[Albion] Aaron Connolly - joining Hull permanently

[WATFORD zero]

We've all seen the benefit of young players initially going out on loan, and being introduced gradually into the first team. Thats not what happened with Connolly though. He was pitched in at a young age, started with a blast, and from then on he was playing pretty much week in, week out. As I say, our lack of alternative options at the time was a factor in that, but after the Spurs game (Oct 5th), he didn't find the net again until the last game of the season.

Many of us thought we had an irish Michael Owen on our hands, me included, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. We all wanted him to flourish here, but his career path was handled badly by the club IMO, and his off-field issues just ended up compounding it.

I can only imagine the club invested the same amount of thought, time and money into nurturing Connolly as went into Sanchez, Lamptey, White, Caicedo, AliMac, Moder, Cuc, Sarmiento, Encisco etc etc and considerably more than went into Dunk and Solly

 

[GT49er]

I think that's very unfair. By the very nature of how football works, at some point players have to be drafted into the first team if they are going to make it. He was the Premier League 2 player of the year 18/19, and had scored a healthy return of goals. It wasn't a poor idea to start putting him the first team, in fact it seemed like the absolute right time.

The truth is, as has been discussed, he was too easily distracted and thought he'd already made it. Its such an age old story.

I don't know what the club could have done differently. And arguably if there is anything, you could only determine it with hindsight.

Packed him out on loan, whether he liked it or not, two years sooner than we did (not hindsight - and I'm not the only one on here who advocated that at the time).
Not saying anyone knows better than the professionals a the club - maybe going out on loan would have had an even poorer outcome - just that in this case the club's decisions (and Connolly's) haven't resulted in a successful outcome, which may have worked out differently.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I think that's very unfair. By the very nature of how football works, at some point players have to be drafted into the first team if they are going to make it. He was the Premier League 2 player of the year 18/19, and had scored a healthy return of goals. It wasn't a poor idea to start putting him the first team, in fact it seemed like the absolute right time.

The truth is, as has been discussed, he was too easily distracted and thought he'd already made it. Its such an age old story.

I don't know what the club could have done differently. And arguably if there is anything, you could only determine it with hindsight.

I tend to agree with this. And when he was put into the first team squad it wasn’t like he was playing each and every Saturday.

And it’s not like his career is over. He just needs to sit down and think very carefully about his next move……like many of us have to.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Packed him out on loan, whether he liked it or not, two years sooner than we did (not hindsight - and I'm not the only one on here who advocated that at the time).
Not saying anyone knows better than the professionals a the club - maybe going out on loan would have had an even poorer outcome - just that in this case the club's decisions (and Connolly's) haven't resulted in a successful outcome, which may have worked out differently.

He refused to go out on loan, anyway no matter which way you look at 70 games 7 goals, that is pretty poor goddamn return.

 

[Springal]

As much down to him as well - unfortunately a Championship loan didn’t really work out, a move abroad away from ‘distractions’ at probably a League One level has been cut short so I’m not really sure where he goes from here.

A big part of it is his dedication, professionalism and really pushing himself to make it and from what I’ve heard I’m not sure he has that determination, attitude or professionalism to really make it at any reasonable level. Dropping out from a PL club to a FL club with a 75% wage drop also probably won’t help

 

[Easy 10]

That is extremely unfair, if your good enough your old enough as far as football goes, he was called upon to start after impressing in the background.
Then as we all know things went south quite quickly, how do you know, his attitude or application did not drop, it is common knowledge we tried to line up a loan, and he simply refused and opted to fight for a first team spot. If we are to believe sources the manager at the time was impressed by that, that is not the clubs fault, we then loan him out several times, hoping for some kind of sign that he is back on track or improvement. We have had no sign, that is not the clubs fault, they have done everything they could to help Aaron, maybe things could have been done slightly differently but the outcome would be the same I fear.

The club did not handle his career badly, he has let himself down as far as I can see.

I'm not entirely disagreeing with you. I just feel that in that season when he first broke into the team, the club ended up leaning far too heavily on him. He played nearly 30 games in 2019-20. Then was starting games in 2020-21, but only ended up making 17 appearances, so he was already on the slide. Then in 2021-22 he made just 4 appearances as his career nosedived.

I'm not disputing the fact that the club were patient and gave him plenty of chances. But he was in no way ready to regularly lead the line at this level in that first breakthrough season. The Premier League chewed him up and spat him out. What he needed was a more gradual introduction to the first team, but thats not what he got. After Spurs he was fast-tracked, and as we found out, the learning curve was just too steep. THEN he really went downhill, and here we are.

 

[ewe2]

One can never tell……RZ might just be the manager for him.

 

[Easy 10]

I can only imagine the club invested the same amount of thought, time and money into nurturing Connolly as went into Sanchez, Lamptey, White, Caicedo, AliMac, Moder, Cuc, Sarmiento, Encisco etc etc and considerably more than went into Dunk and Solly

There are all kinds of different career paths with the players you've listed, and most of them weren't pitched into the first team in the way Connolly was. These days in particular the club gets a hell of a lot more right than it does wrong, even looking back 3 years ago.

What I would say is that being a striker is the most difficult position on the pitch. You are judged almost exclusively on numbers, and if you're not scoring, and not justifying your place in the team in other ways with creativity / assists, then you certainly won't last long, as has been the case with Connolly.

Look, I'm not saying its ALL the clubs fault how it has turned out for him, he is very much primarily to blame. But his introduction to the 1st team was in effect a baptism of fire. He wasn't ready to be thrown in and end up playing the rest of the season.

 

[Braggfan]

We've all seen the benefit of young players initially going out on loan, and being introduced gradually into the first team. Thats not what happened with Connolly though. He was pitched in at a young age, started with a blast, and from then on he was playing pretty much week in, week out. As I say, our lack of alternative options at the time was a factor in that, but after the Spurs game (Oct 5th), he didn't find the net again until the last game of the season.

Many of us thought we had an irish Michael Owen on our hands, me included, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. We all wanted him to flourish here, but his career path was handled badly by the club IMO, and his off-field issues just ended up compounding it.

I agree that some successful loans may have aided Connolly and been more beneficial early on, but I disagree that the club is at fault. I think the success of the loan process is something that's being applied with hindsight.

In 2019 we hadn't really seen the benefit of loaning players out. Not to the extent we have in recent years. Connolly's generation were very much the first players to start coming through the academy/development squad that stood a chance of making it to the first team. At that point in time we were loaning out players like Ben White who would later go on to be a big success, but we also loaned out a host of young players who didn't make the grade with us. So it would have been hard to say in 2019 that the the loan process was definitely the best way to go.

We were trying to work out the best way of bring players through, and in Connolly's case we opted to put a young player with a lot of obvious potential into the first team. Which I don't think is letting him down, I think we were, with best of intentions, offering him a great opportunity which he didn't seize.

It' is clear now that it didn't work, and if anything it has strengthened the case for loaning young players out first. But I don't think you can't blame the club for not applying a lesson it hadn't yet learned.

Ultimately I think Connolly has some demons that I don't think anyone could have sorted out. And as we all agree, that is a real shame.

 

[Easy 10]

I agree that some successful loans may have aided Connolly and been more beneficial early on, but I disagree that the club is at fault. I think the success of the loan process is something that's being applied with hindsight.

In 2019 we hadn't really seen the benefit of loaning players out. Not to the extent we have in recent years. Connolly's generation were very much the first players to start coming through the academy/development squad that stood a chance of making it to the first team. At that point in time we were loaning out players like Ben White who would later go on to be a big success, but we also loaned out a host of young players who didn't make the grade with us. So it would have been hard to say in 2019 that the the loan process was definitely the best way to go.

We were trying to work out the best way of bring players through, and in Connolly's case we opted to put a young player with a lot of obvious potential into the first team. Which I don't think is letting him down, I think we were, with best of intentions, offering him a great opportunity which he didn't seize.

It' is clear now that it didn't work, and if anything it has strengthened the case for loaning young players out first. But I don't think you can't blame the club for not applying a lesson it hadn't yet learned.

Ultimately I think Connolly has some demons that I don't think anyone could have sorted out. And as we all agree, that is a real shame.

Totally agree with this, and I'm aware I do have my Captain Hindsight hat on with all this. I was excited by what I saw when he broke into the team as was the club, and we all waited for him to go some way to reproducing the prolific numbers he'd been posting in PL2, but it just didn't happen.

I don't know how "stubborn" he was in that breakthrough season about not going out on loan, but with so few other striker options at the time (and that WAS on the club), its not surprising that he was pitched into the first team for the rest of the season, in the hope he would be the goalscorer we needed. That did him no favours IMO.

 

[GT49er]

He refused to go out on loan, anyway no matter which way you look at 70 games 7 goals, that is pretty poor goddamn return.

Yes, well, there was an answer to that. 'We're paying you umpteen thousand pounds a week, so if we say you're f***in' going to go on loan somewhere oop north or in the midlands, wherever we tell you you're going, then you f***iin' well do as you're told and go!'

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

That is extremely unfair, if your good enough your old enough as far as football goes, he was called upon to start after impressing in the background.
Then as we all know things went south quite quickly, how do you know, his attitude or application did not drop, it is common knowledge we tried to line up a loan, and he simply refused and opted to fight for a first team spot. If we are to believe sources the manager at the time was impressed by that, that is not the clubs fault, we then loan him out several times, hoping for some kind of sign that he is back on track or improvement. We have had no sign, that is not the clubs fault, they have done everything they could to help Aaron, maybe things could have been done slightly differently but the outcome would be the same I fear.

The club did not handle his career badly, he has let himself down as far as I can see.

Agree. And the club’s pathway, processes etc has allowed other players to flourish. Not ever player will make it.

 

[Braggfan]

Totally agree with this, and I'm aware I do have my Captain Hindsight hat on with all this. I was excited by what I saw when he broke into the team as was the club, and we all waited for him to go some way to reproducing the prolific numbers he'd been posting in PL2, but it just didn't happen.

I don't know how "stubborn" he was in that breakthrough season about not going out on loan, but with so few other striker options at the time (and that WAS on the club), its not surprising that he was pitched into the first team for the rest of the season, in the hope he would be the goalscorer we needed. That did him no favours IMO.

In fairness I think you're right we did pitch him because we were short of options up front, and we hoped we would seize the chance. And yeah that didn't do him any favours.

I have to say as well, I've been reluctant to cast Connolly cast aside, because he had so much potential and he is just a young lad. I certainly can't judge him as I have no idea how hard it must be to be a teenager and suddenly be in that situation. I would imagine, it's bloody difficult. I really hope he can do something with his career.

If there is one thing to come out of it though, hopefully it gives the club better insight in how to manage the young players, and we'll see more of them reach their potential.

 

[amexer]

Many a gifted footballer has made it with a poor attitude. His lack of ability is the problem.. So one dimensional. Always wanted the ball over the top. Like Vardy who of course has so much more to his game. Not strong enough at moment to play as a central striker and dosnt help is so one footed.

 

[Springal]

Yes, well, there was an answer to that. 'We're paying you umpteen thousand pounds a week, so if we say you're f***in' going to go on loan somewhere oop north or in the midlands, wherever we tell you you're going, then you f***iin' well do as you're told and go!'

If we believe Andy Naylor then even Tony Bloom has been involved in some key decisions around Aaron’s career. I believe as a young lad with a bit of a reputation the club didn’t want him out of their view miles away.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Packed him out on loan, whether he liked it or not, two years sooner than we did (not hindsight - and I'm not the only one on here who advocated that at the time).
Not saying anyone knows better than the professionals a the club - maybe going out on loan would have had an even poorer outcome - just that in this case the club's decisions (and Connolly's) haven't resulted in a successful outcome, which may have worked out differently.

Even with the benefit of hindsight you can't say that would have worked.

Post the Spurs game it wasn't just us who played him. Ireland made him a full starting international. We weren't going to loan a Premier League rival an (at the time) in form player and he refused to go to The Championship. And that's part of HIS problem. He thinks he's better than he is.

When he has been out on loan they've been disasters. We're getting an even worse, even lower on confidence player back from Boro and Venice.

 

[GT49er]

If we believe Andy Naylor then even Tony Bloom has been involved in some key decisions around Aaron’s career. I believe as a young lad with a bit of a reputation the club didn’t want him out of their view miles away.

Yes, that makes sense as a possible reason. What's done is done, of course (and it is what it is!) - personally I think he should have been sent out on loan in 2020........ but that's just my opinion, nothing more!

 

[maltaseagull]

There are all kinds of different career paths with the players you've listed, and most of them weren't pitched into the first team in the way Connolly was. These days in particular the club gets a hell of a lot more right than it does wrong, even looking back 3 years ago.

What I would say is that being a striker is the most difficult position on the pitch. You are judged almost exclusively on numbers, and if you're not scoring, and not justifying your place in the team in other ways with creativity / assists, then you certainly won't last long, as has been the case with Connolly.

Look, I'm not saying its ALL the clubs fault how it has turned out for him, he is very much primarily to blame. But his introduction to the 1st team was in effect a baptism of fire. He wasn't ready to be thrown in and end up playing the rest of the season.

He was also picked for the Irish senior team at the age of 19.
Not sure they are at fault either.
If he came back to the club, is he eligible for the U21 squad?

Maybe a new coaching set up may help him realise his potential. I wish him well regardless of what happens.

 

[GT49er]

I agree that some successful loans may have aided Connolly and been more beneficial early on, but I disagree that the club is at fault. I think the success of the loan process is something that's being applied with hindsight.

In 2019 we hadn't really seen the benefit of loaning players out. Not to the extent we have in recent years. Connolly's generation were very much the first players to start coming through the academy/development squad that stood a chance of making it to the first team. At that point in time we were loaning out players like Ben White who would later go on to be a big success, but we also loaned out a host of young players who didn't make the grade with us. So it would have been hard to say in 2019 that the the loan process was definitely the best way to go.

We were trying to work out the best way of bring players through, and in Connolly's case we opted to put a young player with a lot of obvious potential into the first team. Which I don't think is letting him down, I think we were, with best of intentions, offering him a great opportunity which he didn't seize.

It' is clear now that it didn't work, and if anything it has strengthened the case for loaning young players out first. But I don't think you can't blame the club for not applying a lesson it hadn't yet learned.

Ultimately I think Connolly has some demons that I don't think anyone could have sorted out. And as we all agree, that is a real shame.

At various times in 2019 we had, among others, White, Sanchez, Clarke, Gyokeres, Ostigard, Mac Allister and Rushworth out on loan, so we had a pretty good idea of what were doing! There were unsuccessful loans then, as there are now - some of our current loanees aren't having the best of times out on loan now; sometimes loans are successful, sometimes not - it goes with the territory!

 

[Brovion]

Rather like England's 1966 World Cup win in retrospect that Spurs game was the worst thing that ever happened to him. It turned out to be an outlier, an aberration and not a true reflection of either his talent or his development. Without it, and without the subsequent praise and international recognition, he may have realised much earlier that he wasn't PL quality and perhaps he could have sorted himself out and found his true level sooner.

I don't blame him in the slightest btw for thinking "Hey, I'm good at this!", and even acting it, after all we all wanted to believe it, but sadly it just wasn't true. Hopefully after another failed loan at a decent level the penny has now dropped. And yes maybe the club and the Irish FA (and us fans) are a little bit to blame, but hindsight's a marvellous thing.