whenstevewentup
Well-Known Member
- Sep 12, 2021
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Got another year on his contract so it’s a must sell at the end of the season . Another shocking signing to add to the Steve Hitchen list .
Player Watch Player Watch: Ryan Sessegnon
- Thread starter Church
- Start date
Tucker
Shitehawk
- Jul 15, 2013
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I don’t think we can blame Steve Hitchen for Sessegnon‘s injury woes. His injuries have obviously stymied his development and his ability to kick on.
joey55
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- May 20, 2005
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I don't think anyone could claim his injuries haven't hampered him. But, it's also clear that the hype he received as a youngster was absurd for a player with his talent. I think people forget just how highly rated he was as a teenager and it was bizarre. He even won Championship POTY and if you actually watch his games (there are, or at least were, lots of "every touch" clips on YT) it's insane that he won that award and shows just how much hype impacts how people view things. There is no evidence of Bale like crossing or shooting, Hazard style dribbling, great touch or Maldini like positioning etc. There was nothing to suggest he was some uber talent. He had a knack of drifting into the far post and scored lots of goals, but that can only take a player so far. It was just that he was so young, that I think the assumption was, "if he's scoring this many at 17, he's going to be amazing in 5 years." But if the technical or physical building blocks aren't there, a player can't really improve that much. It's similar to Lukaku. At 17 he was an absolute beast, but he never had great touch, the ability of dribble and score wonder goals.
So while injuries 100% have held him back, to be the next Bale (or any top player) you've got to have certain key attributes and that Sess never has had. Conversely when you see old clips of Harry Kane playing in our youth teams and look at the technical quality of his finishing, you start to wonder how it was largelly missed among those who follow youth football. I'm sure Sess could have and still could be a Premier League regular and even, at a stretch, get into the England squad, but when you look at the technical quality of Porro and the physical attributes of Udogie, there is just a world of difference imo and Sess was just not blessed with either.
Tucker
Shitehawk
- Jul 15, 2013
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I don’t think any of this is the fault of Steve Hitchen either, or Sessegnon for that matter. I doubt either of them ever claimed he was the next Bale, Hazard or Lukaku.
He was a young player who’d done well in the championship that we really liked. That‘s it really. He wasn’t comparatively expensive either. He was exactly the kind of player we have always signed and had a lot of success with.
It hasn’t worked out, and that’s down mostly to the injuries, the club being in chaos, and having a succession of managers that all had differing philosophies. His injuries have also been really badly managed by the club and his own team/himself.
joey55
Well-Known Member
- May 20, 2005
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I agree with much of that. I'm definitely not blaming Sess, that's for sure and I don't think he's a bad player. I just never understood why we were so keen on signing him in the first place, especially for the fee we paid for a 19 year old.
Hitchen and our scouting team, however, I do think has to take some blame. We were heavily linked with him for a long time and I think we tried to sign him the season before we did. While we didn't pay a fortune, we did pay more than a player of his potential was worth and I think Hitchen has to be, at least in part, to blame for that. It's one thing for fans to get caught up in the hype of a 17 year old who scored 16 goals in one season, but your head of recruitment (or whatever his title was,) you'd want to be a bit more savvy. By the time we signed him, he'd played a whole season in the Prem and it was relatively obvious by then he was nothing special, yet we still dished out around £25 million. Even today, you can still get genuine wonder kids, most of whom will fail, but at least have the technical attributes to be world class, for less than that.
The chances are, Bergvall won't go onto to dominate world football, but at least you can watch his YT clips and see that he has the technical ability to do so. With Sess, it just wasn't much there, yet we paid nearly 3 times as much.
haslemereyid
captain caveman
- Jun 6, 2010
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As Kicks said..
DanielJohnCosta
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- Jul 10, 2015
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gotta look after this lad, i could only imagine what he's going through mentally.
don't want him to go through what Dele did, could care less about his footballing tbh
don't want him to go through what Dele did, could care less about his footballing tbh
DanielJohnCosta
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- Jul 10, 2015
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care to elaborate? quite a statement
Beginning to wonder if him being fairly heavily involved in the Fulham first team between the ages of 16-18 when he was probably still physically developing has something to with his injury problems.
Could be nothing in it and everyone develops at different rates but maybe in his case he needed to be managed better. Would have liked to see him have a chance under Ange but resigned to him being done with us.
Could be nothing in it and everyone develops at different rates but maybe in his case he needed to be managed better. Would have liked to see him have a chance under Ange but resigned to him being done with us.
BorjeSpurs
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- Jun 29, 2007
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I think he refers to the fact that it took 5 months (with no games) before they decided on the operation which has kept him out this season.
DanielJohnCosta
Well-Known Member
- Jul 10, 2015
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I mean im not in the field but I’m sure it wasn’t just a random decision
13VanDerBale13
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- Jul 12, 2011
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Will be astonished if he’s still here next season.
JUSTINSIGNAL
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- Jul 10, 2008
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Got to feel for the lad. He can’t even do the thing he’s worked his whole life for.
the kid has been so unlucky sometimes it’s no one’s fault
thebenjamin
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- Jul 1, 2008
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Being a footballer at all is surely hanging by a thread
Sp3akerboxxx
Adoption: Nabil Bentaleb
- Apr 4, 2006
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Seen some people say that this is why a lot of Brazilian players struggle In their 30s.
They're playing 60 professional games a season when they're 17
Looking at his stats at Fulham:
- 16/17 season was 16 years of age in his first season with them and was involved in 25 games with 8 of those of the bench in the Championship.
- 17/18 season was involved in 46 games with 1 appearance off the bench and they were promoted to the EPL.
- 18/19 season went onto make 35 starts in the prem with 9 of those as sub.
Difficult to deduce too much from that alone but 106 involvements by the time he had just turned 19 in physically challenging leagues is a fair old number and do wonder if there is the question as to whether he needed to be managed better as no doubt his body was still developing during that phase.
Often wondered whether Dele's injury issues are also related to him breaking onto the scene early at MK Dons. By the time he turned up to as a 19 year old he'd been involved 62 league games for MK Dons games, the majority of them as a starter.
Remember reading something from Michael Owen mentioning how he felt playing so much when he young when he maybe hadn't fully matured had an impact on him struggling with injuries later in his career. Tricky one as when a young exceptionally talented player gets thrown in and hits the ground running. probably becomes difficult to leave them out but guess there is the case that kid gloves are required in a lot of scenarios.
- 16/17 season was 16 years of age in his first season with them and was involved in 25 games with 8 of those of the bench in the Championship.
- 17/18 season was involved in 46 games with 1 appearance off the bench and they were promoted to the EPL.
- 18/19 season went onto make 35 starts in the prem with 9 of those as sub.
Difficult to deduce too much from that alone but 106 involvements by the time he had just turned 19 in physically challenging leagues is a fair old number and do wonder if there is the question as to whether he needed to be managed better as no doubt his body was still developing during that phase.
Often wondered whether Dele's injury issues are also related to him breaking onto the scene early at MK Dons. By the time he turned up to as a 19 year old he'd been involved 62 league games for MK Dons games, the majority of them as a starter.
Remember reading something from Michael Owen mentioning how he felt playing so much when he young when he maybe hadn't fully matured had an impact on him struggling with injuries later in his career. Tricky one as when a young exceptionally talented player gets thrown in and hits the ground running. probably becomes difficult to leave them out but guess there is the case that kid gloves are required in a lot of scenarios.
