Guardian does have a point. This thread focus is mainly about young English players in the FA Academy League. This IS the England Forum after all. Besides, since when does Al Mubarak have any credentials as a football youth scout?
LOL. Obviously he talks to the City managers. Mancini also follows the progress of the young boys. The Italian is keen to bring young players through the City academy. Okay you dont care about foreigners but let's look at it this way. This information gives us a hint that there could(not will) be 2 less places for English players in a top English club.
According to their recent tweets it appears Sheyi Ojo and Jerome Sinclair will be promoted to LFC U18s next season. Ojo is still 14 and Sinclair is still 15!
That's interesting - Ojo that is. I thought he would - he had a little go before the end of the season. And Sinclair was starting games at the end.
Sinclair only misses out on being a scholar for this coming season by like three weeks so it makes sense to move him up, happens a load with players who just miss the cutoff.
Reise Allassani was Palace's Academy Player of the Year ahead of Innis, Sow and Boateng etc Not sure if the likes of Kyle De Silva and Jonathan Williams were considered
Cheers mate. Interesting to see if there is some game time at Palace next year for some of that lot. Williams of course. But from an English perspective the likes of De Silva, Innis, Sow and Allassani
Arsenal confirm their scholars Chuba Akpom Tommy Dallison Tarum Dawkins Alex Iwobi Jack Jebb Glenn Kamara Austin Lipman Alfred Mugabo Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill Leander Siemann Arinse Uade Josh Vickers http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-ar...d&utm_campaign=Feed:+arsenal-news+(News+Feed) New thread needed for the new season?
Matthew Willock 96' winger, the older of the three brothers, released by arsenal two years ago and at reading last year , has been signed by manchester united (first year scholar).
Chelsea take on 17 new scholars - that's a lot innit. http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2832359,00.html
That list still misses Traore(due to complicated status) & probably the belgian lad just signed, not that it matters in this forum. Anyway, the kid Brady mentioned in Sun today is British, they mentioned of a defender, tall strong lad from France who's actually British having trial last month. Turned out that's this boy.
You'd wonder what they are going to do with them all. The likes of Conor Hunte could do with u18 experience.
This years gonna be different with so many games. As we do it, NextGen & FAYC will be the priority so there will be plenty of games in the league for them first years. Loads of schoolboys play in the league late onwards from February so I think they'll get decent enough time. Likes of Davey, Baker Swift will push on for the u21s. Nate, Kane, Blackman, Bamford will be proper u21s & expect them being in the vicinity of the first team(and an option for NextGen too). One or 2 from fringe players might go on loan to Bolton as part of Cahill deal supposedly, in which case Bamford should get the nod for me, he's a proper no 9.
Mmmm. Not so sure. As I said the other week before I knew just how many were being taken on the NexGen would be of some help to spread the games around. But most of the cup winning side are still eligible next season. This u21 rebranding exercise is supposed to make it as some sort of achievement to get in there after progessing from the u18s. The likes of Hunte shouldn't be held back - particularly as we want u17 players to be playing at u18 club level.
I think (or rather I have to think) they know what they're doing. I'd estimate a rough breakdown of the squads thusly: U21s (including potential loanees, ignoring likely/certain loanees): GK - Blackman (1) DF -Ashton, Aké, Chalobah, Davey, Deen-Conteh, Ince, Kane, Nditi, Nkumu, Pappoe (10) MF -Affane, Baker, B.Clifford, C.Clifford, L.Musonda, T.Musonda, Saville, Stenning, Swift (9) FW - Bamford, Feruz, Lalkovic, Piazon, Phillip (5) Total: 25 U18s GK - Beeney, Killip (2) DF - Bangura, Christensen, Conroy, Dabo, Gordon, Houghton, Muleba, Nortey, Wright (9) MF - Boga, Cole, Colkett, Gnahore, Howard, Hunte, Loftus-Cheek, C.Musonda, Osmanovic, Ssewankambo, Starkey (11) FW - Figueira, Kandi, Kiwomya, Mitchell, Seremba (5) Total: 27 (incl. 4 schoolboy) The schoolboys usually come into force more after Christmas but will get their looks before here and there. The U21s face a more regular fixture list than before if everything is to be believed (at least with 19 other PL teams and weekly fixtures, it suggests a 38 game calendar) so a bigger squad is required, whilst you're splitting 27 Under-18s over the league and NextGen schedules so they should get enough football. Hopefully.
Just to inform you on Serafim's case if you don't already know. He is from the biggest ghetto in Bulgaria, Stolipinovo and previosly played in Spartak Plovdiv (a local club in some regional league). He is 17 years old and he has never played in a professional football club. No information on how long he has been on a trial at Man City but surely not for very long. In the match against Inter Milan he scored and for the other games I have no information. Presently the first team of Manchester City is training in Austria and surprisingly, this yound kid Serafim Mihailov who has never played in a professional team has been sent in Austria to train with the first team after just playing a couple of matches with the reserves. Take note that he hasn't yet signed a contract with the team and Mancini said that once the kid turns 18 they will give him the contract. His is compared with Balotelli but in my opinion he will be better. Just think of it, a club such as Manchester City pick a kid from the ghetto in Bulgaria and they give him a trial and after a couple of matches with the reserves, he is sent in Austria to train with Balotelli, Tevez, Aguero, Hart etc. when he has never signed a contract with a professional club, ever. It's not a regural youngster that's for sure... Here is some video about the kid:
Arsenal beat Chelsea u18s yesterday 3-2. Don't suppose anyone has the Chelsea team (and subs)? Akpom is in the reserves squad for today's game with Boreham Wood. It'll be interesting to see how he does this coming season. It's The Milk Cup starting this week-end.
Chelsea: Ben Killip; Kevin Wright (Sam Bangura), Dion Conroy (Nortei Nortey), Ali Gordon (Fankaty Dabo), Jonathan Muleba (Charly Musonda); Jordan Houghton (Jesse Starkey) , George Cole (Isak Ssewankambo), Joao Rodriguez (Jeremie Boga); Reece Mitchell (Tom Howard), Ambrose Gnahore (Connor Hunte), Chike Kandi (Walter Figueira)