George Thorne tipped for England call
Thursday 25th August 2011, 12:00PM BST.
Albion boss Roy Hodgson today backed young midfield star George Thorne to follow defender Craig Dawson into the England under-21 squad.
Dawson’s first call-up was confirmed last night by under-21s boss Stuart Pearce, as the former Rochdale man continued his meteoric rise from non-league football.
And Hodgson believes Thorne, who started the Baggies’ Carling Cup victory at Bournemouth on Tuesday, has what it takes to add to his caps at youth and under-20s level.
The Hawthorns head coach said: “George is going to be a very good player.
“The best thing I can say about having him and Graham Dorrans in midfield on Tuesday was that you couldn’t tell one of them hadn’t played for a while and the other was a young boy.
“It just looked like we had got two good central midfield players and that’s the best compliment I can pay them. George is young, he wants to learn and I think we will see him get better and better.
“I always endorse call-ups. I spoke to Stuart Pearce the other day and I know he was there at Bournemouth to watch Craig Dawson in particular.
“But I think he would have been casting an eye over George Thorne as well. If he thought George had done enough and merited a call-up, I would be the first to applaud it.”
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Whilst we purr over the clubs big money signings and the internationals we have throughout the squad we should not forget the fantastic work JP and the team has overseen at youth level…. this crop of youngsters will take the club to yet higher levels as they have grown up in it.
Not sure which previous manager has had the most input into our youth system but I bet Roy can’t believe his luck !!
Congrats to the lads – all baggie fans are proud of ya !!
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1) Roy has certainly been fortunate in his timing to hit such a rich vein of young talent. Goes some way has consolation for his bad timing in taking the Liverpool job. Its almost as if it was preordained he would end up at the Hawthorns after the way he was shabbily treated at Anfield, and get the managerial and fans backing that he deserves.
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Jerome Thomas,
On the dark side, Mick stated he did not want wolves to win the league cup as it would detract from wolves main aim of staying up. I stated like your good self, that it would give much needed playing time for other squad players including our younger one. Obviously ALBION have more faith in their youngsters than do wolves. At this time I’m not sure whether my post was passed on their site. Welcome back in contention Jerome.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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I think the Albion need to concentrate more on bringing in the ‘Yooooth’ as like a few clubs they can’t really complete in the transfer market. 2 or 3 good young lads will be beneficial for every club, especially with the new ‘homegrown’ ruling coming in.
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4) It’s not really about our ability to compete in the transfer market, it’s more to do with how clever we are at attracting quality players. Our recent record is testimony to this and a credit to our club, in particular when we have been able to hold on to our best players. Coupled with an excellent youth set-up things are looking good.
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4 wonderwulf-
when you say Albion can’t compete in the transfer market(the same applies to wolves,because after signing a couple of players,you now have no money left for anyone else),to be honest,what are we looking at?
The biggest spenders,Man.City,have a multi-billionaire foreign owner,who probably bought the club just to amuse himself,and throws an obscene amount of money at them,so some players there are now being paid a million pounds a month-
The other big spenders-Man.Ure,Chelsea,and Liverpool-also have foreign owners,and despite being allowed to spend many millions on new players recently,are all very deep in debt!!
So the question is-
do we want to get involved in the joke that’s the transfer market,because according to valuation,Man.U and Chelsea,player for player,should be 20 or 30 times better than us,yet we came within 5 minutes of drawing with them both recently.
The whole thing’s just a disgrace.
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(4)
Ponder,
Good thinking, Now go and tell money bags Morgan before he leaves for Liverpool with all the building booty.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Good luck to the lad.
Im just looking forward to Stuart Pearce saying ive got ” Thorne in my side. “
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6 CR78.
Along those lines I’ve seen that we’ve been linked with both Boyatta and Onouha from Man City. We don’t know if either is true but if they are we could be the beneficiarys on a loan with a view to buy basis of the spend, spend policy going on up there. Only possible because of the way our club has been run.
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(8)
Odd Fellow,
It wont be too LONG before wolves have one.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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6,Rocket, Totally agree ! The mere fact that both our clubs can compete with sovereign nations spending thier nations ill distributed wealth on follys, while others enter further into debt that would make third world countrys blush, can only be a credit to us both.
I am working on Irony as you know, but i think i found a good example the other day, when a friend of mine from Wigan, who follows Chelsea (he does actually go to the games in all fairness) moaned to me that “Manchester City are buying success and it aint right”.
One day soon the bubble will burst and well run clubs like ours will profit.
But,, if a zillionaire bought either Wolves or Albion and furnished our teams with Messi,Kakka,Ronaldo etc, would we welcome it or condemn it. It all honesty, i dont know if i would.
Im just thankful Wolves are in the Prem (and TOP may i add haha ). Makes it all the sweeter.
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8 Lonely-
I must be slippin’,never thought about a play on his name.
Maybe we can get Annie Lennox to sing the Eurythmics song when he runs out?
And his Dad,Willie,had to give up snooker after falling off the table,and getting seriously injured.
Someone said he had a maximum break.
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Wunderwulf
You might want to look at your own club’s accounts, then compare them to ours. Put simply, if we ain’t got any money, then neither have you because we both run on very similar margins!!
Throw in a new stand to boot and you’re struggling to keep up, unless of course, you’re borrowing money.
Either way, after a transfer market where you’ve added one player to last season’s near-relegation-wonders, I’m surprised you’ve bothered to bring transfer policy up at all…..
George Thorne- well done lad. Hopefully he keeps working hard and is the first of many to make the grade. Anyone know who our last England U21 academy product was? Daryl Burgess or Ugo Ehigou perhaps?
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8 Lone,
Very droll, though I do like it. I guess it probably comes from the “Hawthorns” too.
4 Wonder,
I think the “transfer market” these days is quite stratified, and as others have said, we do quite well within the niche we target.
Like Wolves, we compete at realistic levels, and I for one am personally glad that the club is not competing at the illusory levels dictated by the likes of Man C.
1 Happy
“Not sure which previous manager” – I’d put my money on a certain Jeremy Peace. He’s done well the lad …
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Apologies, Burgess never made it.
Still, certainly progress given the last 20 years have seen us produce the aforementioned, then only the likes of Gabbidon, Chambers x2, Stuart Nicholson, Michael Rodosthenous, Justin Richards and Dean Bennett!!
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11 Lonely.
Good post but don’t you get that gnawing feeling that when they do go bust the rules will be changed and all the debts will be spread amongst all the league clubs.
I know I’m a cynic but there now seems to be an attitude that Man Ure and Liverpool etc are the big clubs and cannot be allowed to fail whereas the likes of our clubs, Bolton, Wigan etc are only tolerated as long as we know our place and accept that we’re just cannon fodder.
Plucky little Albion/Wolves they did their best didn’t they?
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Roy,
I agree, Graham Dorrans pedigree is not in question.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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great to see young players coming through.over here ajax have a really good youth system,they find them very young and sell ajax to them and there parents,i hope albion will be the team in the midlands that attracts the lads to realize there potential,here they produced cruyf,rep,bergkamp,roy,neeskens,wouters,blind,rijkaard,2 kooemans,van basten,and SNEEKES,long live baggies academy.coming over for wigan 10 dec.flying back sunday 16 .40 sureley they wont rearrange that match,10 amsterdam baggies will be very dissapointed otherwise,had to leave last season to get our flight,at half time,against newcastle(rearranged match} boing boing
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11 Lonely-
ever since Chairman Peace invited outsiders to ‘make an offer’ of either investing in,or buying the Baggies,I’ve wondered how it would be if someone very wealthy took a shine to us,and ploughed many millions into the club.
To be honest,I’m sure some guys would welcome it with open arms,having the chance to bring in high quality players,and competing with the ‘big boys’ at the top of the prem.,but personally,if it was Man. City scale,it would sit very uneasy with me.
I’ve never been the jealous type,but I’ve got this thing about ‘fairness’.
What satisfaction would there be in beating clubs that have far less resources than yourself?
I was pleased that we won the other night,but it felt a bit hollow,because I feel sorry for the likes of Bournemouth,who could probably keep their whole club running for a year on what a Man.City player earns in a couple of months.
I was sorting out some old newspapers earlier,and in the Daily Stun from a couple of weeks back,they compared prem. clubs to characters in ‘Harry Potter’ books.
(I’m not gonna mention that wolves were ‘moaning Myrtle’-always complaining they were hard done by,and saying no one liked them).
Albion were ‘Dobbie’-on the small side,but well liked.
And personally,I’m pretty comfortable and happy with that.I can think of a lot worse things you could be in life.
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CR78.
Good post even if it was a bit cruel reminding Lonely about Moaning Myrtle.
I wouldn’t mind betting that Albion fans would be split on age lines over the billionaire owner question. I don’t know where the split would be, somewhere between 40 and 50 I would think. Cyril will remember when players went to the game on the bus sitting next to the fans and people our age were brought up with players still drinking in the same pubs and living in 3 bed semis.
I suppose it’s down to perception. We like to feel a connection with our players and I think clubs like ourselves and Wolves still just about retain this because we have a ‘Wimbledon’ type spirit of being underdogs.
Younger fans have never really felt the same affiliation to the players because for more than 20 years the players have been so well paid that they inhabit a World that is totally insulated from us mere mortals.
I think if we ever take the next step and start bringing in footballers that are richer than most chairmen the time will have come for me to hang up my blue and white scarf and follow Stourbridge.
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(19)
Cantello,
I certainly agree with your explanation. One minor trophy fairly earned, is worth more than a hundred hollow, bought ones. Especially when the “Outlay” is more than the trophies are worth.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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