Armstrong and Toney

[Remember Colo]

both always had sumthin about them, even toney on his loans looked strong and like hed develop. its lack of forsight ultimaetly thats cost us

It's ironic that a lack of senior goal scorers for years meant we've always been fighting relegation leading to managers being unwilling to take chances on potential young goal scorers. Ultimately they leave to get playing time and score more goals than who we're left with.

[UlversToon]

Another one for Toney tonight.

Another one, albeit a penalty, for Toney tonight.

[bodacious benny]

27 goals and 9 assists in 35 games for someone new to that level is insane.

[originallad]

I wonder how much he'll be worth in the summer.

[overseasTOON]

I wonder how much he'll be worth in the summer.

Some say he's actually worth a £Joelinton

[gola]

both always had sumthin about them, even toney on his loans looked strong and like hed develop. its lack of forsight ultimaetly thats cost us

It's ironic that a lack of senior goal scorers for years meant we've always been fighting relegation leading to managers being unwilling to take chances on potential young goal scorers. Ultimately they leave to get playing time and score more goals than who we're left with.

yeh, this is a great point.

[UlversToon]

Another penalty for Toney today.

[bodacious benny]

Another penalty for Toney today.

Man C might sign him just to take pens

[bodacious benny]

Hattrick for Armstrong today and 24 for the season

[Valentino's fast feet]

The pair of them will get a chance in the prem soon enough, if not next year. Shame we didn't persist. Especially with Armstrong in our Championship season.

[bodacious benny]

Yeah wouldn’t be surprised if either Watford or Norwich weren’t interested next season, if we did have any sort of re-signing deal in place we should definitely be looking at it I think.

[Valentino's fast feet]

Yeah wouldn’t be surprised if either Watford or Norwich weren’t interested next season, if we did have any sort of re-signing deal in place we should definitely be looking at it I think.

Loving the double negatives Both those clubs would be a good shout for either titular player really, aye. Depends on the fee though, as all things. Championship players don't come cheap anymore. We paid 20m for a proven premier league mid-table striker in Wilson. Villa paid a fair bit more for Watkins, not that, who is now an England international. So that's going to set the bar. If Brentford don't win the playoffs, they'll obviously ask for a fair whack as they did - and got - with Watkins. Won't be cheap. Blackburn in less of a strong bargaining position, in fairness.

[UlversToon]

Ivan Toney has been named on the shortlist for the Championship player of the season award.

[Don Sholeone]

both always had sumthin about them, even toney on his loans looked strong and like hed develop. its lack of forsight ultimaetly thats cost us

It's ironic that a lack of senior goal scorers for years meant we've always been fighting relegation leading to managers being unwilling to take chances on potential young goal scorers. Ultimately they leave to get playing time and score more goals than who we're left with.

Made this point a while back, its just another way we have been shafted under Ashley, both lads should have been slowly tested at PL but because of how we just cling to PL level its too much of a risk, the other year Sorensen should have got some chances and he fell off after his promising performances in the reserves, now its the same with Elliott Anderson, Vilca, Watts etc. Guarantee none of them will ever get a crack at PL football with us.

[Colly]

In small defense of Ashley that hasn't been helped by us having managers who never ever pushed home an advantage so that you can give young players 10-15 minutes at the end of games. Bruce and Rafa both go ultra defensive the second we grab a lead so we're shitting it to the final whistle., I'd love to see the stats on how many games we've won by more than one goal in recent seasons.

[Blue & Maroon]

I don't think getting rid of them was a mistake at the time. Sure they've both come good with a few years lower down but would they have stayed here and gone on loan and had the starts to their careers they've had? Probably not, both probably wanted out, stay somewhere and prove themselves.

As others have said we aren't in a position to test them at the end of games, due to how we cling on but would 10 15 mins at the end of every one in three games be enough for them to develop? No.

They've done well on the paths they've gone on, fair play to them. I don't think you can blame a lack of foresight with either of them though, Armstrong is 24 and has only just come good at Championship level , Toney is 25 and has had a couple of good seasons in league 1 and one excellent one in the Championship, they didn't really kick on till they left us.

[bodacious benny]

Yeah, it's hard to know with a lot of ifs and buts. Had they stayed and rotted in the reserves or given a bad loan move (very few players we send out on loan seem to come back better / improved, I can only really think of S Longstaff after his loan at Blackpool) then they probably wouldn't have turned out the same.

Its been said before, but our youth development really is appalling, the current best example of that is M Longstaff.

[Colly]

On the plus side, at least we've never done a Chelsea and let Salah and De Bruyne go in quick succession...

[bodacious benny]

Talking of youth development, our u18s lost 6-1 at home to Villa u18s last night.

[Donkey Toon]

Talking of youth development, our u18s lost 6-1 at home to Villa u18s last night.

Yep they were embarrassingly bad. Villa took them apart so much it looked like men against boys. I know any team can have a bad game and you can't always be too judgemental but on the basis of that performance i'm not expecting any of our players in our team last night to threaten the first team at any stage. Anderson was probably the best of the bunch but I concluded that he wouldn't have got into the Villa team they were so much better.