Well done to all the players and staff involved. I wonder why McEachran didn't start or get on the pitch. Maybe injured. Same with Thorn too. It's good to see different players getting chances anyway.
http://www.thefa.com/England/MensUnder16s/NewsAndFeatures/2009/Squad_Wales.aspx This years' Victory Shield squad is going to be interesting. Hallam Hope has done extremely well with Everton in the last two Milk Cups, and will probably start up front with Arsenal's prolific Zak Ansah. Good to see there is no favouritism in regards to the 'big four', as Liverpool and Chelsea both do not have representatives. Whilst Alex Henshall, a Swindon Town player has got in .
Just did some digging and apparently Chelsea can't get Alex Henshall now due to their transfer embargo. Everton and Man United are after him. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/new...ase-following-transfer-ban-article145513.html
Surprisingly, have not heard of either of Man Utd's 2 representatives. What's the age limit for this tournament? Morrison and Thorpe have both turned 16 so I presume they are not eligible.
You have to be born in 1994 or later. 1993s like Morrison, Thorpe or Jamie Edge are not elligible. Tyler Blackett is a centreback, though that's all I know really. Luke Hendrie might be related to John Hendrie, and played in midfield for Utd in the Nike Premier Cup (an annual U-15 tournament), where he impressed, scoring a couple goals. Two other players in that squad have notable parents - Nick Barmby's son Jack and Dean Gorre's son Kenji. Both are wingers: Barmby could be a 95, but he was probably Utd's best player; Kenji looked useful too, and he plans to represent England for now. Other players players who impressed where Ben Pearson (a deep-lying mid) and goalkeeper Jonny Sutherland. Overall, the team was quite small in size, but technically impressive. BTW, Zack Ansah was one of 2 Arsenal kids who Wenger said "have nothing to learn technically". Dunno who the other guy was.
Liverpool's academy is garbage (yes, they've got lots of foreign kids, but that's not what it should be about). They tried to fix it about 10 years ago and failed. Now, under Benitez, they're trying to revamp it again, with focus on the technical development of the 7-10 year-olds when they first come to the club. Hopefully they'll succeed. Man Utd knew their academy was struggling even amid the Fledgling hype, so they redeveloped it properly about a decade ago, bringing in foreign coaches amid other improvements. Now they're producing a reliable stream of talent for England's youth squads. Proves that this youth development thingy isn't rocket science - you just need to dedicate serious effort to it in order to get it right. As for Chelsea, they probably aren't that bad. They do have admirable talents like MacEachran and James Ashton, and Nathan Chalobah (who's elligible for the new U-16s). But obviously they're not outstanding either.
IIRC it was Chuks Aneke or Benik Afobe. Yeah I know Liverpool recently had a big overhaul of their Academy, it was part of Benitez's requests when negotiating his latest contract. Hopefully they should start producing some top quality English talent in the future, because right now they are playing catch up to their rivals Everton. MacEachran is definatly the pick of Chelsea's English players in their academy, and was promoted to the England U-17's early with Laing and Afobe after impressing the Victory Shield last year. You are right in that Nathaniel Chalobah is eligble for this years squad, but he was promoted to the U-17's for the FA International tournament in August.
No, he was refering to players from a younger age group that Aneke and Afobe no longer belonged to. And praising Afobe's technique would be madness - the guy can barely control a football. I'm really shocked at how overhyped he is, because he's gonna be a massive disappointment. Aneke I like quite a bit, but he needs to find his role - he's been a DM, AM, box-to-box, etc.
Really? Because Young Guns, one of Arsenal's largest youth blogs, mentions in Afobe's profile that he was one of the players Wenger was referring to. The same is also mentioned in Aneke's profile. Anyway, that website is sometimes wrong about some minor details, so I wouldn't be surprised if they made a wrong call on the players Wenger was referring to.
Looking forward to seeing Hallam Hope. He has already broken through to Evertons U18 team and is doing well for them, he is tall, fast and an excellent finisher with either foot so good things are expected of them. Regarding Liverpool's academy - despite the emotion involved in football most parents are fairly pragmatic about which club their child joins. Owen, McManaman and Fowler all went to Liverpool despite being Everton fans because, at the time, they had better facilities and a better reputation for bringing local youngsters in. Now Everton have the better reputation locally. Everton have a commitment to bring through at least one local lad each season. Liverpool have roughly twice as many professional players on their books, and a better first XI so it makes it almost impossible to break through. Parents see this and so even the Liverpool fans like Jose Baxter choose to play for Everton instead.
Yeah I like that site too, probably more than YG's now these days, AY seems a little more active too. As for the two players Wenger was referring to, there are no direct quotes from Wenger on the specific players, so it's always going to be up for debate.
Yeah Everton do have a big rep now for bringing through younger players than Liverpool do. Everton also have their new Finch Farm Training Complex which is a big draw.
It's the first game for England in this season's Victory Shield. Skysports 1 at 7:40pm BST. We play Wales.
We won 1-0. My very brief views - Poor first half and we probably should have gone in behind. Better in the second half but we needed a late goal from Ansah. Fanimo got the Man of the Match award and he deserved it. Henshall looked good when he came on (although he was a bit selfish). Ansah came on and looked good too (Don't know why he didn't start. Hope didn't receive the service to properly judge him.
75th minute goal wasn't it? These games often seem to be low scoring with England doing enough to edge them.
I'm not certain on the time of the goal but it was around that time. The goal was sort of coming with hitting the bar and the Welsh keeper making a save or two. Usually they are low scoring because the other team is a bit too defensive but the Welsh had a go for most of the game. I think our players looked nervous in the first half and only starting playing properly with 25 mins to go.