It’s a real hope of mine that he does. That move to Celtic was a complete disaster. Wasted 4 years. He looked bloody good at Bolton as a 17 year old in the Championship.Originally Posted by third policeman
No, I'm in Limerick toes to the fire here, couple of days only. But both if I was there, go big as they say.
I don't see it, no. Inconsistent, still waiting for him to grow into his shoulders and find his voice, very quiet on the field. Definitely the odd nice pass & eye for goal though too. Maybe he'd fare better in a better side. Rumours of players leaving in January, bills to pay so let's see if he's one of those. He wasn't when the club got relegated.
Stephen Kenny Saviour, Leader, Winner, An Autobiography - In All Good Bookstores Now
Great to see Luca Connell have a good start to life at Barnsley after a few wasted years at Celtic.
Barnsley in 4th at the minute with a decent chance of sustaining a promotion challenge. If that happens he's already be playing at a higher level than SPL.
I'd love to see a ballsy managerial move promoting a guy like Connell to the senior squad so the senior squad can be the making of him, not his club. Not very likely given that players not getting PL minutes or getting very close to it are being iognored when we play Malta in a friendly.
Can he play in the hole ( 10) ? then yes
Super finish and well-confident. Looks to be on set-piece duty too, set up a beauty of a cross which the cb somehow stuck wide.
The worry though, was that the Posh equaliser (as pointed out by Crafty above). If Luca was a sitting midfielder (i.e. protecting, tracking runs) then he failed badly, as tailor covered the entire middle third and got onto the end of the cross for lovely finish in the same time it took Luca to get from the centre circle to the edge of the box without ever looking behind him once. really bad awareness there - or effort - hard to tell which.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
We have plenty of legs in our exiting midfield options. It’s guile we’re lacking and that appears to be what Connell offers.
Much as it's nice to see Connell doing well again after his disastrous Celtic move I still wouldn't be rushing him into the senior squad any time soon. We know he's a lovely ball player and has a decent shot as well, but we also know that he's seriously lacking in other areas of his game.
I don't think he has the engine to be a serious player at senior international level - he'd be the equivalent of playing with a man short off the ball against anyone decent. Worse still, I'm not sure some of his issues are fixable with good coaching - if he doesn't have the pace and engine to play at a high level there isn't much that he or anyone else can do about that.
There’s a lot of surmising about Connell’s lack of pace and stamina on not a great deal of evidence. He’s been an effective player at both Championship and League 1 level and is still young enough to develop. ‘Engine’ is a bit of a vague concept. Does it mean pace or stamina / fitness. The latter is certainly fixable with training, the former is an issue, but there have been players over the years who’s technique and awareness made up for lack of pace. How many times have we cried out for the clever pass, the lateral vision, the little bit of guile required to unlock the low block. Abilities that those endowed with engines simply don’t posses. Even as an option of the bench, it would add to a squad whose midfield options are depressingly monochrome and predictable.
I think we need to be careful as to how effective he was at Championship level. He played in a Bolton side that was falling apart - in his 10 appearances they got 1 point and scored 3 goals. I'm not sure how effective anyone in that team was. That's an appalling run of form.
(Bolton did win three games after the New Year, but Connell didn't play any of them)
Effective enough to get a call up to train with the international squad and was highly rated by Bolton fans at the time. Let’s see what happens, but he’s currently playing in a team that’s above Jason Knight’s Derby.
We've called up some dross before in fairness - Alan O'Brien, Joe Ó Cearúill, Joey Lapira. Looking at the start of this thread there's a suspicion he was given an early call-up to test his allegiance too (which is fair).
Was he highly rated by Bolton fans? There's been plenty of players highly-rated on here before don't forget. This thread is fairly empty around his time at Bolton, an assist on his debut aside. Not surprising given they lost all their other games and barely scored.
It was good exposure at the time but I wouldn't read too much into it. He seems to be doing well for himself this year as you say, and that's more interesting, albeit that I still don't like seeing third tier players in the national squad.
he needs to play at a higher level alright. celtic mismanaged him but facts are he wasnt doing a whole pile at an awful level in scotland. we are creeping into "hes better the longer hes not called up " territory here with him. let him enjoy his football for the year and see what level he lands at next year. agree with stu though , calling up more L1 players isnt a good thing and should be avoided as much as possible IMO.
I’d actually agree with all of that, I have a hunch about Connell but I agree he needs to be playing at a higher level and demonstrating consistency before he becomes a viable option. He’d been written off on this forum when he was in the wilderness at Celtic. The move to Barnsley was a bit of a surprise and their confidence in his seems to be paying dividends at the minute. He’s the type of player we’re missing, but I agree it’s still promise at this stage.
Totally agree about not being ready for a call-up at this point in time. Great to see him trucking along and finding a consistent game time and performances but he is not the answer to any of the questions we are asking at the minute.
Pineapple Stu - - take this for what its worth but a very good friend of mine here is a staunch Bolton fan and well connected to those back there and he still remembers him and the buzz around him at the time. Said he was a bright spot in a really poor season and that he was one that the fans felt a future team could be built around. They were really gutted when he left for Celtic. The hard stats you shared mightn't back it up but i'd trust this guys take on it.
Named as Barnsley's December Player of the Month
https://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/20...-of-the-month/
Absolutely crazy that Celtic sent him to the fourth tier of the Scottish league to play football.
Looks like Barry Cotter will be joining him.
Fee in the region of a Premier League player's bar bill
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-42295580.html
I loved watching Cotter at Rovers. He added a bit of dynamic chaos in flat games.
Might have been the making of him.
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