"Ampadu cannot tackle without fouling, and his forward passes invariably find the opposition."

[the other bob wilson]

Not my opinion, but that of a friend who I'd rate as knowledgeable about football in an e-mail I received off him overnight.

There's a famous quote from nearly fifty years ago by music critic Jon Landau about how he had seen the future of rock and roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen which always makes me think of Gluey and his attitude towards Ampadu.

I've always liked Bruce Springsteen, but thought that Landau quote was well over the top and my attitude when it comes to Ampadu is similar - I disagree with my friend as I think Ampadu is good enough to be in Wales' strongest starting eleven, but Gluey was talking last week about how Ryan Giggs has decided to build his team around someone who is far from an automatic choice at this stage of his career and, to be frank, has not had the impact on the senior game that was being predicted for him four or five years ago.

If he turns out to be the player I think he can be, I can see a time in the future when a Wales manager decides to build his team around Ethan Ampadu, but not yet.

[Tuerto]

He has an odd playing style, it's certainly not conventional. I always see him as a bit risky, he lacks discipline in defensive areas, gets himself drawn out of position. I wouldn't fancy him as a player who has to mark for 90 minutes. He reminds me of Bamba a little bit, where his poor positional play and eagerness to get to the ball (when he shouldn't) is sometimes compensated by those long legs and ability to recover. Problem with that is the higher up the food chain a player goes the less likely the recovery. I think that he needs to settle down and compose himself in certain situations.

[J R Hartley]

He’s like a young David Luiz. Lovely on the ball but takes too many risks as a defensive player. Lacks positional discipline. Hopefully it will come in time but his career certainly seems to be at a crossroads. If he has another year at Sheff U like he did last year when he couldn’t get any game time then that’s worrying. I notice he was dropped after the Leeds defeat.

[cyril evans awaydays]

He’s like a young David Luiz. Lovely on the ball but takes too many risks as a defensive player. Lacks positional discipline. Hopefully it will come in time but his career certainly seems to be at a crossroads. If he has another year at Sheff U like he did last year when he couldn’t get any game time then that’s worrying. I notice he was dropped after the Leeds defeat.

He needs to turn massive potential into consistent performance. He got the rave reviews from Giggs mentioned elsewhere for his performance against Ireland in 2018. A few days later he had a large hand in Denmark's goals as shown here.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...esson-13218292

He showed similar impetuosity against Croatia and the worry is that he has still not eliminated this aspect from his game, probably a contributory factor to dropping down the pecking order at Sheff Utd.

Set against that he has shown the ability to perform at a high level as seen by his performances for Leipzig at Tottenham and for Wales in Finland recently.

Certainly he doesn't need the over-hype that can come with young players. Agree with Giggs who said recently that he needs regular game time at club level. Let's hope that Wilder shows more patience than he did with another young tyro overhyped on here, Ben Woodburn.

[Wales-Bales]

Woodburn wasn't overhyped he's got loads of natural talent, but as suggested on another football forum, he may have developed some interests outside of football.

[Tuerto]

Woodburn wasn't overhyped he's got loads of natural talent, but as suggested on another football forum, he may have developed some interests outside of football.

Totally unsubstantiated rumour. There are shed loads of players with natural talent, we've all probably known one, if Woodburn has developed extra curricular hobbies outside of the game then that's about character and discipline, more important that natural ability.

[cyril evans awaydays]

Woodburn wasn't overhyped he's got loads of natural talent, but as suggested on another football forum, he may have developed some interests outside of football.

Funny when you read those rumours when they were reported on here you went typically off the deep end

The posts in that link are all connected. They said Woodburn is boozing in Wrexham, then some fella spoke to the Liverpool coach and Woodburn will be out of the door due to his drinking as soon as they can get rid of him, etc. And the next minute he is playing in both pre-season friendlies for Liverpool. Your link doesn't add up mate, it's all gossip and hearsay!

If he was a drunkard as suggested by that website, he would hardly be training with the Liverpool first team. Stop this nonsense now, you can't go around spearing rumours like that.

Were you wrong then or now?

[Wales-Bales]

Funny when you read those rumours when they were reported on here you went typically off the deep end.

That appeared to be the case, and then he didn't do much at Oxford, and is now likely to be moving on from Liverpool if anybody puts an offer in. It's hard to explain how he went from being such a good player, to hardly being mentioned anymore without considering external factors. He was the best of the bunch out of all our young players.

[Wales-Bales]

For the record here is every touch of the ball by Grealish. Ben Davies needs to hang up his boots too!

[Jordi Culé]

Am I right in thinking he’s played less than 20 games in top flight football? He obviously needs games to develop but his positional sense on occasions concern me. From what I’ve seen he also has a tendency to produce some risky passing and lost possession in some poor positions which the team has had to defend from.

It’ll be interesting to see how he develops if he gets a tidy amount of games at Sheffield United.

[Wales-Bales]

If he's not an automatic choice then he won't be starting today after his performance against England. I wouldn't write him off after one game though, and it's been a while since he's played in midfield.

[Wales-Bales]

I've always liked Bruce Springsteen, but thought that Landau quote was well over the top.

[Wales-Bales]

"Ampadu cannot tackle without fouling, and his forward passes invariably find the opposition."

Bob's anonymous mate.


“Ethan is a talented player. Even more so than that, as a person, he’s so balanced and mature for such a young player. He’ll be a magnificent player.”

Ryan Giggs.

[the other bob wilson]

"Ampadu cannot tackle without fouling, and his forward passes invariably find the opposition."

Bob's anonymous mate.


“Ethan is a talented player. Even more so than that, as a person, he’s so balanced and mature for such a young player. He’ll be a magnificent player.”

Ryan Giggs.

An anonymous mate who I said I disagreed with, but I disagree with him about all sorts of things and he's often been shown to be right in the end. Also, Giggs is hardly going to say what my friend did about Ampadu even if he thought there was some truth in it is he?

I put my friends opinion out there as a discussion point and I'm closer to your view of the player than I am to his, but I look back at how Ampadu was being talked about around the time we were preparing for the Euros four years ago and am disappointed by what's happened to his career since then - he's some way off the finished article currently and, as such, cannot be held up as someone who Wales are building their team around.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

"Ampadu cannot tackle without fouling, and his forward passes invariably find the opposition."

Bob's anonymous mate.


“Ethan is a talented player. Even more so than that, as a person, he’s so balanced and mature for such a young player. He’ll be a magnificent player.”

Ryan Giggs.

Is it your opinion that Giggs is right about everything football related?

[Wales-Bales]

Is it your opinion that Giggs is right about everything football related?

Everybody is allowed to have an opinion, even Giggs

[delmbox]

Not my opinion, but that of a friend who I'd rate as knowledgeable about football in an e-mail I received off him overnight.

There's a famous quote from nearly fifty years ago by music critic Jon Landau about how he had seen the future of rock and roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen which always makes me think of Gluey and his attitude towards Ampadu.

I've always liked Bruce Springsteen, but thought that Landau quote was well over the top and my attitude when it comes to Ampadu is similar - I disagree with my friend as I think Ampadu is good enough to be in Wales' strongest starting eleven, but Gluey was talking last week about how Ryan Giggs has decided to build his team around someone who is far from an automatic choice at this stage of his career and, to be frank, has not had the impact on the senior game that was being predicted for him four or five years ago.

If he turns out to be the player I think he can be, I can see a time in the future when a Wales manager decides to build his team around Ethan Ampadu, but not yet.

The "building a team around him" line was based on absolutely nothing, there's a good player in there but he's got a lot to learn. Grealish ran rings around him the other night

[Grangenders]

He’s a good young player, I think he’ll eventually settle into a career as a good standard championship level performer.

[Tuerto]

He’s a good young player, I think he’ll eventually settle into a career as a good standard championship level performer.

He lacks discipline, that may not be his fault, it could be a concentration thing within his game. He drifts, goes for balls and moves into spaces he has no business going for or being in. He certainly has something, maybe it's belief and physicality as well as natural ability, although there is still an immaturity to his game which is understandable but wont be tolerated at the highest level. He's one of those players can look brilliant when it comes off and very naive when it doesn't. He's got to cut that out of his game very quickly.

[NYCBlue]

He’s a good young player, I think he’ll eventually settle into a career as a good standard championship level performer.

That's what I'm thinking too. He should be playing every week in the Championship now, instead of being a fringe player in the EPL or another European league. If Chelsea cared about him that much, they'd recall him and send him out to a decent Championship team where he could get some games under his belt. As it is, he's just wasting time.

If he became available to buy, how much does everyone think he's worth?

[City123]

That's what I'm thinking too. He should be playing every week in the Championship now, instead of being a fringe player in the EPL or another European league. If Chelsea cared about him that much, they'd recall him and send him out to a decent Championship team where he could get some games under his belt. As it is, he's just wasting time.

If he became available to buy, how much does everyone think he's worth?

I'd have loved Ampadu on loan, would transform our attempts to play the ball out of defence

[Joe Gillis]

If I posted for everytime my mate had an opinion on a player

[City123]

The "building a team around him" line was based on absolutely nothing, there's a good player in there but he's got a lot to learn. Grealish ran rings around him the other night

He's a little hot headed as well

I have no doubt that Ampadu will develop into a top player, but he isn't one yet

[the other bob wilson]

Regarding Woodburn, he'd played, and scored, for Liverpool in front of 50,000 plus at Anfield a month past his seventeenth birthday and scored the only goal of the game for his country at a packed Cardiff City Stadium in a must win match a month short of his eighteenth birthday - he had an awful lot of hype and adulation thrown at him at an age when he wasn't allowed to vote or drink in a pub.

If he has, as the rumours suggest, seen his career sidetracked by drink, then, being absolutely honest, I can only say that I would have, almost certainly, gone the same way as a seventeen year old if I had experienced a quarter of what he did and how many on here can say, with hand on heart, that they wouldn't have done the same at that age?

[cyril evans awaydays]

Regarding Woodburn, he'd played, and scored, for Liverpool in front of 50,000 plus at Anfield a month past his seventeenth birthday and scored the only goal of the game for his country at a packed Cardiff City Stadium in a must win match a month short of his eighteenth birthday - he had an awful lot of hype and adulation thrown at him at an age when he wasn't allowed to vote or drink in a pub.

If he has, as the rumours suggest, seen his career sidetracked by drink, then, being absolutely honest, I can only say that I would have, almost certainly, gone the same way as a seventeen year old if I had experienced a quarter of what he did and how many on here can say, with hand on heart, that they wouldn't have done the same at that age?

Salutory lesson that he made his full Liverpool debut the same day as Trent Alexander Arnold. Given Woodburn got the plaudits it's significant and a little sad how their careers have diverged since. There are rumours that he may go to Holland on loan. Let's hope that puts him back on the right path and he can become a starman once again.