- Jan 11, 2013
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If Oduwa is good enough he will get the spot irrespective of who he has in front. I think we have a manager that already showed he's not afraid of putting young players if they are up to it.
I disagree on the whole idea of blocking an academy player. If the young player is good enough he will get game time. I think having better players raises the bar for the academy players and only the really good ones get to progress, which is not a bad thing imo. Did Barcelona reject the opportunity to buy Neymar because they had Deulofeu and Munir at the academy?? Neymar was present and the other were potential. The same here, Boufal is the present and Oduwa/Onomah the potential. What if we reject him now because we bet all on the kids and they don't fulfil their promise? We end up with nothing. On the other hand, if we buy Boufal (or whoever else that applies to this) and the kids fulfil their potential we will have a win-win situation
Ye but there's a massive difference between Neymar and Boufal. We're not talking about someone who is World Class and is guaranteed to get into our first 11. We're talking about someone who while very talented isn't necessarily going to adapt to this league, isn't necessarily going to be better than what we have, and no guarantee that Oduwa won't be better than him at the same age. There is a risk of that happening for anyone but I think you can see the difference between the two. I don't think that's a fair comparison as he could quite easily end up as a squad player, and I believe squad places should generally be taken up by youth players.
Regardless if he comes in he would only replace Townsend and Townsend isn't even getting game time himself and we aren't a club that can afford to spend money and wages on players to sit on a bench. Again either way if we got him, and he outside of a striker is the only person I'd want, I wouldn't be upset, as Oduwa could get minutes here and there next year to prove himself or potentially have one more loan and in that time one of our established wingers may have moved on, but I don't think he is essential