Power n Glory wrote:Zedie wrote:swipe right wrote:To be fair, he matured and stepped it up in the last few years. He looks leaner, sharper and a much better player than the one we saw in the youth team. At a very critical time, he chose to go on a bad loan, then came back injured and overweight. When he left us no one predicted this meteoric rise.
Yes they did. He killed it at the Olympics and immediately started making big moves for his new club.
He showed loads of talent with us but because he wasnt the finished article at 18, people jumped on him. Typical behaviour from a sub section of fans that cant look past the last performance.
The players transitioning from the youth set up to the first team need extra support from the fans. They're going to have flaws in their game but they need the right sort of environment to learn from their mistakes. During the Project Youth years, we were searching out the very best young players with high potential projections and not one reached the heights expected of them except Cesc. But I would argue Cesc is a product of Barcelona's youth system.
Cesc slotted into a team that could cover his mistakes and allow him space to flourish.
Years later that team had been stripped down (tbf he was here when the stripping stepped up). He was an exceptional talent and it's difficult for most youngsters to recreate it. Even still, the environment since Cesc has been toxic for kids learning in the first team tbf.
They're played too much and not eased in if they have talent due to a thin squad and then when they inevitable struggle, people pile in. Its nuts how they are expected to turn out the same output as seasoned players in their prime.
Too much pressure is put on most of them and they end up leaving in order to get some actual backing.