13-05-2022, 01:02
(12-05-2022, 16:50)Slick_Footwork Wrote: Brown and Sinclair are both 25 now and will never make it as Premier League players (possibly not even Championship).
I hadn't realised Izzy Brown's 25 already. Took a look at his career stats, and it seems like a shocking waste. Less than 120 career apps in nine years as a pro, a lot as a substitute, most on loan to Championship clubs. A grand total of eleven minutes playing for the Chelsea first team, and that (ironically) was in the match when we smashed them 3-0. And he still got a Premier League winner's medal out of it.
Then again, you look at our Academy products who *have* had decent careers, and it's pretty much always because we farmed them off to some lower-level club as they weren't good enough for us at 21. Chris Wood's the pick of the bunch (and before anyone moans, I'll point out for the millionth time that we weren't the only ones who thought he couldn't hack the Premier League; Leicester also sold him back down to the Champ in 2015 after he got them promoted). Romaine Sawyers spent six seasons learning his trade before we re-signed him; Liam O'Neil's now put in five years of hard graft at Cambridge. They've done things the right way, and I hope they find their careers more satisfying than Brown or Sinclair, but we can't pretend that Albion showed them any more loyalty in the long run than Cleary and his ilk have given us.
It's a mercenary sport all round.
"I would rather spend a holiday in Tuscany than in the Black Country, but if I were compelled to choose between living in West Bromwich or Florence, I should make straight for West Bromwich." - J.B. Priestley