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Dom Ballard


washsaint
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Scored twice for Reading tonight + 2 assists.

Yet we persist with strikers who could not score in a brothel and are bereft of talent.

Yet another shameful decision by the club - why would any youngster stay at Saints when crap like tonight are always played?

Mind you, with this clown in charge he'd probably play Dom at CB

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29 minutes ago, washsaint said:

Scored twice for Reading tonight + 2 assists.

Yet we persist with strikers who could not score in a brothel and are bereft of talent.

Yet another shameful decision by the club - why would any youngster stay at Saints when crap like tonight are always played?

Mind you, with this clown in charge he'd probably play Dom at CB

As has been said in another thread. I've also mused for a while that it's like we're run by a pompey fan... 

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1 hour ago, washsaint said:

Scored twice for Reading tonight + 2 assists.

Yet we persist with strikers who could not score in a brothel and are bereft of talent.

Yet another shameful decision by the club - why would any youngster stay at Saints when crap like tonight are always played?

Mind you, with this clown in charge he'd probably play Dom at CB

To be fair, the EFL trophy is basically u21 football - and we already know Ballard is good at that level.

He was sent to Reading to get experience in men's football. I didn't notice anyone starting a thread about him after the weekend in the senior side where he didn't get a kick for 50 minutes before being subbed.

Let him develop away from this shit show. Frankly, everyone's already gotten worse since the beginning of the season - he's better off out of it. 

Edited by qwertyell
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2 hours ago, Pilchards said:

Like we sent Tella away for game experience. That went well as he returned and wanted out.

Ballard is probably thinking I’m not good enough to get in a team of misfiring shit prima donnas then fuck you!

Right, because if we hadn’t loaned him to Burnley, he never would have wanted to leave the Championship for Bauer Leverkusen? The Tella loan worked out great for us, a player who was basically useless and going nowhere became an in demand £20m asset in the space of one season.

As for Ballard, he scored against Exeter in a 9-0 win in the EFL trophy. That in no way equates to him being good enough to play Championship football.

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9 hours ago, Pilchards said:

Like we sent Tella away for game experience. That went well as he returned and wanted out.

Ballard is probably thinking I’m not good enough to get in a team of misfiring shit prima donnas then fuck you!

To be fair, he did say in a daily echo interview he would want to stay at Southampton rather than go on loan. Maybe his position has changed over the last few weeks though

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Signing Stewart and keeping Mara and Adams did mean loaning out Ballard was a decent decision in the end but for a while I was definitely annoyed by this decision. I think our attack will click at some point. More worrying is midfield for me.

If we have another season at this level which currently looks possible then hopefully Ballard can be a part of that with senior football behind him.

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  • 1 month later...

It was a good decision to send Dom Ballard out on loan to Reading but for those arguing that Dom should have found a starting place in our first team, it seems even playing in League One is a challenge.
It seems he has been mainly used as a sub and has yet to score.
Despite this it is hoped the experience will really help his development and allow him to return as a more rounded player and become an integral part of the 1st team squad in the future.

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9 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

It was a good decision to send Dom Ballard out on loan to Reading but for those arguing that Dom should have found a starting place in our first team, it seems even playing in League One is a challenge.
It seems he has been mainly used as a sub and has yet to score.
Despite this it is hoped the experience will really help his development and allow him to return as a more rounded player and become an integral part of the 1st team squad in the future.

He has scored twice in the league and twice in the Cup for Reading.

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29 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

It was a good decision to send Dom Ballard out on loan to Reading but for those arguing that Dom should have found a starting place in our first team, it seems even playing in League One is a challenge.
It seems he has been mainly used as a sub and has yet to score.
Despite this it is hoped the experience will really help his development and allow him to return as a more rounded player and become an integral part of the 1st team squad in the future.

Are you trolling - and why this post right now?

In all seriousness, firstly get your stats right, he is their 3rd highest scorer this year (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-reading/leistungsdaten/verein/1032) and a 10second google would have revealed that. He's done that from circa 400minutes and scored 1 less than Harvey Knibbs who basically has 3 times as many minutes. I think people also forget that Ballard suffered an ACL injury a year ago....

There is absolutely no reason why he couldn't have done a job for saints as an impact sub this year. Especially compared to the complete lack of impact Mara has had! We dominate possession and create lots of chances - what we've needed is someone with good movement in the box and decent finishing ability - which is 100% dom's skillset. 

Plus, lets not forget that he's playing in an awful reading side struggling under financial debts, points deductions(?) and recent transfer embargoes.

I don't have an issue loaning him out if its good for him and he develops (maybe the club decided it was a safe bet as well post ACL). But lets not for one second ignore the fact that we've got an interest in recouping some money on the likes of Mara and Adams (amongst others), and that combined bloat is 100% blocking pathways for our academy players. Dom should have been featuring for saints this season (I suspect he would have had without the ACL hanging over him) - He was the top scorer and one of the best players in one of the best u18s sides in the country and had plenty of suitors. And people can say what they want, but the club has lost its identity on the academy front - all this, "we've got a great crop of players" PR guff is exactly that if we don't give them their chance at this level.

 

 

Edited by Saint86
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2 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Are you trolling?

In all seriousness, firstly get your stats right, he is their 3rd highest scorer this year (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-reading/leistungsdaten/verein/1032) and a 10second google would have revealed that.

He's playing in an awful reading side struggling under financial debts, points deductions and recent transfer embargoes.

 

 

This. They are poor under Selles bar one big result in the EFL trophy and even with their points deduction they'd be adrift of safety. They may very well be in League Two next year, even if they do find a buyer. Their owner has Royally screwed them. I hope Ballard comes back a better player - we may need him next season if we don't go up.

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48 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Are you trolling - and why this post right now?

In all seriousness, firstly get your stats right, he is their 3rd highest scorer this year (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-reading/leistungsdaten/verein/1032) and a 10second google would have revealed that. He's done that from circa 400minutes and scored 1 less than Harvey Knibbs who basically has 3 times as many minutes. I think people also forget that Ballard suffered an ACL injury a year ago....

There is absolutely no reason why he couldn't have done a job for saints as an impact sub this year. Especially compared to the complete lack of impact Mara has had! We dominate possession and create lots of chances - what we've needed is someone with good movement in the box and decent finishing ability - which is 100% dom's skillset. 

Plus, lets not forget that he's playing in an awful reading side struggling under financial debts, points deductions(?) and recent transfer embargoes.

I don't have an issue loaning him out if its good for him and he develops (maybe the club decided it was a safe bet as well post ACL). But lets not for one second ignore the fact that we've got an interest in recouping some money on the likes of Mara and Adams (amongst others), and that combined bloat is 100% blocking pathways for our academy players. Dom should have been featuring for saints this season (I suspect he would have had without the ACL hanging over him) - He was the top scorer and one of the best players in one of the best u18s sides in the country and had plenty of suitors. And people can say what they want, but the club has lost its identity on the academy front - all this, "we've got a great crop of players" PR guff is exactly that if we don't give them their chance at this level.

 

 

Think you're confusing Diamond Edwards with Dom Ballard.

 

Ballard was fit for all of last season and made a handful of 1st team appearances sprinkled throughout the season, Edwards did his ACL shortly after his first team debut At the start of last season and has barely been seen since.

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On 19/09/2023 at 21:48, benali-shorts said:

It’s completely ridiculous that he’s not involved in our squad, given how utterly shit our strikers are. He’d be like a breath of fresh air compared to Che, Adam Armstrong, Mara. Terrible decision to not at least give him until Xmas here. 

You do realise how many goals and assists Adam Armstrong has this season don't you?

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14 hours ago, SaintNewForest said:

Think you're confusing Diamond Edwards with Dom Ballard.

 

Ballard was fit for all of last season and made a handful of 1st team appearances sprinkled throughout the season, Edwards did his ACL shortly after his first team debut At the start of last season and has barely been seen since.

Ah yes, you're right on that front. I remember Ballard had knee injuries in pre season and equated the two (he missed the turkey trip for example because of this). I think the point i was making stays the same. He was out injured over the summer, and the club have preferred to send him out on loan rather than taking a chance on him being fit and settling into the first team - which given Che and Mara's performances is disappointing.

Edited by Saint86
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The gap between U21 star and pro mens football is massive and I don't think he would have got many minutes here given the pressure to win and the fact we went out the EFL Cup so early.

Sure this loan will do him plenty of good and hopefully for him he will have a long pro career and not end up as another Seager, Hesketh etc who were excellent at youth level and couldn't translate it to the senior game.

He definitely has something about him and seems mentally strong.

Edited by Dusic
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4 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Ah yes, you're right on that front. I remember Ballard had knee injuries in pre season and equated the two (he missed the turkey trip for example because of this). I think the point i was making stays the same. He was out injured over the summer, and the club have preferred to send him out on loan rather than taking a chance on him being fit and settling into the first team - which given Che and Mara's performances is disappointing.

The decision to send Dom on loan was before Che's form bombed.  He's probably getting more minutes on loan than he would with us.

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