Finally ! I consider Brandon on a technical level only inferior to Luke Shaw as LB. In my opinion he is good enough to have a career at Arsenal .
An interview with Aidy Boothroyd and basically just confirming he's taking over Eastick's past role and responsibilities - http://www.thefa.com/news/england/development/2014/mar/boothroyd-looks-to-the-future
England U19s to face Turkey: Beeney, Aina, Chambers, Facey, Targett; Hayden, Swift, Baker; Murphy, Gallagher, Cole.
FT at Chester - England U19s have beaten Turkey 3-0. Devante Cole, Lewis Baker and Callum Robinson the scorers.
It's not of often at any level we hear a performance being described as "excellent", and "....gave England the victory their confident dynamic play richly deserved". so it's nice to hear it said about the 3-0 win. John Swift was apparently outstanding and MoM.
With Charlton playing against Sheffield United tomorrow in the FA Cup quarter final all the papers seem to have an article on Diego Poyet. This is The Sun's: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-a-lot-but-I-dont-want-to-play-under-him.html
Grauniad article ripping the appointment http://www.theguardian.com/football...sociation-fa-england-under-20s-steven-gerrard
I read that last night. It's a bit of a hatchet job but I still really struggle to disregard Boothroyd's management career just because this is a different development type role. Supporters of his appointment will say he is a victim of the must win way of senior football and pressure of the sack. He had numerous chances and could have implemented a much more positive style somewhere though? Do we not need people that are prepared to sacrifice themselves to provide the right atmosphere to develop our young players at lower league level? There aren't enough clubs doing this but we reward the guy that did it right to the very depths of the football league and claim it's completely irrelevant. Obviously I hope he does well and will have to give him a chance. Interesting if it is true that some in the FA staff are bemused by the role. Also the hushing up of giving Charles Hughes a lifetime achievement award is quite bizarre.
I don't support his appointment so much as I just trust Ashworth. I'll happily join in the chorus of complaints if he's a failure.
Doesn't surprise me Daniel Taylor has done an article like this, he noticed John Beck was teaching the Level 2 and UEFA B licence and wasn't happy at all. Personally I think the Beck appointment was worse than the Boothroyd one. If we want to have improved coaches emerging from our system then the educators need to be top notch. It would be nice to have a impressive foreign coach educator appointed to bring something new to our somewhat insular approach.
There will be a syllabus given to the educators of course, they don't go in there blind to teach. But often it's in the delivery, the method of teaching and how they interact with those undertaking the course that maks a good coach educator.
19 year old centre-mid Jamie Allen of Rochdale gets his 5th goal in 12 starts for the season. No idea if he's good enough for us just thought I'd mention it.
Mason Bennett joins Chesterfield on loan - https://twitter.com/Masonbennett20/status/444122030712295424