David Bates signs for Cercle Brugge

If possible, belgium would be an ideal place to go if we want to loan out younger players.

Watched their league games a couple of years back and it was good stuff. That league certainly produces fine players.
 
I'm always amazed by people who form an opinion on a player at 19 or 20 and that's it, they never look at the potential, to them, at 20 the player is the finished article.
How many people wrote off the young Gattuso as just a tackler? Who believed he'd one day win a World Cup ?
Bates was a good player at 20, his physical & defensive attributes were there for all to see. Height, ability in the air, a bit of pace, brave & put his body on the line. He had a real desire to improve and be the best possible player. Bates also read the game fairly well too given his age.
His passing was the big problem for some, but with a static midfield in front of you passes will get intercepted.
I wish him well, he'll only really be at his peak when he gets to 28, the experience of Scottish, German, English & Belgian football will, I believe, make him a very good Centre Back.
 
Calgacus said:
I'm always amazed by people who form an opinion on a player at 19 or 20 and that's it, they never look at the potential, to them, at 20 the player is the finished article.
How many people wrote off the young Gattuso as just a tackler? Who believed he'd one day win a World Cup ?
Bates was a good player at 20, his physical & defensive attributes were there for all to see. Height, ability in the air, a bit of pace, brave & put his body on the line. He had a real desire to improve and be the best possible player. Bates also read the game fairly well too given his age.
His passing was the big problem for some, but with a static midfield in front of you passes will get intercepted.
I wish him well, he'll only really be at his peak when he gets to 28, the experience of Scottish, German, English & Belgian football will, I believe, make him a very good Centre Back.
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On the other side of that mate, everyone is judged as a footballer from about the age of 5 and the better ones get picked up. The best of those get to the bigger clubs and so on.

People can make judgements of young players based on a variety of factors and also in their own experience. Sometimes they are wrong.

But there's very little wrong with looking at a 20 year old player and deciding that, in your opinion, he isn't going to be good enough. Might be right, might be wrong. But it's literally every football manager on the planets job so it's doable.

Bates will never be good enough for a title winning Rangers team. But he will make an ok living out the game so good luck to him.
 
Signed from Raith to play in our reserves essentially and somehow ended playing for us, in Germany, championship and now Belgium.

Fair play but he must have someone looking down on him as he is a lucky boy.
 
BobbyShearer said:
I think he was made to look better by the various shitshows playing around him but I wish him well.
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Clint Hill and send to guide him through the games, but you could see in the game in Luxembourg that he didn't have a natural sense of position.
 
Without having read this thread, I dare say some mentalists will claim he could still do a job for us.

Truth is he was bang average at best that had one good game against the bheasts. Had no pace. Struggled for a game down in England and in a poor Hamburg team.

All our Centre halves are a class above.

Good luck to him
 
I liked him for us, he did just fine, and he’s making a career in the game via the European route rather than with predictable run of the mill Scottish clubs that many others do. Fair play to him for having some ambition and getting some life experiences in his career.
 
I have nothing but admiration for him trying out new leagues and culture. We need more of our Scottish players to do that.

Never worked out at us but at least he is brave enough to try something different and not stick around in the SPFL for Dundee Utd or the likes
 
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