[Albion] Aaron Connolly's goal-scoring record

[hans kraay fan club]

So I will state it clearly for you - at the moment Connolly must be regarded as the second best striker in the Irish underage set up. That is partly because of what he has done over the past couple of weeks and partly because of the fact that Afolabi and Obafemi haven't been fit. How this will pan out over the coming season we will to wait and see.

As a Brighton season ticket holder, living near Southampton, who has seen a LOT of both teams' U23 matches over the past 2/3 years, due to being family friends with another of Saints' Irish youngsters, I'm better placed than most to assess these players' relative merits.

Only a matter of subjective opinion, of course, but for me there is no chance that either Afolabi or Obafemi will pan out to be as good as Connolly.

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

Only a matter of subjective opinion, of course, but for me there is no chance that either Afolabi or Obafemi will pan out to be as good as Connolly.

Well then I hope that Connolly does turn out to be the next Wayne Rooney - Ireland might have four good strikers for the next decade.

 

[CheeseRolls]

As a Brighton season ticket holder, living near Southampton, who has seen a LOT of both teams' U23 matches over the past 2/3 years, due to being family friends with another of Saints' Irish youngsters, I'm better placed than most to assess these players' relative merits.

Only a matter of subjective opinion, of course, but for me there is no chance that either Afolabi or Obafemi will pan out to be as good as Connolly.

Interesting, do you think this might help him in the JRG RoI U21 rankings? It seems to be quite a fluid system and sometimes the ratings get turned upside down, almost on a whim. Not sure I really understand it to be honest.

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

Interesting, do you think this might help him in the JRG RoI U21 rankings? It seems to be quite a fluid system and sometimes the ratings get turned upside down, almost on a whim. Not sure I really understand it to be honest.

Ah now Cheesy - underage players bounce all over the place in terms of development - few, if any, demonstrate a consistent, linear progression in footballing terms. Non-league football is littered with players who were then next big thing only for their potential to take a nose-dive. Connolly is the flavour of the month at the moment because he scored two goals last Saturday - in six months he could be out of the first team squad and in a year he could be playing in the League of Ireland. It is impossible to predict how these kids will pan out.

As an example - in the 1970s 4 kids from Dublin went to Arsenal at the same time and played on the same team - Liam Brady, David O'Leary, Frank Stapleton and John Murphy. Everyone has heard of the first three - yet all three have repeatedly stated that by far and away the most talented player of the bunch was John Murphy. Having arrived at Arsenal in 1973 - John Murphy gave up soccer before he was 18 and never played again for any team. In 1982 John Murphy was part of the Irish triple crown winning team after taking up rugby when he returned home from Arsenal.

Brady, Stapleton and O'Leary were among the best players ever to play for Arsenal (and Ireland) - yet the pick of the bunch ended up so disillusioned with the game that he just turned his back on it. It happens all the time.

 

[Driver8]

Nah - read what I posted a couple of days ago - it is clear that Connolly has jumped forward in the last few weeks - partly because Alofabi and Olafemi have not been fit. Jaysus - if Mick McCarthy can say last Tuesday there is no reason to promote Connolly to the senior squad because there is no way he would start him ahead of James McClean (who has been utter sh*te for Ireland for the past year) - can change him mind and promote him by last Sunday and then say that he is considering starting him yesterday - surely I am entitled to a little re-evaluation in the light of developments.

Now - I will reiterate what I have been saying for the past couple of days - there is serious over-hyping of Connolly at the moment - he has started one game, scored a couple of goals and all of a sudden he is the new Wayne Rooney. I really hope his is as good a footballer as Rooney - but jaysus - get a sense of proportion.


My comment was backed up by evidence - the fact that it doesn't sit with the over-hyping of Connolly's performance on Saturday does not take away from this.

It is also worth noting that many of the posters on here are hoping that he will come good so that he can be flogged off to a top six team for crazy money - I want him to be the best striker in soccer so that he will break every record that Robbie Keane has for Ireland (and Robbie Keane is an individual that I despise on a personal level - no matter how good he was). Irish fans have a different perspective than Brighton fans - no matter which club team they support.



What evidence do you have that I dislike the club? - where have I ever made such a comment?

As for the other stuff - I have stated on here that I was wrong about Ryan - he has turned out to be a lot better than I expected. I never said that Shane Duffy was sh*t - I said that he was rash and made mistakes (Hughton did a very good job coaching him up) - what I did argue was that John Egan was a better prospect and I believe that will ultimately prove to be the case. I still believe that Potter is over-hyped - he has been manager for a handful of games. When people were raving about what he did at Östersund on a shoe-string budget, I pointed out that the club was mired in corruption - and guess what - the club is now on the verge of collapse.

I disagree with the way money rules football - you now have to be a billionaire to have a PL team - fans have no say - I grew up when teams like Ipswich, Derby, Nottm Forest, Leeds, Everton, Villa could win the league - where the likes of QPR, WBA, Watford, Burnley, Southampton could challenge for the title. That doesn't happen anymore - and the prospect of Brighton ever being in such a position are extremely remote. Sky and the wall-to-wall coverage of soccer has ruined the sport and those that now buy out clubs contribute to the crap we now have to endure every Friday night, Staurday morning, Saturday night, all day Sunday and Monday night. Soccer used to be about going to a game with your kids at 3pm on a Saturday and sitting on the couch watching MotD on a Saturday night as you dissected the performance that afternoon - now you spend a weeks wages on going to a game as a tiny number of footballers earn an obscene amount of money for kicking a ball around a field.

Brighton are a fantastic club - a club that has survived many a troubled time - a club that has made great strides forward - but it is also a club that is trying to play the big money game except it is doing so by taking a series of gambles in the hope of becoming a big club - and without the money of an Arab oil sheik or a Russian oligarch or an American money-grabber these gambles tend to leave clubs in free-fall like so many before them. That is something I would hate to see happen to Brighton (or any club).


How many of the 2015-2016 development squad have made the jump to the PL - or the 2016-2017 development squad or 2017-2018 ? This is the first year that there is some potential in the younger players making the break through. Maybe, just maybe - the reason why Hughton didn't promote these players is that they just weren't good enough at the time. If he was manager today he could well be playing Connolly and others. When Hughton was at Norwich he was in a similar boat - he inherited a squad where the average age was well north of 30. When he got a chance he bought Nathan Redmond from Birmingham as a 19 year-old and Redmond played 34 times in the PL that season. He also gave 18 year-old Josh Murphy his debut. At Newcastle Hughton played 20 year old Andy Carroll 39 times in 2009-2010, he also brought Tamas Kadar into the team as an 18 year-old and gave 18 year-old Nile Ranger his debut, playing him 25 times in 2009-2010 (mostly as sub). Hughton has played young players when they have shown that they are good enough to make the team and there is no reason to believe that Hughton would not have done the same with Connolly.

All of this has kicked off because Connolly scored two goals last Saturday - if Brighton had lost and Connolly had a stinker instead then the tone of the comments would have been 'give Potter credit for playing him - but he clearly wasn't ready'. If Potter was manager last season I would suggest that there is no way that Connolly would have played. A year is a long time in the life of a 19 year old footballer and they can mature a lot in a few months (even weeks). Here is hoping he continues to improve (and may I add - I have seen both Connolly and Molumby several times for Ireland - and in my opinion Molumby has been the far more impressive of the two).

Am I far off when I mentally read your posts with you having a Bob Geldof ranting accent?!

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

Am I far off when I mentally read your posts with you having a Bob Geldof ranting accent?!

Geldof is a snobby jerk - and he likes to be referred to as Sir Bob (and if you are aware of Irish history you'll understand the relevance of that).

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

Reports in the Irish media today that Potter was intending to send Aaron Connolly out on loan this season to a European club - but that David Weir persuaded Potter to bring Connolly into the first team squad instead after seeing him play for the Irish U19s.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Connolly has a lot of potential - but to be clear about where he is at - he is currently number 5 in terms of strikers with the Irish U-21s behind Troy Parrott, Michael Obafemi, Adam Idah and Jonathan Afolabi.

Tricky match tonight for our U23s, difficult conditions and up against one of Ireland's top young striking prospects. Obafemi was at his most productive in the last 20 minutes, as he sat on the bench cleaning the mud of his boots. Meanwhile our young hopefuls would have been disappointed to only put four past Southampton, considerably below Leicester's par score.