Aouar’s first three appearances were in 15/16 all as a CM. In 16/17 he made another 8 appearances 3CM, 1 LM, 4 AM. 17/18 his real break out season he played 22 as a CM, 8 LM and 2 as an AM.
I probably watched as many of these as you, as you know I was talking about this kid 3 or so years ago on SC (with you probably). The thing with Aouar is he can play there, and probably did at youth levels. And still does play there sometimes.
That's great, bit not all players can and do. But here's the thing. Omnomah is not and never will be a winger. But he still didn't shit the bed on any of the games he played there (Dortmund away in the Europa eg) he just didn't look great, but why would he, he does not have the tools to be a winger. He still only had 20 minutes of proper first team football, with the "first team" around him in three years. Aouar had had 3000 Ligue 1 minutes by the time Onomah had 20.
The bottom line is, you cannot judge a kid in 20 minutes or even 5 or 10 whole games. Kane looked like a donkey his first dozen games and on some of his loans. Looked awkward, immobile, heavy touch and missed easy chances.
I do not expect the few academy products I suggest (and it is just a few) to become world class. But we are wasting hundreds of millions buying players who ARE NOT AND NEVER WILL BE WORLD CLASS, all I'm saying is some of those minutes could have gone to a handful of the very best academy players and our team would have almost certainly been no worse off, perhaps better even.
And that money could be used much more wisely on players that would genuinely improve our first team group.
Lesniak, Marsh and Amos are all categorically better DM's than Sissoko. They get about the pitch better, are more tenaciously dynamic and technically more comfortable on the ball. But for some reason we would rather ship them out and watch a 30yo winger with poor mobility, poor cognitive skills and terrible technique clunk about while our football goes down the toilet - for want of a simple functioning busy cunt.
In one game in 17/18 KWP created more assists than Aurier had in that entire season. Did that earn him a run of games? No. Of course KWP made mistakes - but so did Aurier, still is. There is not 50m (fee and wages of Aurier) of value between these two players. There's about £10 and I'm not sure which way.
But this isn't what happens widely in France, where kids will get far more trust and game time to develop, if they are perceived to actually be a viable alternative. And then we will pay 50m for them.
It's not like we are City or Liverpool and we have an uber talented bunch of seniors blocking progress.
We have kids that have been (generally) excellently coached, often for 10 years or more, have won world cups, but we would rather piss money up the wall on mediocre dross - and that is what our football became as a result - than give them minutes.
I don't want an academy player to play for the sake of it. I don't want quotas. There are academy players that I do not rate at all. Did not rate or want Townsend, CCV or Livermore to play for example. Don't overly rate Winks. But when we've got clear weaknesses in our squad, and a very highly regarded academy player in that position, it seems like common sense to me to give them game time rather than buy some mediocre player or play some older player out of position who's also going to make constant mistakes and effect the team dynamic.
