Just as a rule is there a specific point or time frame in a player's development where the sentiment of 'give him time, he's still young' crosses into 'it's just not gonna happen for this guy'? Maybe after 3 or 4 seasons of sustained first team appearances? The same question applies to injury prone players.
Just curious about this given some of the criticism of Rashford/Martial last night and looking back on some players from the last 5-10 years. We had a situation on Sir Alex's retirement where we had 3 young centre backs in Evans, Smalling and Jones that were marked as the future of our defence. All three of them had shown some real promise at various points in their early careers and it seems silly not to acknowledge this. We hoped that at least one of those would go on to be a world class centre back and 6 or 7 years later it sadly hasn't happened. Similarly if you think back to Arsenal ten years or so back they had players like Walcott and Wilshere and they just never kicked on from some early promise. This emphasis on developing players can obviously affect transfer strategy as Jose hinted that he was prevented from signing a new left back at United because the club firmly believed in Luke Shaw's development which would take time. In Arsenal's and United's previous cases you could argue that this faith was severely misplaced.
So is there a specific point at a players development and after a sustained period of first team appearances where you get to a point where you just give up? Or are there circumstances where each case has its own merits? Has a young or injury prone player proved you wrong and developed into a proper first team player?
Personally I think Rashford will go onto be a very good player and I think he has far better potential than Welbeck ever had (a player he gets compared to unfairly IMO). I think he will develop into a better player but Martial is infuriating at the moment and I'm starting to lose all hope in him ever becoming a great player for United.
Just curious about this given some of the criticism of Rashford/Martial last night and looking back on some players from the last 5-10 years. We had a situation on Sir Alex's retirement where we had 3 young centre backs in Evans, Smalling and Jones that were marked as the future of our defence. All three of them had shown some real promise at various points in their early careers and it seems silly not to acknowledge this. We hoped that at least one of those would go on to be a world class centre back and 6 or 7 years later it sadly hasn't happened. Similarly if you think back to Arsenal ten years or so back they had players like Walcott and Wilshere and they just never kicked on from some early promise. This emphasis on developing players can obviously affect transfer strategy as Jose hinted that he was prevented from signing a new left back at United because the club firmly believed in Luke Shaw's development which would take time. In Arsenal's and United's previous cases you could argue that this faith was severely misplaced.
So is there a specific point at a players development and after a sustained period of first team appearances where you get to a point where you just give up? Or are there circumstances where each case has its own merits? Has a young or injury prone player proved you wrong and developed into a proper first team player?
Personally I think Rashford will go onto be a very good player and I think he has far better potential than Welbeck ever had (a player he gets compared to unfairly IMO). I think he will develop into a better player but Martial is infuriating at the moment and I'm starting to lose all hope in him ever becoming a great player for United.
