honeybradger

If we can break even we should. We massively overpaid in the first place.

€3mil when he had 6 months left on his contract is not cheap!

In terms of (un)popularity surely Chilwell deserves to be here. That FA cup cupped ears moment is the stuff of legends, cant think of a player our fans love to hate more. Especially considering he came from our academy.

Sell Daka, promote Evans from U21s, save on wages, potentially improve on the pitch as well. No brainer.

You got it right. Gave the player in question (might as well say Matt O'Riley as it's clearly straightforward who im talking about) no opportunities to make it into the first team despite clear talent. A couple of years later and he's a big name in Scotland who would be one of Fulham's best midfielders and makes a big money move to another Prem side. You hear a lot of 'you dont see them in training' when talking about managers not giving opportunities to young players but from the perspective of one of these talents they are often unseen by the manager himself. Most fans would be surprised by how distant that relationship is if the manager isnt actively looking to promote youth and take that risk. It's not like Scott Parker is an outlier either, he's going to be among the top 20 managers in the country next season despite being despised by Fulham and Bournemouth fans alike. It's fairly common that managers are scared to see youth players push their way into the team as it would disrupt the hierarchy.

Page can play CM.

Alves Khannouss Winks/Page This is our best midfield alongside Ricardo inverting. El Khannouss for progressing the ball up the pitch and his work rate/aerial ability as an 8. Will also be able to drop back and help Winks/Page/Ricardo in the buildup. Alves for his ability to dribble and unlock defences as well as his work rate and tackling. Winks/Page to collect the ball from the defense and distribute it up the pitch. Maybe a bit light defensively but with enough structure we can get away with it at this level.

I think that's nonsense. We were all over the place in the first half of last game and it took Wednesday breaking down physically after no pre season for us to make our mark on the game. There were no clear patterns of play from our senior players so that cant be a reason to exclude the youngsters. 'Not physically strong' give it a rest, I've seen Monga physically body Skipp and Vestergaard in the pre season training clips alone. I dread to think what is happening to them in the footage they arent showing. If you think Monga, Aluko, Evans, Page and Nelson arent physically ready what does that make Winks, Skipp and Vestergaard? Winks is a feather in the wind, Skipp is clumsy and Vestergaard has no centre of gravity. Alves you may argue is the only one who isnt great physically but he didn't show that in pre season. Also he had one of the highest dribble success percentages in the championship last season and a very high tackle success percentage for a winger, so his slight frame clearly didn't let him down. It's strange to me how fans will scramble for reasons as to why academy players cant play but will similarly scramble for reasons as to why players like Skipp should be starting like 'he was good on loan at this level 5 years ago'.

The point I'm trying to make is that chances as the season goes on isnt good enough. I genuinely believe these youngsters are better than those players we have starting/coming off the bench right now. They should be more involved not just for their own development but for us to have our best chance of getting in the automatic promotion spots this season. In my opinion they are being held at arms length simply because of their age/to not disrupt the senior players/to retain the value of the senior players for transfers. Not based on actual footballing merit.

I'll take it on the chin that maybe im overreacting for the first game of the season. For me the first game is important as like your first step it decides your direction but a lot can change over the season. In my opinion a lot of these players are ready for us contrary to your opinion. Nelson Excellent loan at this level and impressed more and more each game in pre season. He shouldn't be 'featuring more and more' he should be starting, end of really. Vestergaard and Faes scored yesterday and played well, fair enough. They're still never going to be good enough for where we want to be and have let us down time and time again. Either die a slow death with them being just about good enough for the championship or give Nelson a chance and hopefully he develops into a PL level centreback. Aluko Has impressed with every chance he has been given. He hasnt had a bad performance for us yet, whether it was a cameo in the PL or in pre season. Justin was pretty poor the other day and Thomas was not much better, for my money Aluko is a better option than both of them. I challenge you to show me a match where Aluko was 'not ready' based on his performances. It's unfair to him that he's being held at arms length by manager and fans, not much more he can do to break through. Page Similar to Aluko please tell me one performance he has had that has suggested he is not ready. He has impressed with every opportunity he has had. On the contrary Skipp and Soumare have disappointed us constantly and did so again the other day yet will still continue to get regular starts.. He is a better option than those starting ahead of him and therefore should be starting or at least getting off the bench. It should really be that simple, players need to play/start based on merit, not based on wages or transfer fees. Alves Was also very good in pre season and has already proven to be a good option off the bench in the championship. I think he should be making the bench ahead of Mcateer who doesnt offer enough. Hopefully he is one of our first options off the bench by Christmas. If we're not giving him adequate minutes this season then he will never get them here and will go off to succeed elsewhere. Monga He's in our top 3 players alongside Fatawu and El Khannouss. Giving him occasional starts is less than his ability deserves and having Mavdidi start ahead of him reduces our chances of winning games. It's that simple really. He has to be first choice. It's been said on here before but we would bench Lamine Yamal if he came through here. Evans Maybe he's not ready. He only got 60 minutes at striker in pre season and I thought he played well. Kind of reminds me on when we stuck Kane on the wing and 2 seasons later he was the Premier League golden boot winner, cant really judge him if he's not playing in his best position. I think we would get more joy out of him at striker than Ayew or Daka. One of my friends is related to a Premier League footballer and it gave me a lot of insight into how managers and fans overlook academy talents. He started out at a Premier League academy, got minutes here and there in the cup, some bad some good but not much else. You had some fans calling for him to get chances and others saying he hadn't impressed enough. They got relegated to the championship and again he wasnt given a fair shot. He ran down his contract and left to a League One side, within a year he was already at one of the big Scottish sides and a couple seasons later he made a £25mil move to a Premier League side. From not getting minutes in the championship to a £25mil move in 3 years and the manager that didn't give him a chance is still managing Premier League football next season. Managers generally have a blind spot when it comes to academy players, even Guardiola let Cole Palmer leave. We had a similar situation with Calvin Bassey, who was advised by Maddison to leave to get a fair shot elsewhere. Simply put academy players are taken for granted even if they are better than the options ahead of them. We will only understand what we missed out on when they leave to succeed elsewhere.

Managers usually start out they will look to go on. Only Thomas and Stolarczyk in the starting XI, who are already established, and only Monga coming off the bench, shows how much he is willing to trust the academy players. Very little. 0 non established academy players starting and only Monga coming on, who might actually be the best footballer we have so him being a sub is below what you would expect. In respect to Evans if you go off performances in pre season i would argue that he was no worse than Skipp, Mcateer, Daka yet they get opportunities and he doesnt. Sadly the non-established players do not have a level playing field with the established players among fans and managers. The good performances of the non established players get dismissed and the bad ones lead them to be instantly labelled as not ready. Meanwhile the established players can regularly drop clangers and still be in the matchday squad. Aluko for example was our best defender in pre season before he got inexplicably dropped down the pecking order. How is he supposed to stake a claim for a first team spot when he plays excellently then is denied chances to establish himself further.

I really hope he shows more faith in our academy players than he has so far. It feels like after a promising pre season from our talents he has now stuck them back out in the cold again. Monga benched (should be starting, he's better than Mavididi) Nelson benched and no minutes Page benched and no minutes Alves not in squad. Aluko not in squad. Evans sent back the U21s It's looking pretty grim for those of us that were hoping for a rebuild around our talents this season whilst we're at a lower level. Don't say the priority needs to be promotion, it's laughable to think that we wouldnt be better off playing Page instead of Soumare or Skipp or Monga instead of Mavididi, Aluko instead of Justin, Nelson ahead of Vestergaard etc. If anything this approach is hindering our short term success as well as the long term.

We win this game comfortably with Ruud in charge. We beat Ipswich and Southampton easily under him.

Has barely touched the ball. Thought he was supposed to be running matches in this league. League 1 quality player.

Im not saying he's the biggest problem but he's already getting it wrong. Monga on the bench is a disgraceful decision. Same with Nelson. Page is better than Skipp or Soumare. Alves, Aluko and Evans need to be involved. It's only the the first game of the season but he's already gotten a lot wrong!

Why are you backing him? He's kept the academy at arms length when they're the only shining light coming into this season.

He's part of it now. Playing the same old rubbish instead of backing the academy is only going end one way for him.

That was saveable if Skipp left it. Pretty much an own goal from him

Monga on the bench is a major mistake from Cifuentes. One of our few players who makes things happen every time he touches the ball.

He may have cost us a lot of goals last season but he's a good lad. Doesn't deserve this kind of comment.

We got it wrong trying to hold out for £10mil. Thankfully Sheffield United are plonkers but they could have easily walked away and we would be stuck with him.

That was my experience as well. Hard to watch footage of him and not get worried that he's going to be a bit of a donkey.

I thought he was good in the minutes offered to him despite playing out of position, apart from the most recent friendly. Monga was our best player in pre season, if that's the level required to make it into the first team then we're going to be letting go a lot of good enough academy players over the coming years

He's unlikely to get first team minutes elsewhere unless he moves abroad (I think he would be the next big thing in scotland if he moved there for example) but the offer of a good wage to play youth football at somewhere like Man United would be tempting. If you look at the U21 top scorers quite a few of them are running down their contracts and moving abroad. I agree with you that he isnt a winger, he's not as good at taking on players like Monga, Fatawu, Mavididi or Alves. I was actually moderately impressed with his performance at striker against Peterborough despite all the criticism he got for not getting on the end of crosses (he could have run near post or held back, he decided to hold back and the cross went across goal it happens). Im disappointed he did not get more opportunities there and dont think it's fair to judge him off his games out wide as that's not his game, he needs to be around the box to be effective.

He was good for us from when he joined to 2021 and he was good in the championship last time around as well. Looking back in 20-30 odd years we won't have had many players (If any) who performed well for us for 5 years straight at a Premier League level including good performances in the champions league knockouts and an FA cup win. I personally see him as a legend due to the way he embraced the club on top of his performances but understand that most won't agree. I think he will be looked upon a lot more fondly in a few years time as his declined version (2022-2025) becomes the normal level for our midfielders.