Pat Roberts

[cmg]

So the wheel has turned full circle for Patrick Roberts.
Probably the best u16 English player I ever saw, his career shows just how tough it is for young 'stars' to make it in the Big Time, however promising they may be.

He was sensational in the Academy side that was probably the best in the country. But, of all those Great Expectations, only Dembele has really made it to the top although even he has yet to earn a full French cap. Rodak and Woodrow have had decent careers so far but the rest have been minor or major disappointments.

Pat was considered one of the best players on view in the 2014 u17 Euros.
The winning England team was : Woodman (now Newcastle), Kenny (Everton), Taylor Moore, Gomez (Liverpool), Tafari Moore, Ledson, Cook (Bomo), Brown (that's Izzy Brown, Mourinho's tip for the top), Roberts, Solanke (Bomo), and our own Josh Onomah. So a rather mixed bag when it came to realizing potential.

So what went wrong? He hasn't been a total failure. He was great at Celtic and they loved him dearly, probably indicative of his realistic level.
The fact that he was rather little and didn't get much bigger I guess didn't help him.
Also that tremendous move he had, embarassing his man on the right wing, cutting inside and unleashing that curling left-footer inside the far post turned out to be about the only move he had. Surprises me really as I remember him playing all across the front line and tormenting Italy until they were reduced to having him stetchered off. Still, it seems that he lacks variety and is thus too easy to negate.

Financially he made the right decision leaving us and, despite not cashing in on any of the 'extras' (I doubt that Scottish Championships were written into the deal) we certainly pocketed more than he is now worth.

Would I have him back? Sure, but then I'm an old romantic at heart. Realistically; best left alone.

[NJFulham]

Wasn't part of the Roberts thing Kit not playing him? Not saying he wasn't off, but he was probably furious he wasn't playing.

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[MartyFFC]

Yeah as I recall Symons wasn't playing him and so you can understand why he left, given also how absolutely useless we were at that time

[AJW48361]

Wasn't grease lightning and he didn't really grow or fill out.Basically never trained on.

[Southcoastffc]

IMO needed to change his game (or receive coaching which worked better for him)  Talented player but invariably cut in from the right to get the ball on his left and didn't seem to have a really good final ball.

[ALG01]

when i saw carv i immediately thought wow
when i saw pat roberts I thought talented but does not know how to play at senior level because he has not needed to use his head so far as it came easy to him. rather than stay with us where he might have progressed he was tempted for a quick buck, and who can blame him, but he had no chance of progressing at city.
last time i saw him play live i had no idea he had been on the pitch he was that anonymous. shame

carv however is the real deal IMO. hope we can keep him.

[Somerset Fulham]

I kind of forgot about him until he resurfaced at Celtic years back. 

Did he even get much game time for City reserves? I honestly have no idea.