Bertie Wooster
Full Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2021
- Messages
- 3,864
I'm a big fan of Hannibal and would love to see him establish himself in our first team squad.
But I was a little disheartened by the stats Mr Mujac provided on the youth thread that showed how few players who go out on lengthy loans have ever then gone on to establish themselves with us. It's mostly those who stay at the club and progess to the first team squad at a younger age. So history is working against the likes of Hannibal, Amad, Laird... (though circumstances are currently allowing Pellistri his opportunity).
Hannibal is young in terms of inexperience of senior games before the loan. But on the other hand he is 20, and with 20 international caps, so if he's to come back and make it here I'd have hoped he'd have really shone at championship level and shown himself too good for it. The first half of the season was promising in that regard, without actually reaching those heights, but I was hoping he'd kick on in the 2nd half - instead he's been in and out of the team and the loan seems to be regressing.
There's still a couple of months left, so hopefully he'll have a strong finish. And ETH puts a lot of stock in training so he really needs to try and impress on the Summer Tour with his attitude and in any playing time he gets.
But I was a little disheartened by the stats Mr Mujac provided on the youth thread that showed how few players who go out on lengthy loans have ever then gone on to establish themselves with us. It's mostly those who stay at the club and progess to the first team squad at a younger age. So history is working against the likes of Hannibal, Amad, Laird... (though circumstances are currently allowing Pellistri his opportunity).
Hannibal is young in terms of inexperience of senior games before the loan. But on the other hand he is 20, and with 20 international caps, so if he's to come back and make it here I'd have hoped he'd have really shone at championship level and shown himself too good for it. The first half of the season was promising in that regard, without actually reaching those heights, but I was hoping he'd kick on in the 2nd half - instead he's been in and out of the team and the loan seems to be regressing.
There's still a couple of months left, so hopefully he'll have a strong finish. And ETH puts a lot of stock in training so he really needs to try and impress on the Summer Tour with his attitude and in any playing time he gets.