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Haha, was thinking that “depleted” was a better choice of word. The double over Spurs, Chelsea and beating Man City is definitely not the results of a poor team. Agree with the sentiment that he should be with the U21s though. He’s still very raw. Main issue is Crawford favouring Carty and Kenny over him historically.
Fair enough, my poor team comment was wrong. They are doing much better than I thought to be fair.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
I will say that if he stays in the team for rest of season and gets a couple of goals he would be worth looking at in the summer games. He's not there yet though
We'd be full on giddy if one of our players was in that Wolves defence, someone like, let's say Nathan Collins .... :(
Not even in u21s. Interesting to hear Crawford be asked about him and if he has any interest in playing for us
No surprise to be honest. He hasn't been in an Ireland squad for a year and a half, Crawford's useless but even he's not so useless that he'd voluntarily leave him out of the 21s. He may or may not come back in again, but I haven't seen or heard anything about him to make me think we're missing out on a superstar here or anything. We have an awful lot of strikers with decent potential aged 23 and under, as things stand I'm not convinced Fraser would be a massive loss.
Turned down a call up this window to focus on his club football being the only fit CF Wolves have atm.
One player not included is Wolves striker Nathan Fraser, who has recently made his Premier League breakthrough. Fraser was born in England, and has previously played for Ireland at U19 level.
Crawford did try to include Fraser in this squad, but the player said he did not want to be called up, citing a fear of being injured at a time that he is the only fit striker on Wolves’ books. He has asked to be considered for future Irish squads.
“I’ve had a few conversations with him and at this point in time he is the only fit striker at the club”, said Crawford.
“He certainly is a bit apprehensive about being injured. He sees an FA Cup game this weekend against Coventry, there’s a strong possibility he will start, and their next Premier League game is against Aston Villa, a massive derby. He does think over the next while he will get Premier League experience, which is great for him.
“With the U21s, it would have been a different challenge. That’s what he says, I respect it. He did say he wanted to be considered for future international camps. In June we will have a couple of friendly games, so if all things go well he might be included in that. That’s all I can say on Nathan. Of course we would love to have him, but it is an opportunity for someone else to show what they can do at this level.
Grand, it's a job for new man to figure out when he comes in.
Good Briefing ~ That's what you want.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
Yeah and it's a reasonable excuse too. It's one game and given his lack of appearances in a green shirt he probably would have gotten a few minutes off the bench at best.Quote:
Originally Posted by seanfhear
Kenny did similar with Obafemi though for different reasons. But if Fraser is the only fit CF at Wolves it's probably for the best to let him get his feet under the table and come in for June. If he's still got excuses come June it's bye bye and move on.
You can definitely see the thinking behind it ~ And a good argument for it to be ~ Good thinking.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
It's a bit more credible than Cannon anyway who just isn't arsed...
More quotes from Crawford.
“I had that conversation with him about coming in and the training won’t be too taxing. We’re preparing for a game and (would) take everybody’s loads into consideration,” he said.
“He had a good think about it. There were a few text messages, more conversations around it but he came back and said he’d spoken to certain people.
“The silver lining is he wants to commit to Ireland going forward.
“That’s his decision. There’s nothing more I can do. I’m not going to get aggressive with him or challenge him. If that’s the way it is, I’ll respect it.
“It gives others opportunities to come in.”
Asked if he sensed whether England had made an approach, Crawford replied: “No, I didn’t. He was sincere and I can only take him at face value.
“He’d like to be considered in windows going forward.
“He’s decided to stay in Wolves and we’ve an array of players that can cause any team problems in terms of creating and scoring goals.”
Calum Kavanagh and Mark O’Mahony could win their first caps at Under-21 level, while QPR’s Sinclair Armstrong and FC Zurich youngster Armstrong Oko-Flex are also included.
“If they’re pulling up trees in training or get a few minutes, that becomes the challenge when selecting the squad for June. That’s the other side of it,” Crawford continued.
“He (Fraser) wants to be considered but if these players show what they can do the challenge is on me to pick the best players for June and September.”
Crawford, who also insisted that he was committed to the Under-21, amid speculation that Bohemians could target him for their managerial post, reiterated Fraser’s desire to represent Ireland.
“It’s just the way he said it to me, I want to commit going forward,” he said.
“Things might be slightly different if was still on the bench for the (Wolves) first-team and there were two strikers ahead of him. That would probably be a different conversation
Starting today in the FA cup tie against Coventry.
Interesting that Chiwome who is younger that fraser and started upfront on Saturday was away on international duty in a friendly tournament with England Under 18s last weekQuote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Looks like he's goes to Zulte Waregem on loan for the season. Hopefully they have enough cover for him so that he can take a 21s call up.
A fair drop off from playing Premier League games to the Belgian second division. Would want to be banging them in at that level to warrant an Under 21 call up anyway.
Yea from starting in the premier league to joining a so so belgian div 2 team on loan. He must have had better options than that?
The Belgium second division did no harm to Jake O'Brien's career and one of our better U21 performers is currently at that level. So not necessarily a bad move for him.
O'Brien had played LOI and L2 in England, so was a decent move for him, (ditto Healy) and to a club connected with his parent club. Fraser was starting in the premier league only a few months ago. anyway, good luck to him.Quote:
Originally Posted by ifk101
Does Wolves have a link to this club? I know they had partnership with Grasshopper FC but they were sold to LAFC this year.
To be fair I think Fraser's EPL appearances were more out of necessity for Wolves due to a striker shortage than a sign that he was a particularly huge talent. Reports were that he struggled at that level in the games he played.
Season long loan confirmed
https://www.essevee.be/nl/nieuws/ess...-wolverhampton
Returned to wolves a few weeks ago after a fairly underwhelming loan spell in Belgium
Not a huge shock - he doesn't have any real track record to suggest he's a particularly high quality player, his EPL appearances for Wolves came about because they had no other options at that point.
Going from premier league appearances to beligan division 2 never seemed like a good idea.