Souleymane Coulibaly

[eddiev14]

From Tim Sherwood (re the NextGen game vs Inter):

""Massimo Luongo was immense in midfield, as was Jake Nicholson, but Souleymane Coulibaly was unbelievable. He played up front on his own, absolutely battered their two centre-halves and scored two goals."

I remember saying it when we signed him, but perhaps they've seen somthing in this kid to suggest that he can break into our first team squad at some point this season.

The bit about playing up front on his own, and battering centre halves (albeit at an Under-19 level) suggests that he's strong and fearless, and it looks like he's a goal machine!

Remember, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney broke onto the scene at 16 years of age. Top flight. I've got a feeling that this kid might be a reason we didn't go all out for another striker.

Just a hunch. What do you reckon?

 

[LukaMotion]

I think sometimes it's a good idea to try and integrate a young striker into the first team from a really young age as it tends to force them to grow up and step up sooner than they would otherwise do.

This route, as opposed to several years of under-18 football, then a couple of years of loans out to lower league teams, then top teams, then they are ready, saves a lot of time. It also gives the player potentially several years to adapt to the teams style of play and learn to form good connections with the other first team players as opposed to coming in as a 21 year old and still having to learn all that, by which time there is a lot more pressure on him to perform.

As you say, most notably for me it worked for Rooney in recent years, however i do not think it would work with Coulibaly, yet.

Harry will probably be off next year, so the new manager will inevitably bring in new faces and probably his own style of play and management, so the benefits Coulibaly would gain from starting in the first team early would be negated by this. I also think there are only ever going to be a few players that are truly world class enough to step up straight away, it will be interesting to see if the club believes Coulibaly to be that good

 

[marvel]

@WindyCOYS (who knows his stuff) was watching the game and tweeting live yesterday said this:

WindyCOYS Windy



Lots of people asking about Soli - all action player, good finisher. General play not there just yet but he's only 16! Time on his side.

WindyCOYS Windy



Soli definitely not one for the first team yet, calm down people! Looks a great prospect though.

 

[not_tenth-again]

He's probably already got the physique for it. Its not a bad shout for cup games but not sure about the pl. I'd still expect Kane to be slightly ahead of him in the pecking order at this point but if he can go up top alone then the tables are turned.

P.s who was the kid who scored 3 and got send off all in the first half....? Hadn't heard of him before but must surely be a good prospect. Luongo seems to be getting some good coverage too, nice to see an aussie at the club.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

I don't think Coulibaly is ready yet. He';s a good prospect but I don't expect to see him get any time on the bench this season.

 

[AngerManagement]

At best I'd hope to see him get some mins in either the Carling or the Europa cup this season.

He is 16, his first year at a new club and in a new country. He cannot be expected to make an impression on the first team just yet.

 

[beats1]

kane is better than soul man at the moment

 

[Spursidol]

He's probably already got the physique for it. Its not a bad shout for cup games but not sure about the pl. I'd still expect Kane to be slightly ahead of him in the pecking order at this point but if he can go up top alone then the tables are turned.

P.s who was the kid who scored 3 and got send off all in the first half....? Hadn't heard of him before but must surely be a good prospect. Luongo seems to be getting some good coverage too, nice to see an aussie at the club.

Tomislav Gomelt scored the hatrick and was sent off, all in the first half. Croation under 16 captain, was on trial from NK Zagreb and has been on loan twice before now, first in March and then during Eurofoot, but assume now signed for Spurs (?) although not on OS - but then neither was Massimo Luongo for a year after he signed and still no word on Milos Veejkovic who has been at Spurs for 6 months, so that is not uncommon !

 

[kaz Hirai]

kane is better than soul man at the moment

kane looked like a total donkey against Hearts, Lee Barnard Lite

 

[benski]

tomas pekhart anyone? i know he's doing ok now but i think we've been here before. hope the lad does well though...

 

[Paxtonite]

kane is better than soul man at the moment

Would doubt that based on his performance against Hearts. I know it was his debut but young Tom Carroll was excellent. Kane was poor - penalty incident aside.

 

[beats1]

kane looked like a total donkey against Hearts, Lee Barnard Lite

Having seen him play a few times, I can say he is not a donkey also he go no service, made quite a few good runs none picked out by our wingers other one run, by carroll which resulted in a penalty

Atm he can play a poacher role but he needs service and his control was actually good in hearts game as well

 

[beats1]

Would doubt that based on his performance against Hearts. I know it was his debut but young Tom Carroll was excellent. Kane was poor - penalty incident aside.

I always said Carroll will be the one pushing on the fringes of the first team squad at the end of the season depending on a good cup run BUT people are over hyping a 17 year old who is a natural goalscorer, he got no service in the hearts match despite making good runs atm he can only play a poachers role atm

Also no one played well in hearts game, as having seen carroll played before he is much better in the middle

 

[Bobbins]

kane looked like a total donkey against Hearts, Lee Barnard Lite

Ridiculous assessment. You clearly have never watched him play before.

Do you think all our players and our manager and chairman are shite? You seem to have done nothing but loudly complain about everything in every thread you've posted in recently.

Is White Hart Lane shit? How about Premier Burgers? What about that young girl who's always on the flags/scarves stand, she looks like a right cow!

 

[seneca]

some time on the training ground with adebayor would probably do him some good. as with many of our yongsters some experience during carling cup or europa would be nice to see.

 

[steventhfc]

 

[beats1]

This is all well and good to discuss the possibility, but its an effort in futility. Whatever Redknapp's strengths or weaknesses, one of the overriding failures on his part is to trust our kids. He froze Bale out and nearly sold him to Forest. He only brought him back 18 months ago and he's been pretty good. Rose has had a similiar situation and it was BAE's injury along with other's that allowed him a chance. In fact, while silly, it might be very accurate to say that BAE's health is our best propect development system. Also, HR has played a few for one game in cups, but never come back to them.

Not that you can blame him, no matter your disposition. I believe that 24 is the out edge of age we should be signing, but I understand Harry's need to secure his job and future England possibility by playing the odds. You can't gamble with youth without a system, and we don't seem to have a unifying club ethic. You don't have to have Barca's system......you just need A system. Since we don't, Harry is taking the safe route.

But that safe route could cost us long-term. We've inflated the average age to 28 (I think this is right). That makes us one of, if not the, oldest team in the league. It used to anger us that we were younger than Arsenal, but not given credit for it. This was barely 4 years ago when we finishing in the top 5. Now we are old as shit. It should be enough for top six again, but its teetering on a precarious edge as our medical staff/conditioning regiment hasn't been good enough for our youth. Right now our older players are all falling by the wayside: VDV, Gallas, Pienaar, King. Yes Walker and Sandro are out, but both of those happened with NT duties.

It could be that this artificial aging will actually cause the kids to come to the forefront as they may be the only ones left. But its an odd situation to put yourself in.

So going back to Coulibaly, he won't get a chance. No matter how much more time he needs. We won't see him for 4 years at least unless something changes within the setup.

I would say that despite his need to develop, we should be vetting him in LC and Europa as a late sub when possible because under ideal conditions, we would be looking to make him a squad player by next year. Without that vetting process, we won't be able to assess if we can and thus he will spend next year (if not this) as a L1 club.

This holds true for Kane and Townsend as well.

I agree with bringing youth in but I think thats what he is going to use loan system as well as the carling cup and uefa cup

Imo we are looking at older players so that it gives time for the likes of townsends and etc to come in show us what they got, in two years they will either be good enough for the first team or we will buy new players

Mason is regarded as our best prospect but his progress has stopped over the lsat couple of years to injuries so having VDV has given him extra time to get to perm level

Having a young squad mean does have a adverse effect look at arsenal they have been signing players that over the ages of 26 over the last couple of days

 

[Kalim]

He's probably already got the physique for it. Its not a bad shout for cup games but not sure about the pl. I'd still expect Kane to be slightly ahead of him in the pecking order at this point but if he can go up top alone then the tables are turned.

P.s who was the kid who scored 3 and got send off all in the first half....? Hadn't heard of him before but must surely be a good prospect. Luongo seems to be getting some good coverage too, nice to see an aussie at the club.

I dont think his physique is that developed:

This from DefchenKoe on the Inter nextgen game


Two good finishes by Coulibaly, also some decent all round play. He is really small but quite strong and has an incredible leap so heading isn't a problem for him.

 

[davros]

The kid looks like he's got real potential. We all love the fairytale of the 16 year old who bursts into the first team in spectacular fashion, but realistically we'll probably not see much of him for at least a couple of years. Who knows, though...

 

[kaz Hirai]

Ridiculous assessment. You clearly have never watched him play before.

Do you think all our players and our manager and chairman are shite? You seem to have done nothing but loudly complain about everything in every thread you've posted in recently.

Is White Hart Lane shit? How about Premier Burgers? What about that young girl who's always on the flags/scarves stand, she looks like a right cow!

:lol: oh calm down, i said he looked like a donkey against hearts, and he did.

oh but he got no service blah blah blah, funny how pav saw plently of the ball and wasted plenty of decent chances, and thats because he knew to come for the ball and move into space making it easy to get and those chances

if Kane makes it at spurs...actually if Kane makes it in the premier league ill eat all of my underwear