Moros

Better youth development in Belgium itself inspired by our neighbours ( the prime example being the Dutch) in which there is much more emphasis is on technique and enjoying football than on tactics and winning for one, especially for the younger ages.

Nonsense, plain nonsense. I guess I may as well start using the ignore function.

You appear to be right: http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/15132-zakaria-bakkali/?hl=zakaria

He's one of those great talents from the 1996 year that is full of potential (Musonda (Chelsea), Perreira (Manu), Thielemans (RSCA), Schrijvers (Genk),..) He had offers from big PL teams in the past but stayed at PSV for some reason. And yes he seems to be putting his potential to use and is showing he really is the real deal. He has been selected for the next friendly game of the NT against France. But he still hasn't officially chosen for Belgium yet. He can also still choose Marocco, his second nationality. He seems to be preferring Belgium as he'd they have better chances to qualify and compete in tournaments and of course for his carreer (no Africa cup), but his heart is also telling him to join Marocco. His third one of the night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il2esC3DruM

He has recently been criticised for some reason when failing to score in a one on one with the goalkeeper for the national team using a chip in. I guess that explains it. However silly it may be.

That and only City have individually a team as talented and with as much depth as ours. Man u only really has an advantage at CF position, all their other players would great difficulty at getting in our first eleven. Man city is hence our prime rival, but they have a manager new to the league who has a completely different playing style as Mancini. They'll have probelms taking off. Arsenal...well is Arsenal. We'll be just fine.

Overreaction much? Unless buying Ronaldo or Messi, we cannot get to the level of Madrid in one season. Sure we couldn't cope with Ronaldo but only really when our best defensive set up was no longer playing. Also it's pre-season. We will still be growing as a team and many of our players will be growing individually as well. Quality wise we can win the BPL titel this year, the CL is likely out of our hands this season. Sure. But not for that long. Or do you want to do a Man city summer? It's not like it helped them achieve much succes in Europe...

As I'm having summer vacation, I just kinda switched my day and nights since last week. Ah the lazy student life. Is it on tv in Belgium!?

Poor is perhaps a bit exaggerated, Zulte & Hazard didn't play that bad. Their attacks were much better, but they couldn't handle PSV's great attacking talent. Especially after the red card. You know he's going to Wolfsburg in January, right? But yes, he was the only one who could handle PSV defensively. I also agree with Hamilton, RSCA is really the man u of Belgium.

€9 million for World Class goal keeper Courtois or the same amount for KDB? We'll be enjoying them a lot longer as well.

Yeah like stingray said, playing a few good games as a 16 year old in Belgium doesn't mean you can compete with an almost completely Premier league level squad. However if he progresses I can see him play for the NT in a few years time. Is his potential higher as that of Charly Musonda? That's hard to say. Charly has the advantage of being around and playing against better youths. I guess Chelsea will have better youth staff and training as well. And indeed they're quite different types of players. Considering Charly's flair (he has that Iniesta flavour) most perhaps would pick him. He's great though and always effective and rather composed as well. If Chelsea would buy him he'd certainly could make it in the starting line up some years later. There have been no links between Chelsea and him though. Not yet though.

Especially by the press, I assume? Either way today he gets a new chance against PSV. Let's see how it goes, it's still 0-0.

Anyone who follows the Blegian Youths know he's the real deal. He has the potential to make it in a team like Chelsea, but of course it's not because you have all the potential, that you will make it. I'm surprised he stayed under the radar of the general audience for such a long time. I especially remember him scoring a hattrick (in a 3-2 victory) against Germany with the Belgian U16 and being surprised to hear so little of it.

I'm not a zulte fan. I'm a Genk fan, who thinks ripping apart Zulte on the basis of one game is easy. If anything you've got coloured glasses on. Every time RSCA can't get one of their targets, they are frustrated. Just accept you can no longer get every player from the Belgian league you set your eyes on. No Belgian club can. No instead when a player decides to go elsewhere they are always wrong about it. Anderlecht would be the only logical and good choice, grow up or catch up. Anderlecht has better infrastructure sure, but it's not like they have that much else to offer. You talk about pressure, but if anything RSCA is the worst place to be if you want to learn how to deal with pressure. Even last year, with many players who had outgrown the Belgian league by far, they needed to get that wacky dutch psychologist to ease their mind. Anderlecht has been bad at that for years, strangely even when they are having success they manage to unstable themselves. And it's not like they have the press against them. Van den Brom has made it even worse, now they can't even miss a penalty or it's a crisis. Great job of the manager supporting his players and giving them confidence. But we all know John, if things go bad it's all the payers fault. Yeah great place for a young player to develop. And about the youth, Anderlecht's work has been vastly overrated. Or are you one of those that think Romelu was an Anderlecht product? Even worse, Jacobs (his coach during his 13 goal season) even literally said when he was his coach that they hadn't been bother enough to even learn him the basic ABC of football during his time at Anderlecht. No Hazard felt good at Zulte, he was guaranteed playing time and an important role and even a few too silly promises. For someone who hasn't even been consistently good for a full year, this isn't a bad idea. Let him confirm at a place he feels comfortable, then let him take another step. Also it's not like those few CL games would have been so educational to him, the current Anderlecht (not unlike any Belgian team) has no place there. Just getting a few draws at home would be a very good achievement, in the other games it is mainly the objective not make to much of a fool of yourselves. Parking the bus and running behind a a ball you'll barely even touch, yes this is why he should go to RSCA! Really? He's good where he is.

Anyone who've seen Anderlecht play against mere Lokeren, will have seen how insignificant a club they are. Yeah. One game says it all. Also Zulte being less prominent is what guarantees him to play and be important. Which is what the club wants. Thorgan has plenty he can develop at a club like zulte, lets not forget he only was prominent for half a season last year.

Hein said it a few times, though personally I don't agree with him, he's a different type if you ask me. The only thing they really have in common was vista and talent.

His strength and balance were always good and often underrated due to his size. However I found them more impressing than ever this last game. Belgiannut apparantly also noticed this.

Actually I think he might have grown some more muscle rather than fat. He was great at using strenght and balance to keep or steal the ball, he seemed to have improved on that aspect. Hope he doesn't sacrifice too much speed for that though.

Lestienne is much further developped but I think he's ceiling isn't as high as those other two. Of course we'll have to wait and see if that's actually true. But yes Lestienne is already too good for the Belgian league when looking at his skills, however an extra year to ripe mentally and getting more consistency give him a better chance of starting of well in a stronger league. So it's not a bad decision for him to stay. Also he can have a shot at a title (both with the team and as an idividual) this year, why give that up? Also regular playing time can give him a place on the bench or larger squad in Brazil. Anyway obviously I was talking also about the young ones, that are only just making their entrance. Otherwise I'd have to put eidur gudjohnsen there as well.

He does have a point though, we're, just like other nationalities, more biased than we even know and realise. We might be even more so than quite a few nationalities due to a number of reasons. A major one being that we had little to be excited about for a long time. Now of course there are differences, you have those who post with an agenda in mind, most just are a tad overexcited, especially the younger members. I'm a long time chelsea fan though I have to admit posting more in threads about Belgian players and joining only after Hazard was signed. People have that bias in varying degrees, sometimes only a little, but everyone has it. And it often more noticed by other than the individuals and group itself, often because it can be irritating. What am I actually rambling on about? Anyway those comparing Mata and Hazard are comparing very different players in a different stage of their carreer and development. The thing we should hope for is that the two guys will play well together under Mourinho. And I don't have my doubt they both will. Also KDB is better than Shurrle!

He did good. But I can see where Mediator is comming from, if we have to start a topic on every promising young player wouldn't we be drifting away from the purpose of this subforum (especially as that whole league seems to be full of young players that are making impressive cases for belonging to the first eleven)? Especially if links with players that don't have good sources are pinpointed as not belonging here, why are topics on random promising players. It's great people, especially Anderlecht fans, are excited about this little gem. To me it seems these kind of posts would be better in a topic on young talents in the football banter subforum. I do however agree he seems to be very promising. Probably the most talented lad in the league together with Schrijvers. Also curious as to what Anderlecht youngster Dedoncker will do this year.

Well he did well last game being involved in most goals when he was on the pitch.

Kristof Terreur is one of those few reliable sources on twitter.

This I apparently missed.

He can play in a first team and develop. He clearly outgrew youth and reserve teams. You're sure nobody else takes him from you.