Ethan Laird | Birmingham watch

Best of luck to him. A shame that we are well off at RB at the moment. So much of a young players future at United just comes down to timing and with Ethan, it's just the wrong time with Dalot and AWB there.

Was lucky enough to chat to him on pre-season in Melbourne, such a polite guy who you could tell loved the club. Will definitely keep an eye out this season for him.
 
Champ said:
To think that some thought he should have been around the first team on here! :lol:

Best of luck to him, very good player and will excel at that level.
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It was extremely weird. I get that he was excellent in the academy and I thought he'd breakthrough but way too many posters ignored his many average loans in the Championship and were pushing for him to be fast tracked to a starter for us. The same people are doing the same with Hannibal. If you can't stand out in the championship, you have no business being in the PL, let alone playing for Manchester United.

What you do in the reserves or U18s means feck all if you can't excel in the Championship. Amad is an example of someone you have hopes for.
 
El Jefe said:
It was extremely weird. I get that he was excellent in the academy and I thought he'd breakthrough but way too many posters ignored his many average loans in the Championship and were pushing for him to be fast tracked to a starter for us. The same people are doing the same with Hannibal. If you can't stand out in the championship, you have no business being in the PL, let alone playing for Manchester United.

What you do in the reserves or U18s means feck all if you can't excel in the Championship. Amad is an example of someone you have hopes for.
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That is not true. Just because a player does not stand out in the championship does not mean they were not good enough. Kane had poor loans before flourishing for Spurs and now most top teams are after him.

It is difficult to predict any players career, players develop at different rates. Some players develop slow, some develop early but then fizzle out for different reasons. And most young players have slow starts, the ones that can contribute at top clubs for teams challenging for titles are the exception.

It depends on a lot factors for any academy player to be a part of the United team, some players who were very good in the academy can fail to make the step up, and sometimes players who never stood out at the academy can surprisingly contribute and be useful.
 
If he turns out to be as good as some of us thought him to be, he will be back.

All the best to him and hopefully his injury problems are behind him.
 
Sounds unfortunately quite familiar, but he got subbed of late in the first half. Hope it’s nothing serious this time.
 
Has anyone been watching him? how has he been doing? This just came across my timeline - so I assume he's doing well?

 
Unfortunately the injury he suffered against Bristol City keeps him away from their matchday squad again tonight. The boy can’t catch a break. :(
 
13 starts in the last 14 games, full 90 minutes in 10 of them. Too early to tell if he’s turned a corner in terms of injuries but it’s an impressive run for him anyway. Hope he stays healthy, the talent is there for sure.
 
top1whoisman said:
13 starts in the last 14 games, full 90 minutes in 10 of them. Too early to tell if he’s turned a corner in terms of injuries but it’s an impressive run for him anyway. Hope he stays healthy, the talent is there for sure.
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He was one of the most sure things in our academy but as is often the case, the injuries robbed him of a proper shot.
 
A top prospect on the level of Ravel and Gomes. Still young enough to progress in the Premier League if he stays injury free. Fingers crossed for him.
 
Rozay said:
He was one of the most sure things in our academy but as is often the case, the injuries robbed him of a proper shot.
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I honestly didn't think he was that far off Greenwood, he was unbelievable.
 
He's started 13 consecutive games for Birmingham. 22 starts in the last 23 games. Out of which 15x full 90 minutes. So happy to see him staying fit, fingers crossed it stays that way.
 
top1whoisman said:
He's started 13 consecutive games for Birmingham. 22 starts in the last 23 games. Out of which 15x full 90 minutes. So happy to see him staying fit, fingers crossed it stays that way.
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Good to hear. Still a good player in there, hopefully works his way up to the PL, or some other top league.
 
Still young enough to go up levels too. Hopefully like Tuenzebe he can get a chance at somewhere like Ipswich.
 
Anyone know how he's been performing? Still has the potential to be top class?
 
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pascell said:
For the youth groups maybe, as soon as he started going out on loan he wasn't often injured.

21 appearances for Swansea, 6 for Bournemouth from January (poorly advised loan) 33 for QPR and 26 for Birmingham seems to me like he hasn't often been injured.
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He missed 26 games due to injury in 23/24
 
AjaxCunian said:
Anyone know how he's been performing? Still has the potential to be top class?
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Mate at work is a blues fan and said he has been good for them. He still plays the same way so only issue would be not getting injured when he is playing well.
 
The hype on here at one point had you believe this bloke was destined to be an absolute worldie.
 
pascell said:
But 7 in 22/23
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He’s had a lot of muscle injuries and some of them have been recurring. He hasn’t had too many long-term injuries but has struggled with his hamstrings quite a lot for such a young player.
 
pascell said:
For the youth groups maybe, as soon as he started going out on loan he wasn't often injured.

21 appearances for Swansea, 6 for Bournemouth from January (poorly advised loan) 33 for QPR and 26 for Birmingham seems to me like he hasn't often been injured.
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golden_blunder said:
He missed 26 games due to injury in 23/24
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pascell said:
But 7 in 22/23
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He’s struggled massively with injuries in a couple seasons. As well as missing 26 games in 23/24, in the 21/22 season he got injured with Swansea in November, and he suffered constant set backs in training and didn’t get on the pitch for Bournemouth until the very end of Feb. He then went on to pick up another injury. It was a bad loan move, as by the time he’d got fit (although the Bournemouth coaching team were open about the fact he was continuously having problems injury wise outside of matches) it was crunch time in the season, but even if he’d stayed at Swansea he’d have missed a massive chunk of the season. Even at QPR he had problems, he picked up a hamstring issue in January that kept causing him problems, to the point that after making an appearance in mid Feb, he wouldn’t return again until April.

It’s not just that he missed games which is a problem, it’s that he’s constantly plagued by reoccurring injuries. Even when he’s playing he’s having to constantly nurse himself through these.
 
Robbie Boy said:
The hype on here at one point had you believe this bloke was destined to be an absolute worldie.
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He was a PL level talent. He has missed so much development time through injury in crucial stages of his development period. For example, what was the difference between he and Lamptey?
 
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