Saturday brought Gary Gardner’s Coventry debut, where he also managed to score a goal to complete a (personally) successful first game at the Amex Stadium in Brighton.
As soon as Gardner had put the ball in the net, Twitter and other social media outlets were lighting up with predictable messages, highlighting that loaning Gardner out was foolish, and that his goal for Coventry proved he was good enough to play in Villa’s first team.
I’ve even seen other blogs suggesting we call him back to play tomorrow against Swansea. I’m honestly lost for words regarding that kind of opinion. Two games in two days for one player alone is foolish. Knee-jerk reactions based on sensationalist crowd-playing is, sadly, somewhat predictable.
The problem, however, is that scoring in the Championship does not make you a shoe-in for a Premier League team. Notwithstanding the fact that Gardner’s loan to Coventry is only a month long, the leap from the standard displayed by teams in the NextGen Series is a gulf away from the Premier League. If we are honest, the difference in quality between the Championship and the Premier League is significant, never mind between Premier League and youth football.
So Gary Gardner has, by all accounts, put in a good display which will only serve to cement his place in the Coventry first team during his loan period. For Villa, this can be nothing but positive. Better, in my opinion at least, to give the lad some competitive football than risk him in the potential cauldrons that December offer to Aston Villa.
Youth – The Future, Not The Present (Yet)
Now I know, speaking as a Villa fan, that circumstances are, to say the least, challenging when it comes to supporting our beloved claret and blue army. The fact that many senior players are failing to deliver cultivates an obvious desire to change the team around to make things play out differently.
One of the options available to any manager is to drop players and replace them with alternatives from the squad. The issue at Villa is that, for the most part, outside of the “first team”, the majority of alternatives are youth players, most of which have very little dedicated Premier League experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the fact that the likes of Ciaran Clark should be brought in when James Collins is playing badly, but even Clark needs to be phased in. The key to successful youth development is letting them progress at a level that offers a smoother curve of adaptation than dumping them in the first team.
If you want evidence of this, one need only look at Manchester United. For those players that have come up through the youth system, each time players have been sent to lesser teams in order to grow minus the pressure of being a United first team member. Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck are two ideal candidates for displaying how playing for Wigan and Sunderland helped them adapt to the pressure of United.
Of course, Villa are a lesser team than United, but the general premise is the same. In relative terms, letting your players play at a slightly lower level offers two benefits:
Firstly, that those players are not going to be risked in your team by the nature of slotting them in at the level you compete at.
Secondly, that players can be observed at a lower level to see whether they are good enough for you, or not good enough and thus able to be sold to other teams as profit.
Gardner playing at Coventry allows him to continue his progression with less pressure than having to line up against Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea. Of course, many could argue he could thrive in those games but, on the flip side, he could also have his confidence destroyed if, as many fans are already predicting, said games offer nothing more than defeats.
Impatience – It Is What Is Holding Us Back
As a fan, especially at a club that has been somewhat beleagured because of a series of issues both with money and managers, it is all too understandable that the hopes and fears of Aston Villa get put into every youth prospect that comes along.
The reason it is done though, is because Villa fans aren’t happy with the present situation. Ignoring for a second McLeish, fans have to realise that the circumstances and squad that McLeish has is limited. It’s provable as limited away from McLeish’s tactic by the evidence displayed by last season’s performances. I find it hard to believe that several managers have the same problem with the same players and it somehow isn’t down to players as well. Of course it is.
When finances aren’t available, things are even more challenging. Whereas Manchester United would both loan out their youth players to lesser teams, and buy the best of youth players from other teams like Smalling & Jones, Villa have no such set of plans. It has become a vicious cycle in recent years – senior players fail, youth players are hyped with massive expectation. If the young player doesn’t play, the manager has it wrong. If the young player plays and is shown up to not be as good as expectation, the player gets told they were never as good as they were made out.
Now I understand that players can go out on loan and it might not work out. Delfouneso went out on loan but seemed to do nothing for instance. However, this can often tell us more about the effort of the player than of the loan itself.
Players can be succesful on loan. Bannan did well at Blackpool. Lichaj did well at Leeds. Both of them came back and are staking claims for the first team.
Delfouneso didn’t do well when he was out on loan and, perhaps only coincidentally, isn’t anywhere near the first team plans.
So it proves that if loans do go well, and there is no reason to believe Gary Gardner’s won’t, then Gardner could come back in January as a player who starts from the bench.
From that position, he stands a good chance of getting run-outs in the latter part of matches to continue his development.
It might involve patience, but it is what works. Don’t believe me? Just ask Sir Alex Ferguson.
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