[Albion] Aaron Connolly - joining Hull permanently

[Kosh]

Aaron always had potential, but he needed to develop to realise it... mistakes, misjudgments, loss of confidence, form and (let’s be honest) stuff off the pitch have all conspired to stunt that potential and derail his progress.

He now looks every inch a league 2/NL entity, but one with a great story.

He’s not alone, yes in our history he’s kind of the first, but the PL back catalogue of ‘next big things’ features a wealth of one hit wonders ... I remember many, especially as we ended up playing against some in our darker times - as they fell, akin to winters last autumn leaf, through the leagues to the compost heap of the bitterly cold ground.

His fate is almost sealed and I foresee him banging in the goals, but only when he reaches his true level... think Vardy in reverse.

Good luck to him, but if he returns he’ll be miles off the bench even... for I smell the distinct aroma of burning bridges and high tea at the last chance saloon.

 

[Braggfan]

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!

We did have all those players out on loan, but none of them had "made it" at that stage. You're right, we obviously had a plan, but the end result for those guys came a few seasons down the line. So I was saying at that point in time while you could say we had a process, it was too early to judge its success.

In context, if its being said that the club made a mistake not loaning Connolly out and putting him the first team instead, I think that can only be said with hindsight.

 

[Easy 10]

I still find it baffling how BHA have NEVER produced / developed a striker of any note from its own youth ranks. At best, all our dross sink into the noddy leagues without a trace.

 

[GT49er]

We did have all those players out on loan, but none of them had "made it" at that stage. You're right, we obviously had a plan, but the end result for those guys came a few seasons down the line. So I was saying at that point in time while you could say we had a process, it was too early to judge its success.

In context, if its being said that the club made a mistake not loaning Connolly out and putting him the first team instead, I think that can only be said with hindsight.

'Hindsight' is not appliccable when people said it at the time!

 

[macbeth]

I still find it baffling how BHA have NEVER produced / developed a striker of any note from its own youth ranks. At best, all our dross sink into the noddy leagues without a trace.

obviously without wanting to heap too much pressure on the lad, if ferguson doesn't make it then we are quite clearly cursed in that department!

 

[Easy 10]

obviously without wanting to heap too much pressure on the lad, if ferguson doesn't make it then we are quite clearly cursed in that department!

Weird isn't it. All BHA have ever produced is a succession of barn-door Billys.

Centrebacks though...

 

[Questions]

He got lucky for a bit…..

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Weird isn't it. All BHA have ever produced is a succession of barn-door Billys.

Centrebacks though...

In way that’s ok, imagine unearthing an absolute legend, only to be poached double quick, a good striker is like rocking horse shite, you think our emerging talent gets poached quickly now, wait until we have a striker in the pipeline…

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

In way that’s ok, imagine unearthing an absolute legend, only to be poached double quick, a good striker is like rocking horse shite, you think our emerging talent gets poached quickly now, wait until we have a striker in the pipeline…

Mildly disturbing thoughts of poached shit going through my head after reading that.

 

[Whitechapel]

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.

The old adage “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” holds true though. Saying he should have gone out on loan is simply a case of hindsight. There are dozens of players who have never been out on loan and have made a consistent positive impact for their clubs in the Premier League.

Saka is younger than Connolly, was playing in the U-23 league when Connolly won the POTS & has never been on loan.

In the England team alone you’ve got Trent, Rashford, Foden, Rice & Sterling off the top of my head who jumped straight to performing in the Premier League from U-23 football. The difference between those clubs and us is they know how to handle young, homegrown stars with huge potential - which appears to be something we were lacking. The other difference is almost certainly the temperament and attitude of the player in question.

It’s easy to boil down Connolly to a good game against Spurs, but he’d been denied a goal against Newcastle a few weeks before by an absolute wonder clearance and had; in general, been impressive off the bench when he’d came on. He also didn’t a drop off a cliff after Spurs. The general opinion on here was “played well, the goals will come” for a while afterwards too.

I think the loan players out option is a bit of a win-win when it comes to fan opinions of a young player. We will all question whether we should have loaned Connolly out, but Teddy Jenks has gone from the next big thing to barely starting for Crawley. We’ll probably never see a thread asking if he would have been better off staying here rather than spending a year in Scotland.

 

[Dibdab]

Lets be honest the boy won the jackpot that day against spurs when he secured himself a life changing contract way above his ability. I hope hes been prudent with the cash cos hes going straight to non league after us. Gutting we kept him in the mix over Gykores how looks like hed be a decent squad player right now.

 

[peterward]

Well that’s nice and clear at least - translation ‘Aaron Connolly will return to Brighton in January. The loan will be shortened, originally the Irishman was supposed to stay in Venice until June, but he does not live up to expectations’

"but he does not live up to expectations"

The formal way of saying he's shit!

 

[Dibdab]

The other difference is almost certainly the temperament and attitude of the player in question.

I think that is the long and short of it. Plenty of other youngsters have come through in recent years and made the grade.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

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.

But what about the subsequent loan failings? Why are all these turning to shit as well? Things don’t always work out, so why didn’t he go away on loan and work on things.

I understand the pressure, but as with everyone in life, sometimes things don’t go to plan and we have to have a rethink and rework our plans. Connolly is no different in this sense.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Weird isn't it. All BHA have ever produced is a succession of barn-door Billys.

Centrebacks though...

To be fair, how many other clubs produce excellent strikers?

 

[schmunk]

In the England team alone you’ve got Trent, Rashford, Foden, Rice & Sterling off the top of my head who jumped straight to performing in the Premier League from U-23 football. The difference between those clubs and us is they know how to handle young, homegrown stars with huge potential - which appears to be something we were lacking. The other difference is almost certainly the temperament and attitude of the player in question.

In your list you've named one player from each club youth setup (OK two for Liverpool), and each of these players is a £50M+ value player - the very best of those young players signed/developed by the club.

These are the anomalies and in each of these clubs there are tens, hundreds who go through the normal grind of playing at a lower level before being called up to the PL first team, not to mention the hundreds, maybe thousands who never get there at all.

Our youth setup is still very young, in top-level terms, and maybe we just haven't had that player through yet? One could even argue that Solly is our straight-to-the-first-teamer for your list...?

 

[WATFORD zero]

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.

Very much this. At his age I was an irresponsible, immature waste of time spending all my time having fun (unbelievable, I know ) and it was a couple of years later that I finally knuckled down, got a proper job and worked at it.

Hopefully for Aaron there's still time for him to do this, but I don't think it will be at the Albion

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

"but he does not live up to expectations"

The formal way of saying he's shit!

"We are pleased to see Aaron move to further his career"

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

The old adage “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” holds true though.

"Good enough" in the context of a young footballer should include some appreciation of whether the player is mature enough to deal with all the money/pressure/publicity etc. Not just whether they can get the ball in the back of the net.

 

[Lenny Rider]

"We are pleased to see Aaron move to further his career"

And wish him all the best in his future endeavours.