Review: The U15, U16, U17, U18, U19, PT And Young Orange Team - Thread

I wish I had time to write more comments until now. I am glad that Taylor had lived up to expectation in this game as he connected the other two lines better than the previous game. This Dutch team have three balanced and gifted lines and many good players, not found in previous Dutch champion teams which only boosted several outstanding players. I really hope that they could deliver their best in the years to come.

Yet, I am more concerned the consecutive failures of the U19 and U21 as they have failed to appear in the relevant finals for so many years. I believe this is deeply rooted in the lack of intensity and technical level of the Dutch league and once the very good seeds have emerged they cannot continue to mature to the top flight. If this is not solved, we will continue to produce good seeds which will never blossom.

 

Our U21 were twice title winners and made a good run in the Olympics.
Not one of them became a star.

 

Something to think about though is that the u17 should be the biggest indicator of future success. Obviously it doesn't guarantee anything, but it's the oldest group where MOST of the players are available for selection so you will have the strongest teams. By the time the very top players are 18 or 19+ they are playing with the senior teams and are rarely allowed to participate in the tournaments. Even this year Ihattaren and Gravenberch at a very young age were already with senior teams and not competing.

Now success at this level does not mean we will dominate in 5 years as development is not linear, but it's encouraging and shows a lot of potential. The thing is that senior NTs are generally not made up of just one year of development so you really only need 1 top level player in different years to supplement the team, which means you can have a bad youth NT but only need 1 of those players to make it.

Still, having the best u17 team for 2 - 3 years in a row, especially when playing beautiful football, is a good thing.

 

I wrote a star
However he's a player I value much, especially because of his almost single footedly torpedoing Real in Bernabeu with Schalke.

 

I think that this group of players from 02-03 generation is so good not mainly because of a fact they won UEFA Euro U17, but because of a fact that these players look so good by basic eye-test outside of this competition. Ihattaren was rotational player as U17 player in PSV this year in 2nd half of a season, Gravenberch became the youngest scorer of a goal in Ajax history and played regularly on Eerste Divisie level, Ki-Jana Hoever was 2nd youngest debutant in FA Cup in Liverpool history and had an opportunity to train with first Liverpool team for few months because Klopp was so enthusiastic about him. Unuvar is amazingly good for 15yo kid and I guess everyone is well-aware of that. Brobbey beats record after record in Ajax youth teams scoring goals with goal-per-game frequency, while Ian Maatsen played regularly in U23 Chelsea team as 16-17yo. And what with Rensch, Bogarde, Salah-Eddine, Raatsie, Taylor, Hansen or Bannis, who probably without an ankle injury would have played in first Feyenoord team this year? Or Burger, Timber brothers, Redan, Zirkzee?

That's the most talented group of young guys we've seen since 83-84 generation in Dutch football. I don't know if they will create elite national team like generation of Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie, De Jong, Heitinga, Huntelaar or Van der Vaart - but the talent definitely is here. That's so promising considering Netherlands have pretty solid core of young players right now with De Ligt, De Jong, Van de Beek, Dumfries, maybe Bergwijn, Chong, Kluivert.

 

I only going to take notice once they're in the mens game, not the boys playing ground.

 

Oh dear. Another occasion for our both sides nutheads to misbehave themselves again after this weekends one.

 

The 97-98 generation already looks pretty good on paper, and they are just scratching the surface... Frenkie, Bergwijn, V.d Beek, Danjuma Groeneveld, Stengs, TFM, Dilrosun. If you extend that to 99... it becomes really good: De Ligt, Kluivert. Maybe even one or two surprises down the road: Til, Koopmeiners, Malen, Van Drongelen, Eiting, Chong, Van Bergen, Kadioglu.

The good new is that the 97-98-99 generation is only a few years apart from 02-03, so there will be quite a bit of overlaps. The future is as bright as the color Orange.

 

Wut?
Ludovit Reis has a buy out clause in his cotract of 100 million

 

No, Barcelona put that clause into his contract.

 

Actually they have plans with him. He's a more aggressive Frenkie de Jong type and probably Barcelona thought it's better not to wait until Ajax buys him and then sells it to them for a 100 million.

 

Exactly my thought. I don't see Reis being anywhere close to "A" team with the number of established players ahead of him. I think this is a purely speculative (and smart, I might add) play by Barcelona. Stash him at the "B" level hoping that he can be good enough to replace the aging Biscuits, Rakitic and/or Vidal in 1-2 years. If Reis can't break through, €3M is not that impossible to recoup.

I suspect a move to PSV would have been wiser for Reis. There are (will be) job openings there in midfield, and the prospect of playing in European competition, UCL or EL.

 

Some reports claim that Barca will loan Reis to Real Betis. It wouldn't be a bad idea for him if gets a playing time there, especially with Quique Setien being their coach.

 

Dillon Hoogewerf will join Manchester United. One talent less to count on probably, pathetic move, third-fourth best player with Regeer in '03 in Ajax after Unuvar and Rensch. Fortunately, Naci Unuvar signed a contract to stay in Ajax to 2022.

Am I single person that gets Messi-vibes from Unuvar stylistically? I know that's hell of a comparison, but the way he moves and dribbles with a ball so close to his foot, and how his football IQ is huge, reminds me of Messi, that's very rare.

 

How many did well after joining ManUnited? What was that idiot that was a huge talent, but after a couple of years going backwards is now on the oint to try to find a place to play...those names just fade away...Foetsie man zeg..something like that..