Yeah, but the World Cup is 10 months away so those 19 year olds you are thinking about (yet can't name them) are pretty useless in the context of 2014. Thiago would be useful for Brazil in a match against a team like Uruguay, where Brazil's counter-attack style doesn't work so well.
lol no He was a super promising kid, rushed into the first team, didn't deliver, got loaned away etc. He played in Barca's first team 4 seasons (lots of chances to deliver), of which three under Guardiola. 115 matches under Pep. No one took any rug from under him.
No it wasnt, it was Rijkaard that gave him his first chance and played him a lot. Once Pep arrived he want bojan to play with the B team and didnt give him as many starts. His confidence went down from there and he hasnt recuperated again. []__[]
He played a lot before pep got there and he scored a lot as well. Once Rijkaard left and Pep came in they wanted him to go backwards. How do you expect a kid to go from playing 40 games with the main club to go back and start playing with the B team. If the management didnt feel he was ready why did they play him so much under rijkaard and then wanted him on the B team under Pep. []__[]
But that's exactly what you implied, i mean why will any NT coach (especially Spain that is loaded with talent) call up a player who isn't performing for his club???
To tied them up with spain before brasil or Serbia came calling simple... both thiago and bojan were called up just for that. They were youngsters at the time of their call ups and werent yet regulars with their clubs nor were established players performing at a high level. []__[]
He was delivering under rijkaard until pep came over and tried forcing him into the B team and took all his confidence away. Pep ruined the young kid who was headed in the right direction at the time pep took over. []__[]
Different managements, Pep and Rijkaard are different people and have different ways of managing teams. Pep came in with his own exact ideas of how he wanted the team to play, with players he really wanted to use and other players he wanted out (Ronaldinho, Deco, etc). But still Bojan continued to play the replacement role he was already playing before Pep became the coach. And anyways, what does this have to do with the Spaninsh NT also???
back to the Bojan topic, youth success doesn't always translate into pro success because of the growth issue with individuals.
I liked the kid. But honestly, he was given many chances at Roma and then Milan, and he just wasn't good enough.
He wouldve been better off playing for Serbia where he wouldve had a lot more opportunities and maybe even start and resurrect his career the national team route. But Spain gave him an undeserved call up at 17 just to tied him up the same way they did with thiago. How many call ups have both gotten since their first game? []__[]
He had 12 goals in 48 matches under Rijkaard (0,25 per match). Then, with the three seasons he played under Pep he scored 10 in 42, 12 in 36 and 7 in 37, which averages to 0,25 as well (or a little more if we're exact). I dunno how that translates to delivering under Rijkaard and Pep ruining him. I mean, "tried forcing him into B team" lol what? A coach has to think about the team's good before taking care of a single player: it was too bad that Bojan couldn't evolve enough under Pep, but Bojan was shown support continuously and he got lots of minutes. I'm not saying Pep wasn't a factor in reasoning why Bojan didn't fulfill the craziest hype, but to put so much blame on him as you do sounds, tbh, like someone speaking who didn't follow Barca intensively during the Bojan years (and who in general just doesn't like Pep anyways).
Bojan is trash and overvalues himself. When he missed that sitter against Inter in the 2nd game I instantly knew he was never going to be good enough.
Ajax should do him good, and when he comes back he should stay in la liga and get out of Barca and play for a mid level la liga club. He should've played for Serbia for international play not Spain what a dummy.
I can't see Bojan developing beyond "a good player". His career thus far has been stop start stop, and he seems to take sideways steps. Who knows though, perhaps after a season at Ajax and scoring against some lesser opposition, his confidence will be restored.
I think as odd as it sounds, Stoke is a good club for him at the minute. Hughes has tried to get away from the 'rugby team' tag people labelled Stoke with to make them a side who play good, crisp football. This has seen fallen players like Bojan, Arnautovic become key to how they play with the system tweaked to suit their qualities. This season will be tough for Bojan as he'll become more of a target for other sides to neutralise Stoke - same as Kane will be at Spurs. Up to Bojan how he gets around this but if he continues where he left off, though he won't be world class he could become an Arteta and have a good, established career in the PL.
I'm so excited to see him, Arnie, Afellay and maybe a marque player (Yarmelenko) synch up next season, a world away from what we've been used to. Bojan really is very talented, I was surprised how good he was given how his career had trailed off. He clearly has confidence issues so we need to treat him like the main man but after Eriksen he's my favourite playmaker in the league.