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Tom Davies

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davek said:
I can only tell you what I see in front of me now. Rooney was a phenomena, so I'll leave that one side as you'd have to have been Stevie Wonder not to see his future potential even at 15. But Barkley wasn't as obvious. That said, as soon as I saw Barkley play for the first time I could see the control he had over the ball and the vision to make good use of it. Only time since then with an Everton youngster I thought that straight off was Keiran Dowell. He has a lot more vision and ability than Davies. Davies is all energy levels and honest endeavour. He's hit the jackpot with Koeman's arrival as he values those qualities. Sometimes it's all about timing. Under Martinez probably Dowell would have been the one to step up and Davies would have had to wait.
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Rooney's the most advanced kid I ever saw. Only Michael Owen in my memory came close. For some reason he never achieved close to his potential imo. Sounds daft that considering he is England highest goal scorer and behind just Shearer in the premier league era. But he really should have become world class rather than just flirting with it.

I first really noticed Barkley in the England U17s that won the euros. He was the best player in the team but I agree that he didn't stand out in the way Rooney did. At that age Rooney was terrorising Premier defences. Still think Ross has the potential.

Like you, I expected the likes of Dowell, along with Ledson and Walsh to come through before Davies got a look in. But he's really grabbed his opportunity with both hands and has surprised me both his technical quality and his attitude. He's so much more than energy levels and endeavour imo. I think I see where our opinions differ Dave. You seem to be specifically preferring flair players and maybe Davies doesn't fall into that category. But that doesn't mean that he won't develop into a very good player in time.
 

Think this needs putting into perspective. He's 18, captain of the England U19s and nobody in those U19s or the England U20s for that matter have played anything like the number of PL minutes he has. There are a few like the Rooneys , Dele, and Rashfords who bypass a few levels but generally they work their way through and it's usually at u21 level they start to play PL games e.g. Gray, Redmond, Ward-Prowse, Grealish last season. I wouldn't have any of them ahead of Davies and I would guess they've all got 2 years on him. You can see the improvement he has made this season from those tentative move-the-ball-on- quickly passes in his first couple of games this season to the confidence he has now to try things. He'll keep on improving no doubt about it, and if he never hits the spectacular heights of Rooney then it means we'll keep him for a long time at the core of our team.
 

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