Are The Youngsters Being Frozen Out?

[Pepe the Horseman]

Henry's loan at Norwich was a bit crap (for reasons beyond his control, like Alex Fernandez)

Go on...

[SCIAG]

Nothing juicy.

Norwich took five loanees, but FL rules at the time only allowed them to field four. They needed their other loanees more, so Henry had to sit on the bench and hope that Ryan Bertrand or Kieran Gibbs had to go off. They also had Ched Evans and Alex Pearce and needed them more than they needed a right winger.

[From Despair To Where?]

Wasn't the original point that our current crop of youngsters out on loan aren't pulling up trees and playing enough, at the levels they're playing out, and so their futures don't look likely to be living up to the hype and expectations the club and many fans have placed on them?

That's exactly my point. There's been a clamour in some quarters for them to be involved in the first team yet the evidence of the loan spells suggests they are not ready yet.

Cooper is considered a first team player on the back of a run in the team last year due to injuries. Had those injuries not occurred then I reckon we would have seen him on loan in League 1 or maybe the Championship this season which is a realistic reflection of where he is IMO. All the training in the world cannot replicate the mental intensity and decision making of a competative game.

[NewCorkSeth]

I don't think you develop a centre back partnership in training, you do it in matches. Hard to see how you could give multiple possible permutations of players any meaningful time together. When Cooper is probably 5th choice and needs game time to iron out his weaknesses it's hard to see who benefits from him doing a couple of set piece walk throughs with McShane, then watching Joey do them with Blackett, then Moore doing them with Blackett etc etc
Stam clearly has concerns about Cooper in our system, I think those can only either be addressed or shown to be terminal by Cooper playing competitive football. He's not going to do that with us until those issues have been addressed.
I don't think any partial analysis of other clubs has any bearing on that, but I respect your right to look for comparisons. I just don't think they help with Cooper's particular situation.

Fair enough! Everything were disagreeing on is of course just opinion and I maintain my opinion that Cooper will learn more training with the first team than he will going out on loan at this point in time! I also respect that you have a differing opinion. I may be utterly wrong but we will never know unfortunately.

[Nameless]

They could find him a local loan and keep him training with us one day a week - everyone happy that way !
You'd think Wycombe might welcome a bit of help defensively !