in a global market where the world's best players are available to them, and with the amount of money on offer nobody wants to take any chances, so they go for the finished product that has plenty of high-level experience instead.
Wingers, strikers, attacking midfielders and sometimes fullbacks occasionally break through in their teens, but it is still unusual.
Centre Backs almost never do, or defensive midfielders.
To express it in a very basic way - the balance between the exuberance of youth and the wisdom of experience is somewhat different between the two types of positions : i.e. a winger can make up for poor positioning and decision making with natural skill and pace - it is more difficult for a centre back to do that and get away with it consistently.
It is also why you see more players moving into DM of CB positions as they get older - they've lost a bit of pace so aren't as effective in an attacking role, but along the way they've gained experience that can help them in other ways.
If you look at the number of minutes played by players in each position at the top level the peak ages for wingers are early to mid 20s, with that starting in the teens - whereas for centre backs the peak is much later, basically centred around 29 or 30.
If Ampadu demonstrates he's at the level to be consistently starting as a centre back in the premier league as a 20 year old this season then he will still be exceptionally young for his position.