A golden generation

[royalblue66]

....it would be unusual for a swathe of players to come through at once. The norm is for one or two at the most and it starts with seeing them on the bench. Usually a good crop coincides with a successful FA Youth Cup run. I'm not seeing any of this at the moment, so perhaps the positive noises are for the U16 group.

Well whoever they are Bobby said at Aintree that there were players ready to step up,and was very excited with the prospect.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

Nah, none of them are good enough just like that Barkley chap.

 

[Eggs]

Well whoever they are Bobby said at Aintree that there were players ready to step up,and was very excited with the prospect.

.....I think there's a few lads playing for the U21s who are still quite young. I'm thinking of the likes of Joe Williams (who I like), so perhaps that's the group RM refers to. I suppose it depends on what he means by 'ready to step up'. If it is those boys, he might mean step up to start training with the 1st team squad to see how they cope.

 

[royalblue66]

.....I think there's a few lads playing for the U21s who are still quite young. I'm thinking of the likes of Joe Williams (who I like), so perhaps that's the group RM refers to. I suppose it depends on what he means by 'ready to step up'. If it is those boys, he might mean step up to start training with the 1st team squad to see how they cope.

What do you know about the lad Joe Williams ?

 

[Eggs]

What do you know about the lad Joe Williams ?

...I don't know anything, I watched him playing against the likes of Anderson in a strong Man Utd side and thought he acquitted himself very well. He's a little lightweight, but if I remember rightly he's quite a bit younger than the likes of George Green and yet he wasn't afraid of throwing a tackle in and looked like he had a bit of quality on the ball. He tired towards the end and was substituted, but I liked what I saw and I noticed RM sitting on his own in the Family Enclosure taking a real interest in the game.

 

[royalblue66]

...I don't know anything, I watched him playing against the likes of Anderson in a strong Man Utd side and thought he acquitted himself very well. He's a little lightweight, but if I remember rightly he's quite a bit younger than the likes of George Green and yet he wasn't afraid of throwing a tackle in and looked like he had a bit of quality on the ball. He tired towards the end and was substituted, but I liked what I saw and I noticed RM sitting on his own in the Family Enclosure taking a real interest in the game.

Thanks for that, where is he from ? Midfielder ?

 

[swisso]

Joe's a midfielder from Huyton, bit of an all rounder, doesn't have the bursting runs/playmaking of an attacking midfielder or the tenacious side you'd need from a ball winner, but does everything OK.

He's obviously in the U21s on merit, but there's not a lot of bodies to choose from in certain positions so a lot of younger lads have no choice but to move up.

 

[royalblue66]

Joe's a midfielder from Huyton, bit of an all rounder, doesn't have the bursting runs/playmaking of an attacking midfielder or the tenacious side you'd need from a ball winner, but does everything OK.

He's obviously in the U21s on merit, but there's not a lot of bodies to choose from in certain positions so a lot of younger lads have no choice but to move up.

Thanks for the info mate.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

I think we're a bit too stop-start when it comes to utilising the youth players

 

[billycopper]

How do you define great? We have what is widely regarded as the poorest England squad in years, yet only two regular members of it have come from the Everton academy. I wouldn't say that's all that special.

The under 21 squad doesn't have any Everton academy players in it (I don't count Stones).

You'd say the best academy at the moment is probably the Southampton one. They've produced:

Bale
Walcott
Ox-Chamberlain
Lallana
Bridge
Luke Shaw
Ward-Prowse

which is a decent return.

It's hard to know why Southampton have been so successful. The Head of Football Development (Les Reed) has only been there since April 2010 and Cortese only became Chairman in August 2009, yet they've been producing players as far back as Shearer, Le Tissier, Beattie, Le Saux, Bridge and the Wallace brothers.

If you look at where those players come from:

Shearer (Newcastle)
Le Tissier (Guernsey)
Beattie (Lancaster)
Bridge (Southampton)
Wallace brothers (London)
Walcott (London)
Bale (Cardiff)
Oxlade-Chamberlain (Portsmouth)
Lallana (St Albans)
Ward-Prowse (Portsmouth)
Shaw (Kingston)

I think that the secret has to be the quality of the scouting network and the ability to persuade lads to sign for them because there is a proven route into the first team.

 

[Christiffa25]

Its was different in those days to be fair.

Ohh I don't know mate, well yes football in general is different but...

Those same players coming through at a club like utd or us would still have the same affect and still create half a team. Obviously wouldn't happen at a Chelsea or city I doubt due to there funds and total disregard of youth development.

 

[billycopper]

Slightly off-topic but it's strange that Liverpool have sacked their Academy heads today:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/21/liverpool-sack-frank-mcparland-academy

Until recently the last player to come out of their Academy was Gerrard and now they have Stirling, Kelly, Wisdom, Flanagan, Morgan, Coady, Suso and Ibe.

 

[johnnydawg68]

Christ can you imagine the squad Southhampton would have if they'd never been relegated and forced to sell all that talent?

 

[roydo]

Christ can you imagine the squad Southhampton would have if they'd never been relegated and forced to sell all that talent?

The funniest thing, well, depending upon your view I guess, is that when they were in a pickle financially, they asked Spurs to renegotiate the sell on clause on Bale. Remember, Bale was not fully cooked, but they had a 25% clause on profit Spurs made. It was waived, with Spurs paying them £1m plus a 3rd choice goalie as compensation!

 

[mightymoyes]

one of our u-16's, broadhead just scored a belter for wales in the victory shield. we have the 2 best players on show on our books, him and harrington.