Joe Hugill | heading to Wigan on Loan

I’m super impressed with this kid. His goal scoring record for the U23’s is quite frankly incredible for a boy that’s just turned 17! Let’s hope he develops his all round game as he definitely has the scoring part sussed and that’s the hardest to perfect!

James Wilson and Will Keane however, show us that a lot more is needed to be a success at the top level!
 
I know nothing about him.....but that is the name of a good kid. Bet he never lets his mother down
 
It's already been mentioned with Rooney being a generational talent and with that talent, he had an attitude of a street fighter and a will to win at all costs. Talent alone does not make for greatness. I am sure he will be promoted at the right time much like Rashford and Greenwood if the coaches think he could make the jump up at senior level.

We definitely need to moderate our expectations.
 
He's doing brilliantly. Another year at under 23 level would do nothing for him. It's about consistently challenging yourself. I think we should look at loaning him out to a league one side next season. If he does well, perhaps a Championship loan afterwards. Follow the Harry Kane path. Hopefully within two to three years he will be part of our first team squad.
 
Thiagoal said:
I’m super impressed with this kid. His goal scoring record for the U23’s is quite frankly incredible for a boy that’s just turned 17! Let’s hope he develops his all round game as he definitely has the scoring part sussed and that’s the hardest to perfect!

James Wilson and Will Keane however, show us that a lot more is needed to be a success at the top level!
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Fitness for Will Keane. Supposedly Wilson had a terrible attitude which is never nice to hear. He looked so talented. I think both were pretty easy on the eye at that level but Hugil could be an absolute beast by the time he stops growing. Not as easy on the eye at times but I think he’d be far more effective in the pro game
 
OrcaFat said:
True and, I’m sure, fair. I wouldn’t expect wonders but he would probably feel pressure to deliver.

If anyone has any ideas of how to shake up our bench and our strikers for a game or two, I’d love to hear them.
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It’s frustrating but for now I think he has to work with what he’s got. Short of another short term loan for another forward.
Some of the players look tired but on another day we could have scored 3 against Arsenal. We are creating chances, the forwards need to gamble more and get in there
 
Playing young kids when not ready on the back-off expectations can destroy careers when they fail to live up to expectations. Elite sport is a lot about confidence and that cannot be compromised at any cost.
 
golden_blunder said:
It’s frustrating but for now I think he has to work with what he’s got. Short of another short term loan for another forward.
Some of the players look tired but on another day we could have scored 3 against Arsenal. We are creating chances, the forwards need to gamble more and get in there
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Can’t argue with that.
 
He's gonna be a good player somewhere if he keeps developing, hopefully it's with us!

Loan next year or at least a few league cup runouts hopefully. I reckon he'll fill out over this summer and start to become more imposing next year so should be interesting to see how he goes.
 
Sultan said:
Playing young kids when not ready on the back-off expectations can destroy careers when they fail to live up to expectations. Elite sport is a lot about confidence and that cannot be compromised at any cost.
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It's why I'm having second thoughts about how we introduced Greenwood. He seems to be getting the pressure and treatment of being a first team regular but isn't getting the opportunities to gain confidence and score goals in games. He is being played out of position to be part of a team and play for others while his natural profile is that of a goal-machine and he should be fed opportunities with his face to goal, that is when he thrives. It's good and all to become a well rounded player but I feel we're taking risks with his potential, at his age we should be easing him in playing only at his strengths so he can continue grow with confidence while slowly ironing out weaknesses in his game without getting the scrutiny. Not sure we let parts of his game develop naturally at the moment, I think we're asking too much of him.

If we're going to play Hugill, we should give him a 20 minutes at the end of games against opposition that will sit deep. He can play as an extra striker along with Cavani in the box while we control the game in midfield. He should only be doing that once in a while until he starts to make an impact. He can still play U21 as well, but what we shouldn't be doing is throwing him in and let him score a few goals and have him as a second choice striker next season just so Ed don't have to spend money in the transfermarket.
 
With young strikers it’s really difficult to predict when or if they will make it at pro level. I remember all the hype about Patrick Bamford when he was in Chelsea’s U18’s. It’s taken him a decade nearly to reach the top level and a lot of that was due to him physically not being up to it.

Hugill was rated very highly at Sunderland and on the radar of all the top clubs so the talent is undeniably there!
 
Thiagoal said:
With young strikers it’s really difficult to predict when or if they will make it at pro level. I remember all the hype about Patrick Bamford when he was in Chelsea’s U18’s. It’s taken him a decade nearly to reach the top level and a lot of that was due to him physically not being up to it.

Hugill was rated very highly at Sunderland and on the radar of all the top clubs so the talent is undeniably there!
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Patrick Bamford was never in Chelsea’s u18s.
 
Would love to see him go on loan to a Championship club next season to see what he can do.
 
romufc said:
Would love to see him go on loan to a Championship club next season to see what he can do.
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It might still be too soon. He'll still only be 17 by the start of next season and he's not filled out yet, if we are looking at loaning him then perhaps the season after would be best. You'd be hard pressed to find a Championship club willing to gamble with a 17 year old loan striker.
 
AltiUn said:
It might still be too soon. He'll still only be 17 by the start of next season and he's not filled out yet, if we are looking at loaning him then perhaps the season after would be best. You'd be hard pressed to find a Championship club willing to gamble with a 17 year old loan striker.
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I guess so, the last thing we want is him going and sitting on the bench for the season. We have seen this season, if the loanees are not playing, they are being brought back and sent elsewhere. I like that strategy. We cannot waste loans.

Hopefully he has the right attitude to succeed, too many players who dominate the unders and think they are all that and never make it. We have that with alot of strikers in the past as well.
 
AltiUn said:
It might still be too soon. He'll still only be 17 by the start of next season and he's not filled out yet, if we are looking at loaning him then perhaps the season after would be best. You'd be hard pressed to find a Championship club willing to gamble with a 17 year old loan striker.
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Could be loaned to league 1 or 2, I'm sure teams from those leagues would love to take him.
 
He reminds me a bit like Ruud, is the way he finishes. I'm not saying he'll be anyway as good as Ruud, but his finishing style is very similar. This lad is so young but finishes like a player way older, very composed and hits the target more often than not. He has a large frame that will fill out, speed-wise he averages but it's not all about speed. He's just turned 17, and he's leading the line for the u23's, which is impressive. It will be interesting to see how he develops over the next few years.
 
TheGame said:
Could be loaned to league 1 or 2, I'm sure teams from those leagues would love to take him.
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They are pretty physical in those divisions. I am sure he still has growing pains. May not be advisable till he stops growing and fills-out. Or it will affect his career in the long term.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
A loan might benefit him next season. This level looks a bit easy right now. Maybe in Div 2 or a decent team in Div 1?
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I have PTSD when we were loaning out a young striker, it was never be a good ending. Form injury prone to low confidence young striker that destroy his own career, that's all what we got.
Rashford and Greenwood didn't need a loan move though.
 
Number32 said:
I have PTSD when we were loaning out a young striker, it was never be a good ending. Form injury prone to low confidence young striker that destroy his own career, that's all what we got.
Rashford and Greenwood didn't need a loan move though.
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I tend to agree. Next year maybe he can be slowly integrated
 
We all saw Rashford broke into the scene with his skinny frame and still managed to perform for the first team.

But cannot compare that era with now, back then we had a thin squad and Rashford was picked because of emergency back up.

Now we have Martial, Rashford, Cavani and Greenwood in the pecking order.
 
Sultan said:
Playing young kids when not ready on the back-off expectations can destroy careers when they fail to live up to expectations. Elite sport is a lot about confidence and that cannot be compromised at any cost.
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We often look at anomalies like Mbappe, who at 17 featuring in CL and Ligue 1 games for Monaco, and account for those instances as the exception to the rule, nonetheless, it's worth pointing out that were it not for the coach playing him at such an extraordinarily young age that we yet might be still waiting for the emergence of of Mbappe. I think the point here is to judge players individually and not corporately as an age group and then assume a generalised estimation of their mental resilience, which lets face it, could be (and is) often weaker even in players of higher age and of greater experience.
 
Hoof The Ball said:
We often look at anomalies like Mbappe, who at 17 featuring in CL and Ligue 1 games for Monaco, and account for those instances as the exception to the rule, nonetheless, it's worth pointing out that were it not for the coach playing him at such an extraordinarily young age that we yet might be still waiting for the emergence of of Mbappe. I think the point here is to judge players individually and not corporately as an age group and then assume a generalised estimation of their mental resilience, which lets face it, could be (and is) often weaker even in players of higher age and of greater experience.
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r
That's the key here. However unless they're as physically mature as a Rooney for example, they should not be exposed too early to senior football.
 
I posted on Saturday in praise of Hugill, and have only just caught up with the last few days debate on here. There's been some very good and interesting posts.

I completely agree with those saying it's way too soon to be discussing giving him any first team opportunities at this stage - especially at a huge club like United, but also elsewhere on loan. He was only 16 at the start of this season and started it with the U18's. He's performed really well at that level and has done very well to establish himself with the U23's aged just 17. But that should be it for this season. That's already enough of a leap given his age and lanky build.

Next season will be the year to discuss first team football. Either loaning him out to the football league, or keeping him with the U23's/U21's (EFL Trophy) and having him train with the first team and feature in squads in the early cup rounds?
 
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Sultan said:
Playing young kids when not ready on the back-off expectations can destroy careers when they fail to live up to expectations. Elite sport is a lot about confidence and that cannot be compromised at any cost.
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Actually couldn't agree more sir
 
Sultan said:
Playing young kids when not ready on the back-off expectations can destroy careers when they fail to live up to expectations. Elite sport is a lot about confidence and that cannot be compromised at any cost.
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Agreed.

It's why I was so against people calling for Mejbri last season, the argument is often "can't do anyworse than such and such" which is obviously a wrong and careless mindset to have. In reality he looked talented but raw, even this season where he's refined his game I'd still be very hesitant to drop him in the team anytime soon. Same story with Hugil, looks a talent but very raw and still miles off first team football.
 
Sultan said:
Playing young kids when not ready on the back-off expectations can destroy careers when they fail to live up to expectations. Elite sport is a lot about confidence and that cannot be compromised at any cost.
Click to expand...

The problem with this is that sometimes with exceptional talents they are ready even at 17. I don't want Utd to rule those types of players out from the first team because it might destroy their confidence if it goes wrong for them. I think if you are going to pick a young player to promote doing so while they are full of confidence, in a purple patch and bang in form might be the best way of giving them a chance to live up to the expectation.

Ultimately this is why the manager has to decide who plays rather than introducing some formula of age/under 23 games/loan spells. The question is, is he good enough and the only way he can show evidence that he is for the moment, is by tearing it up in the youth teams and if he does that then the manager decides to give him a try or not.


Ole hails Hugill's performance after his four goals against Liverpool:
“Four goals by Hugill, he’s a top striker as well, we’re looking forward to seeing his development,”
“Amad gets a good start and why Joe didn’t take the penalty himself to get five goals I’m going to ask him."
“Amad will open up defences, so I don’t think it’s gonna be too long before he’s involved in a matchday squad."
“We’re gonna give him the time to settle in. If we go from that game, I’d pick Joe Hugill.”
 
Don't Kill Bill said:
“Four goals by Hugill, he’s a top striker as well, we’re looking forward to seeing his development,”
“Amad gets a good start and why Joe didn’t take the penalty himself to get five goals I’m going to ask him."
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it’s quite funny actually. Almost like Ole is upset at Amad scoring two as it makes it more difficult for Ole to explain to the media why Diallo still doesn’t feature in the first team :)

Easier with Hugill because he wasn’t purchased for big money, so no fans’ pressure to play him ASAP
 
Alemar said:
it’s quite funny actually. Almost like Ole is upset at Amad scoring two as it makes it more difficult for Ole to explain to the media why Diallo still doesn’t feature in the first team :)

Easier with Hugill because he wasn’t purchased for big money, so no fans’ pressure to play him ASAP
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I think he's trying to keep the hype down and deflect attention away from him and onto Hugill.
 
I wonder whether he will make the bench (alongside Diallo) against Real Sociedad in the second leg at home (25th Feb).
 
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