Right, the SC threw me off i thought it was a differrent club. Great win against Dortmund. Spoke to someone at the tourny and they're a big united fan so take this with a pinch of salt. Said that united have been extremely unlucky with results. First one united dominated but the Chilean side put away their only chance to make it 1-1. Against Madrid they lost it on th last kick of the game and had 2 "definintie" penalty decisions turned down, even game overall though apparrently. Uniteds stand out players were Makela, Savill and Thompson. Thompson is an U13 I believe and Makela a late 99 born.
Arsenal through to the quarters. United out at the group stages after a draw with the bottom team in the group. A win would have put them through but a strange 0-0 means united are out. Arsenal now play Grasshopper Zurich in the Quarters. I would call that a good draw for Arsenal, Zagreb the team to beat. United play Right to Dream in a play off. Very good team i'm surprised they're not through to the QF stages. They had a monster of a group though in there with Boca, Zagreb and AC Milan. Boca not made the QFs either for the first time in god knows how long.
Arsenal go out to Zagreb on penalties. Nothing to be ashamed of there as Zagreb seem to be sensational at youth level every year. This is the best an English team has done in the competition for a long time and it goes some way to justify the hype about Arsenals players in this age group. You do wonder how much of it is down to the Willocks. As a united fan, i'd love to see them join their big bro at Carrington and I do wonder how much of an influence that thought had in us taking on the older Willock in the first place. Though M Willock looked a very good defensive midfielder in the Milk cup winning side. He was a winger when he first arrived. I'm really interested to see how the England U16 side will turn out for the next VS. I think Arsenal, United and Chelsea will have a fair few players in there.
How many teams participated in the UK qualifiers this year? Seem to think it was just a small contingent this time, we did not of course after the original schedule cancellation.
If we're talking potential Victory Shield guys from Chelsea this year, it's interesting because a lot of the good U16s are 97s, meaning mainly U15s I guess. Of the U16s, I think Nias Butungu is a 98 and he's been scoring for the 18s in pre-seasom, but I'm not sure on his eligibility. Jay Da Silva is a 98 but has already pushed on, and Jordan Beeney has caught the eye in goal a bit. Josh Grant and Ike Ugbo are 98s amongst the U15s, plus the lad Maddox who came over from Bristol City, then there's a few 99s who are highly rated like Trevoh Chalobah, Dan Kemp and Mason Mount.
Don't know, I'm pretty sure Chelsea didn't enter though. Like I said before its a shame Dearnley abd Kenyon weren't available as they're 2 key players. At Marveld when united got to the semis Gribbin wasn't there either but if all three were available I would have fancied our chances to go far in this tournament and perhaps all the way at Marveld.
I think Evertons Nathan Holland has been called up to the victory shield training camp. Looks a really nice player from the milk cup highlights.
I take it Watford's goal scorer Ogo Obi is "English"? http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...rpool-transfer-news-liverpool-arsenal-2149052
He isn't in the training camp squad. Don't know whether that is because he's a late 1997 born or just wasn't picked.
Hmm, Rashford and Solanke the only u15s to play last VS, both late 97s. No idea how good Maddox is but it looks like there's a chance he'll play a year early. Wonder if Joe WIllock will get a call.
Ali and Da Silva were also U15s at club level last season and played VS (plus Scott and Christie-Davies later in the season).
As far as I can tell only Kaylen Hinds and Chris Willock have been called from Arsenal which means no Joe Willock.
If Willock is that good he might move up to the u17s towards the end of the season - he's 16 in January - and he could replace Mitchell. Failing that put Onoma in instead.
SOME UPDATES : Defender Darnell Johnson & left-sided midfielder Layton Ndukwu of Leicester have made the squad. Midfielder, Adam Phillips, of Liverpool as well. MK Dons defender Danny Collinge & Wolves forward Jake Thomas are also in. The only two players not with a Premier League or Championship team. So basically we know - Jay Da Silva (Chelsea), Foday Nabay (Fulham) & Hugo Logan (MK Dons) have played Nordic and won't be involved. Darnell Johnson (Leicester) Layton Ndukwu (Leicester) Danny Collinge (MK Dons) Jacob Maddox (Chelsea) formerly Bristol City Adam Phillips (Liverpool) Herbie Kane (Liverpool) formerly Bristol City Chris Willock (Arsenal) Kaylen Hinds (Arsenal) formerly Leyton Orient Hayden Coulson (Middlesbrough) Nathan Convery (Middlesbrough) Jake Thomas (Wolves)