Bobby Faulkener

[BillyStubbsTears]

He's great at the last ditch stuff and putting his body on the line, and is certainly miles ahead of most of the other academy players we've had come through to the first team in recent years. Can't help but think he got bullied last night by their no.9 though, and like Gaz says would probably benefit from getting some experience under his belt at a lower level. Not knocking the lad at all but it'd be good to see him develop without the pressure of necessarily starting for us every week.

From what I've seen, Adam Long is a more than capable player. Not really sure on why GM seems so reluctant to use him.

Agreed 100%.

Faulkner is a great prospect but he's far from the finished article. He got taken a ta-ta by their big centre forward in the first half.

Faulkner is going to make a good player, but at the moment, Long is a better choice from what I've seen.

[drfchound]

Pace seems to be an issue for him on last nights showing, needs to learn to stand off a little to give himself more time against pacey forwards

I heard that BF is one of the quickest at the club.

[selby]

He is.

[Retdon1]

I don’t get all the fan fare about him. Yes he’s good defensively but he’s very poor on the ball. I lost count the amount of times he just punts it forward to no one. There’s no way a prem/champ come in for him as to play at that level, you have to be very good on the ball.

[dickos1]

There’s plenty of centre halves in the championship that aren’t very good on the ball

He’s a proper defender and for me he’s much better than Williams even at this stage of his career.
He anticipates danger and is always closing players down ahead of Williams

[jmt23]

There is no doubting he is better than Williams - my fear is the John Stones effect, he has to get a touch to everything regardless of if that touch puts us in a poor position.

There can be no doubt he is a very good prospect, and one of the best I have seen for his age!

[andyst79]

Most of his frailties are coachable and will come with game time/experience. I think the clamour about him is down to his physical attributes and his desire and attitude, things that can't be coached. He's far from the finished article but i can see why clubs higher up are looking at him.

[Chris Black come back]

For 18 years old, he is an excellent player. If he is still like this at 23 years old, then less so. I think though that the lad has something there to be a Dave Wheater-style defender with a good career at Championship level. Good luck to him.

[selby]

   A few on here would not make scouts, the clubs that are already sniffing around are higher, much higher than Championship teams.
   The best one though was Filo saying a 12 second hundred metres runner is slow, and has also won races up to 800 metres, had to laugh at that.
  For a lad who hadn't even played at academy level two years ago this November he is flying.
  He is miles ahead of the plan for this season it being hopefully a couple of cup games midweek, and a good loan out in national North games for regular football.
  Now he has the shirt he is playing to keep it.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Lets not over analyse him. If we did this with Williams we'd be horrified by what we found so better to just look at him as one who is doing well and will do loads better.

On the comment about ability on the ball i think Matt Mills is an example to follow. If you haven't got great vision or ability to pull off crazy passes just get the long diagonal over the opposite fullback down to a tee. Amount of times he used to just hang it over there for Hayter was crazy. A little frustrating at times but we got good field position from it often

[andyst79]

If Williams was meant to be the next Rio Ferdinand at Man U what does this make Faulkner?!

[drfchound]

I watched Bobby closely today and was very impressed.
He was organising other players as well as doing his own job.
As brave as a lion and as has been said, his weaker elements can be improved over time.
Just before that foul at the end when he was booked I shouted out for him to put their player in the stand and he had a go at doing so.
He made his mark.

[ncRover]

A few mistakes today but I think premier league academy level defenders at 18 would make mistakes at this level.

Great physicality for his age, good pace too.

[ravenrover]

   A few on here would not make scouts, the clubs that are already sniffing around are higher, much higher than Championship teams.
   The best one though was Filo saying a 12 second hundred metres runner is slow, and has also won races up to 800 metres, had to laugh at that.
  For a lad who hadn't even played at academy level two years ago this November he is flying.
  He is miles ahead of the plan for this season it being hopefully a couple of cup games midweek, and a good loan out in national North games for regular football.
  Now he has the shirt he is playing to keep it.

Selby I do wonder if he is a relative of yours? I agree he is a tremendous prospect but you talk about him the same way you talked about Mandeville, your love child

[Retdon1]

   A few on here would not make scouts, the clubs that are already sniffing around are higher, much higher than Championship teams.
   The best one though was Filo saying a 12 second hundred metres runner is slow, and has also won races up to 800 metres, had to laugh at that.
  For a lad who hadn't even played at academy level two years ago this November he is flying.
  He is miles ahead of the plan for this season it being hopefully a couple of cup games midweek, and a good loan out in national North games for regular football.
  Now he has the shirt he is playing to keep it.

I apologise if I came across harsh on him. Defensively he looks a top prospect, strong, good in the tackle, senses danger well and does well to not get dragged out of position. Plus he’s playing with Williams who is poor. Be good to see him improve further next to better players. Having watched him closely for a few games now i just think he has huge improvements to make on the ball. He needs to keep it simple rather than constantly punt it forward to no one ( he’s not on his own there ). Maybe the manger is telling him to constantly kick it long.

Good luck to the lad and I hope he keeps improving. Nice to have some home grown players in the team.

[Rovers91]

Let's not get carried away there is a long way to go for him. Hopefully he continues to develop but at his age can go either way as much as we would all love a local lad to kick on for the team.

[WarwickRover]

The question is when will he go and for how much? His performance to date for an 18 year old must be of the highest order in comparison to his peers at all levels. Premiership clubs must be thinking he is worth a punt …. One for the future. If a premiership club come in for him, offer a 3 or maybe 4 year contract at astronomical amount of money compared to what he is on now, who would say no ‘stay at Rovers ‘.  I’m sure a premiership club will make an offer. How much would you accept?

[Chris Black come back]

Our whole model should work on Bobby Faulkner going for £2m. To date we’ve monetised few and far between our saleable assets. You would hope he became the first of a more regular production line of saleable talent.

[drfchound]

I think there is no doubt that a PL club will make,  or perhaps even have made, an offer for him.
It will be hard for Bobby to turn down say, £20k a week instead of whatever he is on with us, and I don’t think it will be much at all.
Best case scenario for us would be if he went for a lot of money and was loaned straight back to gain first team experience.

[drfchound]

Our whole model should work on Bobby Faulkner going for £2m. To date we’ve monetised few and far between our saleable assets. You would hope he became the first of a more regular production line of saleable talent.

Agreed.
selby is in a good position to comment on our current young players and has told us of two or three more who could make the grade and have a future at a high level.

[Colin C No.3]

Our whole model should work on Bobby Faulkner going for £2m. To date we’ve monetised few and far between our saleable assets. You would hope he became the first of a more regular production line of saleable talent.

Agreed.
selby is in a good position to comment on our current young players and has told us of two or three more who could make the grade and have a future at a high level.

Exactly.

So let’s cut the crass remarks about him being a relative of selby’s & him being spoken about like Mandeville selby’s so called “love child”.

selby has spotted more talent on a football pitch than ravenrover ever did on a dance floor.

[sedwardsdrfc]

If we're talking about sale value i think we have to focus on getting a division higher in the short term. He'd command a bigger fee from that level and might even stay a bit longer.

However frustrating this season might end up been we've hopefully got a success story to look to here.

[jamesrover17]

We won’t be getting 2mil for a centre half while we are a mid table league 2 team, we got 1.5mil for the proven best midfielder in league 1 and now probably one of the top midfielders in the championship

Not saying Bobby wont be a gem, but a lot has got to change in terms of our league position and for himself before we can start touting that sort of asking price

[BillyStubbsTears]

   A few on here would not make scouts, the clubs that are already sniffing around are higher, much higher than Championship teams.
   The best one though was Filo saying a 12 second hundred metres runner is slow, and has also won races up to 800 metres, had to laugh at that.
  For a lad who hadn't even played at academy level two years ago this November he is flying.
  He is miles ahead of the plan for this season it being hopefully a couple of cup games midweek, and a good loan out in national North games for regular football.
  Now he has the shirt he is playing to keep it.

12 second 100m is really quite plodding. But it's irrelevant. What matters for a professional footballer is the 0-10 or 20m time.

I do like Faulkner and I think he's got a good career ahead of him, but he doesn't look, at the moment, to have that explosive short distance pace that would really mark him out.

[keith79]

I like him. At 18 he can go on to have a very good career in football. If he Keeps improving and evolving.

[DonnyOsmond]

We won’t be getting 2mil for a centre half while we are a mid table league 2 team, we got 1.5mil for the proven best midfielder in league 1 and now probably one of the top midfielders in the championship

Not saying Bobby wont be a gem, but a lot has got to change in terms of our league position and for himself before we can start touting that sort of asking price

But Whiteman was a fair bit older than Faulkner, someone now would be buying Faulkner for his potential not for his current ability.

[ravenrover]

Our whole model should work on Bobby Faulkner going for £2m. To date we’ve monetised few and far between our saleable assets. You would hope he became the first of a more regular production line of saleable talent.

Agreed.
selby is in a good position to comment on our current young players and has told us of two or three more who could make the grade and have a future at a high level.

Exactly.

So let’s cut the crass remarks about him being a relative of selby’s & him being spoken about like Mandeville selby’s so called “love child”.

selby has spotted more talent on a football pitch than ravenrover ever did on a dance floor.

You ever see me dance?
The relative question was genuine

[selby]

  Then the answer is no RR, but got a couple of cups stashed away somewhere upstairs in a box for the dance part back in the day with the wife, found it was the best way of meeting nice young ladies back in the day of a miss spent youth, Two Palfries,Mecca at Sheffield, Wakefield, Darlington, and York, and the Wolsey Hornet car didn't half come in useful.
  A walking frame would be more apt nowadays unfortunately.

[GazLaz]

He really needs to work on his distribution. The general consensus (true as well) is that Williams is poor on the ball. His pass completion this season is 82%. Bobby’s is 68%. That’s in a league where you have all the time in the world on the ball.

[drfchound]

He really needs to work on his distribution. The general consensus (true as well) is that Williams is poor on the ball. His pass completion this season is 82%. Bobby’s is 68%. That’s in a league where you have all the time in the world on the ball.

Bobby played a ball back to Mitchell in the first half that was overhit and too far to to his left.
An Orient player was closing Mitchell down and he had to rush his clearance which went out of play.
Mitchell got some stick from the crowd for kicking it out of play.