Player development

[cmonurz]

Romelu Lukaku was mentioned on another thread, got me thinking about player development. We see a lot of young players with (relatively) small clubs, who get big money moves and then see their careers stall, either for a season or two, or permanently.

Lukaku is a current example of this. Having played 97 times for Anderlecht in the past two seasons, scoring 41 times, Chelsea came a-sniffing in the summer and snapped him up for £13m + add-ons. Since then, Lukaku has played just 7 times for this new club.

At Anderlecht he was playing week in, week out, was scoring goals (including in the Champions League) and had a handful of caps for Belgium.

Surely the former is a better situation for a player like Lukaku (still not 19 until May, admittedly) than 'learning from top quality coaches' in Chelsea's reserve team?

Can big clubs 'spoil' young talent by snapping them up before they have gained useful experience?

[Stranded]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

[Simon's Church]

The same could be said or Morrison, he started over 40 game in the season and a half before joining us and in the past year he's started once...

I'm of the opinion that they should be playing competitive games, I'm sure there's a massive list of players who've moved to big clubs early and never looked the same. Though, that could be down to suddenly being one of many talents instead of a big fish in a small pond. Probably depends on the player.

[FiNeRaIn]

Yep, you can add Morrison to the failed list. Should get rid now.

[ZacNaloen]

Isn't Morrison still 21 or under or something?

Bit rash to get rid at that age really

[LWJ]

Bit unfair he hasn't been given a run yet, should send him out on loan though