Lewis Cook

I think you're right LIW ............ but who does he have to emulate (Murphy?!!?!?) - it's hardly inspiring is it?

He needs/needed a Barton type player in there.

comment by Yorkie_116 (U2965)
posted 1 hour, 36 minutes ago
I think staying with us with constant change and uncertainty will hamper his development.

Yes he needs to play but not with different managers, tactics, positions every couple of months.

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Thing is he can easily have both.

He can go to a premiership club that is more stable than what we have here and once there can be loaned out for first team football.

There are a load of teams in this division that would want him in on loan and if they offer more consistency in term of staffing then he gets here then it's the best of both worlds.

The kid is a talent, no doubt in my mind about that,but I think it's a real concern that out best players over the last couple of years have been teenagers.

Sorry but that is alarm bell ringingly bad

Matty, we should be used to it after 10 years of Bates' style of fund raising - quality out, crap replacements in. And always undisclosed fees.

Murphy

everyone knows my feelings about what I thought of him after his first game.

And I've a load of stick for it.

But am sorry he hasn't much about him.

Should never have got a new contract

My own view on Murphy is that he is a decent enough player who seems to be quite limited in the role he can play, but does thy role to a decent, if not good, standard

Never worth a million quid though

When his heads on right Murphy can be okay - but that is all. His level is lower champ, top half of L1, nothing more. He did have a (brief) period towards the back end of the season before last where he was consistently decent - but nothing much since. He's not the role model type player for a really promising 18 year old to be playing alongside. Nor is Bianchi, nor is Sloth if he can't get a game ahead of Murphy, nor is Mowatt (a kid himself).

I fear he'll see (or his advisors will) the same and that may mean we lose the lad - and who can blame him
?!!?!? He'll know that the lunacy which surrounds the club can't be good for his development.

They might sign him but will send him straight out on loan. No chance he is good enough to get anywhere near the first team of any of the top PL clubs.

Same goes for Mowatt.

There's always a lot of stick on here for Murphy, but he is better than most give him credit for.

"They might sign him but will send him straight out on loan. No chance he is good enough to get anywhere near the first team of any of the top PL clubs."

The thing is there that if he finds the right enviroment with the right coaching he could be a world beater!..

Sitting at a club that don't show signs of putting the right people in place to up his game isn't going to bring out the promise he shows!..

Mind you, that could be said for just about all our player's, a team is only as good as the teaching it recieves, and the coaching staff are the teachers!..

So, the bossmanager will know exactly what the boss wants to know!..

I know they're not exactly the same player, but Delph was a better & more influential player for us when he was here then Cook - ran rings around so many top players. I'd even go so far as to say that of Howson too, though he was a couple of years older than them - and both were in a better midfield when they were in the championship with us.

Cook's first touch & movement is great, but that really only stands out because we have nothing else going on in midfield apart from the one in five games either Mowatt or Dallas show up. He rarely puts a killer ball in and isn't amongst the goals. Agree with a couple of people on here that if we had a Barton-like player in the middle then these three would be playing with much more confidence.

If Cookie can improve his vision and become a goal threat, he will be a good prem player for years. But it's far too early for him to move to a club like the $(um and he'd be a luxury buy for a lower-half prem team. I reckon we'll keep him.

Both Delph and Howson had a level of experience alongside them in midfield.

In terms of experience all Cook has is Murphy. Not the worst player in the world, but not a role model or someone to really gain a knowledge of the game from. If Murphy were better than we're giving him credit for, then he too would be getting linked with other clubs higher up the league - he's not for a reason I'd suggest.