I don't really know what people are arguing about, it seems to be like a classic political discussion when everyone really argues about something that almost everyone agrees on. Like now with Shoretire. I think it was 'bigsid' who said something about agent power regarding Shoretire's playing time, other than that everyone has had fair comments about him. From September to the 30th of January, Shola had two goals and two assists in 14 U23 games (and five yellow cards and one red card). That's hardly brilliant stats by an attacker in a U23 team. No one questioned his ability, no one questioned that he is a very good footballer who is playing well above his age group. What people questioned was that he got that much playing time (almost 90 min in every game), when he was pretty anonymous in some games. The questions were whether it was a good idea that he played a few U18 games because he's still very young and U23 is a physical league, it's no shame in that, he's young even in a U18 context! If we can't question that, what's the point with the forum? And it's very easy to never stand for anything, to never have an opinion, and then come in and scream that everyone is an idiot when things are going well. Does it have to be black and white every time? He has, like everyone else, bad games and good games. Sometimes after games, it's easy to go too far in either direction, unfortunately. He has been better in the last month than he was in the beginning, it's a fact. And he has always been one of the biggest talents in the academy. And now when he is playing brilliantly, we should enjoy it rather than throwing stones at each other.
One thing I noticed against Arsenal was that he was the main guy in our attack. When Diallo played, and when Elangas has played earlier, they have been the 'go-to-guys', but now Shoretire was that and that shows how he has grown with responsibility, and that is seriously impressive considering his age. What I'm most impressed by is his decision making, you seldom see that maturity from such a young player in that position. I have always thought that he can improve his goals and assists, and in the last month he has certainly done that. With him, Hugill, McNeill, Amad, Elanga amongst others, we have a lot of potential and quality for the future.