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Niall Huggins.


It's sad to see as I thought if he got back to his old self he could even be first choice right back. But all through pre-season and last night just looks miles away sadly.

Needs a loan to league one to see if he can get sharpness and fitness back. He's out of contract in 10 months anyway so a loan to Christmas for starters and see what happens.
 
Didn't help having Riggy on the wing first half as they both were unable to get past the fullback with pace or dribbling, so were constantly playing it back or inside. Think he needs a proper winger outside of him to flourish, but yes I agree, he probably needs a move to a championship team.
 
The Great Soprendo said:
The difference with Alese is that he has actually proved his ability in our side far more than Huggins has. Hard to see Huggins make it in the PL now but Alese certainly can, IMO.

Apart from that, I can see Alese getting game time at some point, but Huggins has almost no chance of that.
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Aye can't disagree there tbf. Does anyone actually know how long Alese is out for? Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.
 
mart said:
He was excellent when he had that run of games the season before last.
Unfortunately for him, he hasn’t played enough and we’ve outgrown him.
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I wouldn’t say he was excellent by any stretch at any point in his career at the club.
 
MiddleAgedMan said:
It's sad to see as I thought if he got back to his old self he could even be first choice right back. But all through pre-season and last night just looks miles away sadly.

Needs a loan to league one to see if he can get sharpness and fitness back. He's out of contract in 10 months anyway so a loan to Christmas for starters and see what happens.
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All about opinions and I don't want to sound like a dick, but it's the 'get back to his old self' bit I struggle with. We have no idea what his level is because he's played so little. He's made 24 appearances in his entire career. 19 of those came in the Championship two seasons ago where he had some good games and some not so good (yes, more good than bad) during the run which led to Mowbray getting sacked. I dispute that he was excellent, player of the season or any of the superlatives people have thrown at him but even if he was, it's still less than half a season. Dennis Cirkin was excellent for a similar period last season then fairly poor after that. Dan Neil had a good 3 month period where he looked our best player. 15 or so quite good games in the second tier is no more than a glimpse of potential, you need to show far more than that to be talked about as a first team Premier League player imo.

Hume has played over 120 games and had no more than a dozen poor ones. Mukiele has nearly 150 appearances for Leipzig and nearly 50 for PSG, including 35 in the Champions League. Huggins has shown nothing to suggest he's anywhere near that level. He's not worth persisting with.
 
10 Gary Rowells said:
To be honest I don't remember him ever being excellent. He had a couple of canny games and that's it. We all hoped he'd be excellent but to my memeory he's never really delivered on any hype.
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This.
He’s had more poor games than good. Blackburn away first half was terrible before he got swapped wings.
I’ve never seen much in the lad whilst some on here people were eulogising him.
 
mart said:
He was excellent when he had that run of games the season before last.
Unfortunately for him, he hasn’t played enough and we’ve outgrown him.
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He wasn't man. We had no left back and he was terrible on the left defensively in that run so Mowbray switched him and Hume back and forth and Hume wasnt good left either. Even on the right Huggins was weak and poor defensively.

The problem was he was quick and he showed quick feet occasionally in tight attacking situations which broke lines at a time we were struggling to breakndown opposition defences, so people have bought into this idea that he was much better than he ever was because he had pace and at that time contributed going forward occasionally. He and good and bad games - over what something like 20 odd appearances?

Clearly his injuries and time out have taken more of a toll on him as he can't even get himself fit for five minutes through preseason and the beginning of this season and so yes we've completely outgrown him anyway - but he was never that good.
 
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Definitely Maybe said:
All about opinions and I don't want to sound like a dick, but it's the 'get back to his old self' bit I struggle with. We have no idea what his level is because he's played so little. He's made 24 appearances in his entire career. 19 of those came in the Championship two seasons ago where he had some good games and some not so good (yes, more good than bad) during the run which led to Mowbray getting sacked. I dispute that he was excellent, player of the season or any of the superlatives people have thrown at him but even if he was, it's still less than half a season. Dennis Cirkin was excellent for a similar period last season then fairly poor after that. Dan Neil had a good 3 month period where he looked our best player. 15 or so quite good games in the second tier is no more than a glimpse of potential, you need to show far more than that to be talked about as a first team Premier League player imo.

Hume has played over 120 games and had no more than a dozen poor ones. Mukiele has nearly 150 appearances for Leipzig and nearly 50 for PSG, including 35 in the Champions League. Huggins has shown nothing to suggest he's anywhere near that level. He's not worth persisting with.
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No I get that, I just saw potential in those games and he was improving with a good run in the team for me. Definitely worth a look at this season in my opinion. Obviously Hume is first choice and rightly so. I hoped a fit Huggins might be able to push him. So far this season he has not looked anywhere near, I think we all agree on that.
 
Zimba said:
Aye can't disagree there tbf. Does anyone actually know how long Alese is out for? Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.
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A couple of months back the club said after the 1st international break. Had shoulder surgery like O’Nein.
Not sure how Alese managed to injure his shoulder as he was out injured with a leg injury at the same time 🤷‍♂️ .
 
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ZeeZee said:
One of the perennial injured full backs.

I’d be tempted to get rid of him and Cirkin
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I like Dennis a lot and he's at least played a few games but he and Ballard are crocks - at least we've have something out-of them.

Wheres the amount of bigging up Huggins and Alese have had over the years for 20 odd and 40 and games a piece is bordering on the ridiculous. Both are also massively overrated because we haven't seen them enough.
 
For players who’s been injured and barely played in the lower leagues, it’s such an ask for them to get fit and be effective at PL level. We’re signing players at £10m plus across the board, and those are small fees and you often don’t get much for your money at that price range, thinking the likes of Huggins as potentially regular PL starters is a real push.
 
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