Aston Villa chief Stephen Hopcroft reacts as West Brom make substitution v Sunderland
Aston Villa academy chief Stephen Hopcroft has hailed Manny Abbeyquaye for playing a role in the emergence of Mo Faal at West Brom.
Faal, 20, made his league debut for the Baggies on Sunday (23 April) in their 2-1 defeat to Sunderland at The Hawthorns when he came off the bench in the 90th minute.
The Gambian striker was brought to the Albion by Abbeyquaye, who now works with Hopcroft at Villa as their Academy Talent ID Scout.
He’d held the same role at West Brom between 2015 and 2020 before he moved to Villa.
Hopcroft, who left The Hawthorns to become Villa’s head of academy recruitment in 2020, mentioned Abbeyquaye’s role in taking Faal to the Albion in a tweet about the youth spotter.
He said: “Congratulations to super coach/scout/mentor Manny Abbeyquaye on getting another young person a Championship debut Mo Faal.
“Mr CS Colts, take a bow.”
Abbeyquaye is a director at CS Colts, an academy for young footballers.
Not ready
Before he played against promotion-chasing Sunderland, Faal’s last match in senior football was against Blyth Spartans in National League North in March.
The Albion youngster was on loan at AFC Fylde between December and March, scoring an impressive 10 goals in 16 appearances for the sixth-tier club.
But that’s the issue, it was in the sixth tier.
Faal is 20 and at that age, you’d expect him to have more EFL experience because all of his loans have so far been at non-league clubs and they’ve never lasted too long.
Faal’s inexperience and, potentially, lack of ability became apparent when Marc Albrighton played a brilliant ball to him in the penalty area in stoppage time.
The Gambian youngster completely fluffed his attempt at goal even though he may have had a lot more time to even take a touch or to correct his body position.
Faal unfortunately isn’t ready for senior football at West Brom and may never be.
But that’s the way football is for young players.
In other West Brom news, Tony Brown was impressed with one Albion player despite losing to Sunderland.