Mainly for those of you who were there in the flesh on Wednesday, were there any signs that Acuna and McClen might be genuine first team contenders ?

McClen in particular seemed to get a lot of favourable comment from the Metro commentators in the second half. Is he starting to get his eye in, or was it just that Spurs were so dire that he couldn't do other than impress ?

It would be great if we went from the one extreme of having too little cover to being spoilt for choice.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Answers

'APprentices' come good ?

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I thought he was average against Peterboro, then fairly quiet against Spurs first half, then superb for the last half hour. Maybe it was the tiring old men of WHL that made him shine? anyway, I think he really could make it. Hope so, we really should have at least a couple of geordies in the first team.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I think it's also a question of time on the ball. In the last half hour at Spurs he found space and time, and came into his own, but he was given it by the acre by Spurs and the fact they had Robert to worry about. Against 'borough and in the first half v Spurs, he was struggling to make an impact, as Dave says. Perhaps it's just confidence. Difficult to judge after so little, but gut feeling is that he'll never be quite the player we need. Just doesn't have enough about him.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I'm not ready to pass judgement yet but i wouldn't argue much with what Pete's said....I was very disappointed with him in the first half but he did come alive in the 2nd...as did the whole team....

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Acuna I'm happy to slot in, but reservations about McClen, and even Jenas! The thing is, we don't want to be 'testing' players at this late stage in the run-in, even if they show promise. I'm not even sure that if we get Emerson he should go in the team, unless for injuries. Shades of Asprilla here.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

From the televised games I've seen Jenas play, he's got more about him than McClen - he's an youth international - in fact captain of the U19's. I don't want to seem harsh on McClen, but Jenas is in a different league (yeah..I know, the 1st Division at the moment).

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Shades of Asprilla? Please don't say you subscribe to the old Asprilla lost us the title line? Asprilla was one of the best players I have had the pleasure to watch at SJP over the last 20 odd years.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Wouldn't go as far as to say he lost us the title. What he did do was create an imbalance in the team causing others to adjust. Agree entirely though about him as a player, the man was a genius on occasions.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Blimey, what a slip of the tongue, eh? I thought I wrote EmerTon and it came out EmerSon. Hope YBR hasn't done the same and we end up with a Boro cast off with dodgy hair.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

... a question of time on the ball ...

This is what makes me favour getting the kids into the first team sooner rather than later. They're never going get used with the pace of the premiereship playing in the reserves.

It's even become a bit of a cliche that experienced foreign players sometimes need a while to adjust.

It was thinking that this might be the case with McClen in particular, that prompted this in the first place.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

it's a shame we can't play 14 or 15 players then ythe youngers ones could get a run out every week

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I like the system of farming out younger players on loan, as long as we supervise training/fitness to some extent. For many it's make or break. For instance the general feeling is that Stephen Caldwell doesn't quite have what it takes at the very top level, but we'd be upset to lose Gary. The brothers are both out on loan, and it will be interesting to see if Gary confirms his potential at Hibs, while we might get some money for Stephen. I'll be interested to see if Stuart Green emerges from his spell at Carlisle the way Bernard did from Darlington and makes a challenge for the first team. We could certainly do with some quality cover in central midfield. Have my doubts over McClen, but it would be great if he just needs confidence to cut it at this level.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

McClen was promising in the 2nd half more than anything - as has already been said, he was allowed time and space. If he had a bit more about him [strength an a powerful shot for instance] he might even have scored - good runner!

But the in the 1st half he was well short of the pace of the game - Spurs midfielders were just passing it past him with ease and making him run around like a heedless chicken. a real Jekyl & Hyde performance.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

IMO, McClen will never make it in the PL, and Acuna is barely adequate.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002