At what point should young players leave to get first team football?

[brianw82]

It seem that these days, if you don't make your debut by the time you're 18 or 19, you don't have much of a chance. Yet, you still see a lot of young players at 20 or 21 going out on loan hoping to "impress the manager"

An example would be Liverpool. They currently have David Martin, Jack Hobbs, Paul Anderson & Adam Hammill(2nd loans) amongst others out on loan. You also have Danny Guthrie, who did really well at Bolton, who was then shipped off to Newcastle straight after coming back. What chance did he get?
Benitez never mentions these players by name when talking about the future young players, he only mentions the foreign lads he brought in himself. These guys out on loan have no chance of making a name for themselves at Liverpool.

Would you say that kids should move on by, say, age 20 if they haven't gotten a regular place in the squad? Think of what players like Bentley and Sidwell have achieved since moving on from Arsenal, and it mightn't be such a bad idea.

[superfrank]

Bentley was a fringe player when he was at Arsenal, outside of loan spells. AFAIK, Sidwell was nowhere near the first team.

Pretty sure Bentley left just because he wanted first team football. AFAIK, Sidwell just left because he wasn't good enough.

I think it depends on whether a player's a fringe player or a reserve player and whether that player is ambitious (Bentley) or comfortable (O'Shea).

If a player is still a fringe player by 24 or 25, then he ought to be looking elsewhere if he wants first team football.

[brianw82]

AFAIK, Sidwell just left because he wasn't good enough.

Don't know about that. Was consistently praised as the best player outside the Prem before Reading came up, and hardly earned himself a move to Chelsea by being useless.

I can't understand the mentality of guys like John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher. These guys start less than 20 games a season, yet are still delighted to be at United. However, it doesn't seem to affect their international prospects. If it did, I wonder if they would move?

[jebus]

Don't know about that. Was consistently praised as the best player outside the Prem before Reading came up, and hardly earned himself a move to Chelsea by being useless.

I can't understand the mentality of guys like John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher. These guys start less than 20 games a season, yet are still delighted to be at United. However, it doesn't seem to affect their international prospects. If it did, I wonder if they would move?

Doubtful they would move, international duty is not the highest priority for millionaire average footballers after all. I don't understand players like O'Shea and Fletcher either, Soljskaer was another that I always thought was a waste of spce. Great player who was seemingly happy to pick up his pay cheque and hardly earned medals at the end of the season, waste of a career if you ask me, he's just lucky he was in the right place at the right time that night in Barcelona or he'd have been forgotten about by now

[seanfhear]

Don't know about that. Was consistently praised as the best player outside the Prem before Reading came up, and hardly earned himself a move to Chelsea by being useless.

I can't understand the mentality of guys like John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher. These guys start less than 20 games a season, yet are still delighted to be at United. However, it doesn't seem to affect their international prospects. If it did, I wonder if they would move?

Young/relatively young players that leave man utd do not have a great record of sucess at other clubs.Two that have been depending on your opinion are robbie savage,keith gillespie.There probably has been others but I cant think of any at the moment.Inspiration:Johnny Giles from a long time ago.

[superfrank]

Don't know about that. Was consistently praised as the best player outside the Prem before Reading came up, and hardly earned himself a move to Chelsea by being useless.

Yeah...but he flopped at Chelsea and he was never highly rated at Arsenal.