Wasted youth? Whats gone wrong...jack rodwell, jose baxter and victor anichebe....

[davids]

I knew a bloke who played against Billy Kenny back in the day and he said he was one of those players who just glided across the pitch . He was sure he was going to outgrow us before the decade was out .
Baxter was a shame too . Had a great swagger about him . Both of these players have told their sad tale . Hopefully it's taken on by lots of today's overpaid youth .

"When Kenny, aged 19, was the man of the match in the Premiership's first Merseyside derby, his team-mate Peter Beardsley excitably christened him the "Goodison Gazza". If only he knew. The comparison was not gratuitous: Kenny was a midfielder blessed with sublime skill, especially in his passing, and perhaps more importantly a striking fearlessness (when Vinny Jones greeted him with a trademark early reducer, Kenny took the medicine uncomplainingly and then gave Jones a taste of it a few minutes later). But sadly the comparison to Gazza was equally relevant off the pitch: Kenny self-destructed, only much sooner. He chose not to choose life; he chose something else."

 

[Joey66]

Some of the goals Vic scored in our European campaigns were genuinely top drawer. At his best he was bullying defenders, but he never seemed able to put it together consistently.

He was just becoming a top player till Kevin Nolan half killed him v Newcastle he did settle out of court for compensation- never the same after that lost 2 yards of pace.....

 

[ClausThomsen]

20 or 30 years ago it was a tiny percentage of young players who were good enough mentally, technically and physically to make the jump from youth to senior football at the top level. Even back in the early 90's there were often articles or letters in fanzines bemoaning the huge number of academy lads being let go.

With bigger buying power then that percentage becomes even smaller as the pool of senior players within the clubs financial reach becomes larger. That's shown in this thread as all the mentions are about lads from years ago such as Kenny, Anichebe, Jeffers or Branch. Many who would have been retired by now even if they'd gone on to have terrific careers

If you've got one or two academy players in and around the first team these days then it's doing pretty well. Academies are looking for international quality players now as that's the standard that the club aspires to.

 

[Abraders]

The emphasis this club has on making sure they are competitive in the u23 competition and then the absolute lack of any of them really making an impact on the step up shows the problem with the youth setup.

That's the thing though, these two things aren't hand in hand - Winning the U23s and producing a premier League level footballer are two different things entirely.

I don't think many teams produce lots of first team quality players though. There are many factors to add in, money, pressure, suitability to the team etc

 

[riddick]

That's the thing though, these two things aren't hand in hand - Winning the U23s and producing a premier League level footballer are two different things entirely.

I don't think many teams produce lots of first team quality players though. There are many factors to add in, money, pressure, suitability to the team etc

Well that's kind of my point. Our youth setup seems to want to win the u23's as opposed to producing first team players. We've been pretty poor with it over the last decade or so.

 

[Harry73]

There was a great article in The Times a few years back, celebrating the year Beckham, Nevilles etc won the Youth Cup. It did a big piece on youth football in England. If I remember right, it said that if you took every youth team player from every league club (72 clubs x 20 players? = 1,440 players a year), on average only five of each year would ever play in the Premier League. Five players out of 1500 players. Insane.

 

[Lloydystark]

Last goal keeper to come through our academy and play a few games?

 

[Zatara]

From reading about him:

Kenny teamed up with Mo Johnson who introducer him to a bad crowd...he initially went off the rails for 6 months when he was out with shin splints...

Came back and Kendall fined him 2 weeks wages after he refused to turn up to training...then refused to play in a reserve game. He then got sent to rehab...

Walker had come into the club in the middle of another transgression and warned him that he was on his last chance...soon after another no show saw him punted.

Amazing to have so many chances and throw it all away at 21.

 

[Lloydystark]

Maybe the people doing the judging of potential, aren't very good judges ?

Look at Mustafi, Ruddy & Lundstram for examples of the opposite, of nobody really rating but doing fairly well for other prem teams

Rooney is really the only one in a generation to actually reach his suggested potential just a shame he never did it with us and he was past it when he returned

Mustafi would of been a good player for us if given the time and chance, only 27 now

 

[Lloydystark]

From reading about him:

Kenny teamed up with Mo Johnson who introducer him to a bad crowd...he initially went off the rails for 6 months when he was out with shin splints...

Came back and Kendall fined him 2 weeks wages after he refused to turn up to training...then refused to play in a reserve game. He then got sent to rehab...

Walker had come into the club in the middle of another transgression and warned him that he was on his last chance...soon after another no show saw him punted.

Amazing to have so many chances and throw it all away at 21.

Any idea what he’s doing now

 

[Wayno]

Rodwell is disgustingly bad at football. Beyond hope.

 

[Zatara]

Any idea what he’s doing now

No idea.

 

[BigMick]

Ronaldo brilliance meant that rooney had to be a team player, he really needed to be the star of the show. He played his best games for England as an Everton player

Yeah Rooney had been the star of every team he'd played in, at school, at Everton and for England. Then he signs for United and sees this young Portuguese lad who was not only more skilful than him but had the willingness to put in the extra work to make himself even better, while Wayne would sooner go out on the lash with Darron Gibson and Phil Bardsley.