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Player Alfie Devine

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ShutUpPatrik said:
This is a fine line to thread and I think it needs to be assessed on a individual basis.

Poch believed in this principle full stop. And argument can be made that it hindered more academy players than it helped.

Carter-Vickers funnily enough has one of the more successful careers out of those Poch youngsters because he was exiled out on loan a bunch for not being deemed good enough.

It definitely doesn't suit every youngster to just stay and train with the first team.
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yea it will defo be different for certain individuals. i got a feeling devine might be better off training with the better players than he would dropping to champo to play week in week out with inferior players.

match minutes are still important though. fucking massive shame we dont have europa!
 
Elias said:
IIRC some Celtic fans were saying the 8s in Ange's system work so hard that he often subs them off, sometimes after an hour. Ie a 60m : 30m split shift.

If that's true, and given the fact we will still inevitably pick up injuries, there is definitely a case for keeping Devine training with top technical players and getting decent minutes on the pitch.

But it also depends on the Head Coach's mentality. Conte would only put Sarr & even Bissouma on the pitch when his first choices ,Bentancur & PEH, were near death.

If Ange rotates more, splitting the minutes to keep energy levels up , to ensure the 8s are making both forward & recovery runs, then there will be opportunities for our younger squad players.
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yea thats true. if hes going to want his midfield kept fresh and high intensity then hes defo worth keeping.
 
This is a player who should have been getting minutes for us last season. Hopefully we don't continue to halt his development and either loan him out or give him minutes. He's more than ready.
 
Competitive game time is the most important thing at this point in his career so a loan is probably the sensible move long term. He had loan offers last summer and the club wanted to send him out but got an unfortunate hamstring injury in August. I'm sure there will be plenty of interest in him again this summer. Thought he played really well today
 
I hated Poch’s decision to keep all youngsters and not play them. Our youngsters need minutes, send them on loan if you can’t give them proper game time. Without European football Devine needs to be loaned.
 
Another argument for keeping Devine at least until Xmas is that Ange is introducing a brand new tactical system,

Poch kept KWP around forever, when he knew our system backwards, and had the likes of Walker, Trippier, Aurier ahead of him in the pecking order. His development was massively stalled.

But if we loan Devine now, he will pick up tactical habits that may be the exact opposite of Ange's requirements for an 8 or a wide AM in his system.
 
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Whether he stays or goes out on loan, imo, depends on whether Ndombele and Lo Celso stay - and personally I'd prefer both to be moved on as much to generate cash to buy other players (hint CB's) and free up wages.

Devine is not a RW but a no 10 or most attacking CM imo, and without Ndombele and Lo Celso we would have :

DM's - Hojbjerg, Bissouma, Skipp
CM's - Bentancur, Madison, Sarr, Devine, White

I think Ange would use one DM and 2 CM's in his preferred formation, which could mean all of Sarr, Devine and White getting minutes either as subs or as starters.

Of course Ange could include Maddison a a forward in some matches giving Devine probably more minutes. :

RW - Kulusevski/Maddison
CF - Kane, Richarlison
LW - Son, Solomon (and Gil)

But if either of Ndombele or Lo Celso stay I think Devine would be better on loan to get minutes - preferably a Championship loan although imo he might attract attract attention from a lower half of table PL side, he really is that good
 
Spursidol said:
Whether he stays or goes out on loan, imo, depends on whether Ndombele and Lo Celso stay - and personally I'd prefer both to be moved on as much to generate cash to buy other players (hint CB's) and free up wages.

Devine is not a RW but a no 10 or most attacking CM imo, and without Ndombele and Lo Celso we would have :

DM's - Hojbjerg, Bissouma, Skipp
CM's - Bentancur, Madison, Sarr, Devine, White

I think Ange would use one DM and 2 CM's in his preferred formation, which could mean all of Sarr, Devine and White getting minutes either as subs or as starters.

Of course Ange could include Maddison a a forward in some matches giving Devine probably more minutes. :

RW - Kulusevski/Maddison
CF - Kane, Richarlison
LW - Son, Solomon (and Gil)

But if either of Ndombele or Lo Celso stay I think Devine would be better on loan to get minutes - preferably a Championship loan although imo he might attract attract attention from a lower half of table PL side, he really is that good
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Sarr and Bissouma both going AFCON. Which would leave us with Skipp, Bentancur, Hojbjerg and Devine in January which is no where near good enough. Especially if Bentancur isn't half the player he was.

We absolutely need to keep one of, if not both, Ndombele and Lo Celso (unless we get bids that we can't refuse) or simply need another central midfielder.
 
Starks said:
Sarr and Bissouma both going AFCON. Which would leave us with Skipp, Bentancur, Hojbjerg and Devine in January which is no where near good enough. Especially if Bentancur isn't half the player he was.

We absolutely need to keep one of, if not both, Ndombele and Lo Celso (unless we get bids that we can't refuse) or simply need another central midfielder.
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Within a 25 man squad (ie 2 per position, 3rd GK and 2 others) and , and assuming Ange wants to play 433, we can only have 6 or maximum 7 midfield players in the squad.

So we need to manage within that, despite AFCON, so no chance of keeping both Lo Celso and Ndombele, particularly given their historic performances - and for latter reason I can see us selling both (if we can) to get one non AFCON going player who is first team material.
 
Spursidol said:
Within a 25 man squad (ie 2 per position, 3rd GK and 2 others) and , and assuming Ange wants to play 433, we can only have 6 or maximum 7 midfield players in the squad.

So we need to manage within that, despite AFCON, so no chance of keeping both Lo Celso and Ndombele, particularly given their historic performances - and for latter reason I can see us selling both (if we can) to get one non AFCON going player who is first team material.
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I think Hojbjerg will probably be sold
 
Spursidol said:
Within a 25 man squad (ie 2 per position, 3rd GK and 2 others) and , and assuming Ange wants to play 433, we can only have 6 or maximum 7 midfield players in the squad.

So we need to manage within that, despite AFCON, so no chance of keeping both Lo Celso and Ndombele, particularly given their historic performances - and for latter reason I can see us selling both (if we can) to get one non AFCON going player who is first team material.
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Given Devine's age, 18 turning 19 in August a/c to wiki, I assume he's a free pick.

Ie he doesn't count towards the 25 man PL squad.
 
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