QuoteI thought that was Lowton but you might be right. There are a lot of skinny dark haired lads in that Villa team.
Did he not get the ball wide right on about 88 mins, evade a couple of tackles and find a neat inside pass with his right foot? Tidy and accomplished for an 18 year old if it was. They did lose 2 goals when he came on though. That would have had him damned in Trap's eyes!
I thought that was Lowton but you might be right. There are a lot of skinny dark haired lads in that Villa team.
Surely more game time in their final game ?
Maybe, maybe not. I think he only came on tonight because Villa were chasing the game and had nothing to lose. Maybe with Villa already safe Lambert to say to hell with it.Originally Posted by back of the net
Commentator mentioned when he was coming on that "he's no relation to the late Tony Grealish, although he is an Irish u-21 international".
We (us Irish) all have a bit of Grealish in us apparently, but not our new hope, Jack.
Hmm, but he's not going to be good enough, maybe even for us? Any why 'legal action'? He's their player...
I have no idea how good he'll be but I do know England have tried to get him into underage squads, and even recently he hinted that they were looking at him for the U18s before Noel King called him up to our 21s. He certainly has the potential to be a terrific player.
The legal action thing is a joke based on a post TOWK made on the previous page about City's rivals having a fit if Lambert played a youngster in tonight's game. It won't happen obviously.
According to Jack himself, the FA were previously in touch with him/his father but he turned down their advances.
Ah, fair enough...sounds like he'll land with us. Hope he makes it?
Even if he doesn't make it with Villa, I'm reasonably confident he'll become a very good player. He's come off a very good season at League One level and will be targeting the Championship next season (as will Samir Carruthers) if he's not offered an immediate opportunity at Villa. I think liamoo might be right that we could see him in the travelling party to the US this summer, but even if he doesn't I think he's committed to us. It looks like Brady will miss the summer and Pilkington has had so many injuries he needs a summer off, so there's definitely a vacancy for a wing spot.
IDK. Carruthers has been pretty inconsistent this season by all accounts. He might need another season at L1 but he still has plenty of time to make it at a higher level.
From what I can discern, Jack's International club is Ireland for the immediate future. He hasn't ruled anything out in terms of his long-term future. Obviously, our comparably limited playing pool offers him significantly more of an opportunity than he would get right now with England; and the lad is clearly desperate to play.
Still an interesting 1 or 2 years to come in terms of where he goes (club level)) and what decisions he makes.
I think it's nonsense to call him up this month, unless you want to give him the experience. The qualifiers are 3 months away and he is nowhere near ready. Our immediate focus should be on finding a way to integrate our system around Hoolahan, Reid or Ireland. Then there are lads like Hendrick and Meyler who still desperately need the match time. Gibson and Brady coming back from injury...
Couldn’t disagree more - I think if your good enough your old enough
The higher the level this lads plays at the better , he has been nearly chopped in half in league 1 and gets up and gets on with it
Higher level arguably more time and space on the ball and he will terrorise defenders , already showing maturity beyond his years
I say get him on board now and throw him in , we need someone special in the team that can make things happen . Nothing to lose by bringing him
Who knows he might surprise a few of you on here.
This thread hasn't been the same since Liamoo's typo error
The thing is with us, we only ever have a solitary figure of hope coming along at any time, so yes we have to make sure he comes along on our side but we don't have get all protective and smothering. With James McCarthy, we were probably doing him the favour at the time to cap him competitively to get all that pressure of him and also put a stop to the nonsense that Trap wasn't dealing with it properly. But James was regular epl player, Grealish has had 5 minutes in an injury hit team.
Grealish has made his decision and it's disrespectful not to trust a player's word and cap him competitively long before his time in order to bind him.
Last edited by geysir; 08/05/2014 at 12:48 PM.
I’m not coming from the cap him quick brigade or questioning his commitment. I genuinely believe this kid will shine given an opportunity
What age was Robbie when fast tracked ? With McCarthy it was a disgrace that he was ignored so long before being trusted with a role that he was relishing in at Wigan
Which added fuel to the cap him or lose him argument.
Anyway back to my point – we know what the alternatives have to offer apart from Pilkington you has never been fully fit when called upon. So lets give youth a chance. As I said previously given more time and space Grealish will wreak havoc on opposing defenders.
The controversy over McCarthy getting capped competitively at the time was much more to do with Scotland overtly sniffing around him like a randy dog and James having had missed a more than a few previous call ups, all had brought feelings of 'insecurity' to the boil. McCarthy had a case for being in the squad then, but not a compelling case to start a competitive game. He was a genuine proven prospect at the time he was capped competitively.
If O'Neill calls up Grealish into the friendlies, then fine, take it from there. There's an organic process to follow.
McCarthy had a recurring injury problem and was playing for Wigan with the aid of painkillers at the time, if I remember correctly. The worry was that calling him up for non-competitive international games might only aggravate the problem, so I think there were a few instances where he'd declined to join our squad for that reason and ended up playing for Wigan then the following weekend. I'm pretty sure Wigan and the FAI were in agreement on this matter - that rest and recovery was needed when possible, rather than have him playing in friendlies - but it didn't prevent people accusing him of turning down call-ups with an eye on making a switch to Scotland. Of course, James had never even considered switching and was always committed to representing us.
OK, that runout would indicate that Lambert may well have immediate plans for Grealish - if this is the case, I think he should definitely be in the squad for the summer friendlies and should get maybe 15-20 minutes in at least two of the games. If he is playing first-team football for Villa (or even a decent Championship side) at the start of the season, put him in the squad for the games against Gibraltar and Germany. If we have a safe lead against Gibraltar, throw him on for the last quarter. If the tie in Germany looks lost, give him a few minutes to test himself against quality international opposition. That would set him up to be an impact sub for later qualifiers or even to play a more serious role in the Autumn 2015 qualifiers, particularly if next season does become his breakout year. Of course, if he just gets loaned out to a League One team, then obviously it isn't his time yet, but it would be nice to have him blooded into the team in case he starts the season like Ross Barkley started last season, for example.
Agree 100% with Sam but hey instead we've gone with Connor Sammon to come as the impact sub - disappointed would be an understatement
Michael Harriman started the final PL game of the 12/13 season for QPR. Samir Carruthers has played about 10 minutes worth of PL football. Derrick Williams and Matt Doherty have a full game of PL football between them. Let's call them all up. They have all technically played PL games so they must be PL players, right? God's sake.
The kid has 30 odd games of a League One relegation battle behind him. He is not ready yet. Wait until he has more than two minutes of PL or even Championship football played.
Sammon is mediocre. So is Walters. So is Cox. He has been no better or no worse than either of them. I find it quite strange that people had their minds made up about Sammon before he ever kicked a ball for us yet they think a kid that hasn't even fully developed yet is ready to play against teams like Germany and Poland.
Walters is OK, the bare minimum for decent international football. Cox one step down and Sammon at least one below that...
The best we can hope for JG is he's at least JW, as in an established (in his case) EPL player...
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