NURNBERG SWOOP FOR MAK

[blue wine]

would be very sad to see him go! :-( always thought he would make it at city..


http://www.sportinglife.com/football/tr ... nberg.html

NURNBERG SWOOP FOR MAK

Nurnberg have signed Slovakian youngster Robert Mak for an undisclosed fee from Manchester City.

The 19-year-old, who has spent the last five years in England, has signed a three-year contract with the Bundesliga club, where he is expected to push for a place in the first team.

"Robbie is extremely quick as well as both technically and tactically well-educated," said Nurnberg's director of sport Martin Bader on his club's website.

"He wants to make the grade in the Bundesliga and the fact he has chosen to join us shows that young players see good prospects at Nurnberg."

Mak received advice from his two compatriots Marek Mintal and Robert Vittek, who have both shone for Nurnberg in recent years.

"Of course I know about Nurnberg - they have always been a big club for us Slovakians thanks to Marek Mintal and Robert Vittek," said the Slovakia Under-21 international.

"Marek advised me to move to Nurnberg and I am looking forward to it."

[Blue in North London]

Best of luck to the lad. Always looked a decent prospect but we are setting our sights much higher these days. Nurnburg will be a good club for him.

FC Nurnburg have one thing in common with us - relegated the year after winning a championship.

[Vhero]

Obviously not got what it takes otherwise we wouldn't have let him go.. A shame really but at least he got a professional contract and will be playing regular football now.

[BlueinBosnia]

Obviously not got what it takes otherwise we wouldn't have let him go.. A shame really but at least he got a professional contract and will be playing regular football now.

i don't think we released him. i think he's been sold (or at least some kind of development fee will have been involved). He'll probably feel more comfortable in Europe (especially Eastern Germany) than being loaned out up and down England in the lower leagues.

[Ted Hughes]

Very very disappointed about this. One of the only half decent striking prospects to come out of our academy in years & he's not even had a sniff of the 1st team. Don't know whether he'll make it or not as I've never seen him play above his level but he has pace & scores goals so certainly should have been tried. I expected us to at least give him a crack pre season before making any decisions on his future.

Don't understand this at all.

[Beefymcfc]

My mate goes to all the youth and reserve games and is always singing Robbie's praises. Seems a shame to see him to go but if it's good for him then I'm sure it's good for both party's.

Do we have a sell on clause?

[DoomMerchant]

i thought they swooped for Mark Mak after seeing his "lone striker" moves in 5 aside.

Maybe not tho it seems.

cheers

[zuricity]

Er.....

Any of you lot ever seen the kid play ?

[Ted Hughes]

Er.....

Any of you lot ever seen the kid play ?

Why what's he done wrong when you've seen him? Admittedly I've only seen him about 10 or so times in his career but he's always looked quick & dangerous to me, in fact on average better than Weiss.

[BlueinBosnia]

Er.....

Any of you lot ever seen the kid play ?

Yes, I have.

[the_georgian_genius]

He's behind Guedetti and Nimley, good move for him.

[aaron bond]

I've never seen him play so have no idea whether he is good enough or not, but let's be honest, an academy player will have to be potentially world class to get into our team now.

With our ambitions, we are no longer developing players either to sell onto bigger clubs or to earn their place in a mid/lower table team, we need players who can potentially play for a top 4 team. That's why so few players have made it into United and Chelsea's teams in recently years as they need world class players in their side pretty much all of the time.

I would love to have the spine of our team filled with academy players but the fact is we cannot be sympathetic anymore and hold on to players who won't make it at the top level. Our coaches and academy are all qualified enough and should be able to spot a potential star from our crop of players so if we let one leave I trust their opinion that the player will not be good enough.

The best way to judge is to get the young players in the reserves/academy all out on loan at Prem clubs or at least top Championship clubs. At least this will give us an idea if they can cut it at a decent level. With so much at stake now though in the Premier League and in our cup matches, I don't know how realistic it is to blood our youngsters in our first team matches as we need to be winning all of the time and cannot take a risk, like perhaps United, Arsenal and Chelsea can do.

[john@staustell]

Very very disappointed about this. One of the only half decent striking prospects to come out of our academy in years & he's not even had a sniff of the 1st team. Don't know whether he'll make it or not as I've never seen him play above his level but he has pace & scores goals so certainly should have been tried. I expected us to at least give him a crack pre season before making any decisions on his future.

Don't understand this at all.

Bit surprised at you coming out with the old 'disappointed' line Ted. How many dozens of times have we been down this road, just with strikers (Ched Evans, Stephen Eliot etc)? We have to trust the management's judgement and we are now looking to challenge for the league, not 'try people out'. Most likely we would've kept him for a bit but the offer came in.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

Very very disappointed about this. One of the only half decent striking prospects to come out of our academy in years & he's not even had a sniff of the 1st team. Don't know whether he'll make it or not as I've never seen him play above his level but he has pace & scores goals so certainly should have been tried. I expected us to at least give him a crack pre season before making any decisions on his future.

Don't understand this at all.

I'm with Ted on this. Suprised and somewhat shocked. Granted, I haven't seen him myself but reserves and Academy blogger seemed to rate him and everyone I know who attends reserve and youth team games seemed to rate him.

Not saying we let next Pele go but I believe he had shown enough promise to be considered as legit prospect.

I find it weird that we let him go without a fight, yet seem to be keen to give chances to likes of Clayton. Sure, we shouldn't force anyone to stay if they don't want to but.... Dare I say that he wouldn't have left if Cassell was still Academy director. Ok, that's just guessing now.

Oh, and only way this would really make sense is if we put buy back clause to the contract.

[Moonchesteri]

Good luck MAK. Always liked his name.

I'm not too bothered. Never saw him play either but from what I read I never thought he'd become a top class striker. Mancin gave the chance to a younger Alex Nimely, is that saying something too? Maybe not but I'm sure that Mancini, Marwood and co have seen enough of him to make a proper assessment.

I also thought David Ball was ahead of him and anyway it would've been extremely difficult for Mak to break through. Like someone said he would've probably only ended up going on loan to different lower teams. And when a Bundesliga team came knocking I'm not surprised he bought their lies and felt that is the best option.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I am a little surprised as I thought he had something but those who work closer with him must have thought different.
Ball is probably a better finisher but probably not as quick or as strong. Nimely has a really good touch but when I have seen him just seems to want to hang on to the ball too much and has never seemed a great finisher.

Time will tell as if Mak does have what it takes we will hear more of him for sure.

[Tony P]

Useless fact, his surname means 'poopy seed' in Slovak.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Sad to see him go, mainly cos his Dad worked on our trains. Proper nice intelligent guy who brought his family over here and was prepared to take a pretty shitty job so his son could have a crack at pro football. he told me in January that Robbie was within an ace of going to Nurnburg on loan but it fell through at the 11th hour.
Pity, he was also getting good reviews in the stiffs.

[Ted Hughes]

Very very disappointed about this. One of the only half decent striking prospects to come out of our academy in years & he's not even had a sniff of the 1st team. Don't know whether he'll make it or not as I've never seen him play above his level but he has pace & scores goals so certainly should have been tried. I expected us to at least give him a crack pre season before making any decisions on his future.

Don't understand this at all.

I'm with Ted on this. Suprised and somewhat shocked. Granted, I haven't seen him myself but reserves and Academy blogger seemed to rate him and everyone I know who attends reserve and youth team games seemed to rate him.

Not saying we let next Pele go but I believe he had shown enough promise to be considered as legit prospect.

I find it weird that we let him go without a fight, yet seem to be keen to give chances to likes of Clayton. Sure, we shouldn't force anyone to stay if they don't want to but.... Dare I say that he wouldn't have left if Cassell was still Academy director. Ok, that's just guessing now.

Oh, and only way this would really make sense is if we put buy back clause to the contract.

I'd like to think we're going to start doing stuff like that because if we're upgrading the standard of the academy & signing players from all over the shop, it stands to reason that we're going to have to let the occasional 'gem' leave to further their careers in the future. If we can buy them back then it's not such a loss.