The Squad Goalkeepers Curtis Anderson - Manchester City Josef Bursik - Stoke City William Crellin - Fleetwood Town Defenders Timothy Eyoma - Tottenham Hotspur Lewis Gibson - Everton Marc Guehi - Chelsea Joel Latibeaudiere - Manchester City Brooklyn Lyons-Foster - Tottenham Hotspur Steven Sessegnon - Fulham Adam Wilson - Newcastle United Midfielders Conor Gallagher - Chelsea George McEachran - Chelsea Felix Nmecha - Manchester City Tashan Oakley-Boothe - Tottenham Hotspur Oliver Skipp - Tottenham Hotspur Callum Wright - Leicester City Forwards Morgan Gibbs-White - Wolverhampton Wanderers Callum Hudson-Odoi -Chelsea Danny Loader - Reading Ian Poveda-Ocampo - Manchester City
Wilson's an interesting addition, a former winger who's found a home at full-back and is doing well for himself there. Bit of Kieran Gibbs about him.
So Poveda is back in, quite surprised considering I thought he wanted to play for Columbia but guess he's had a change of heart. CHO here too, was expecting him with the U19's at least tbh but maybe a sign of how strong the squads are above.
I was just coming to post about Poveda too. This is only a friendly mini-tournament though so nothing to lose from his point of view I suppose?
Germany have also called up Felix Nmecha, so that'll be interesting to see unfold. https://www.dfb.de/u-18-junioren/team-und-trainer/?no_cache=1
Panzo and Gomes are injured, right? I guess I'm a little surprised that only Foden seems to have joined Sessegnon and Sancho in being bumped up. Nice to see Poveda back in though.
I think it'd be hard to justify promoting Gomes anyway. I think they've struck a good balance between promoting players but also ensuring as many good players as possible get a look in. Probably better in the long term for England if more of the 1999s get a prolonged look as opposed to fast tracking absolutely all of the 2000s.
On his instagram he has the flags of Germany and Nigeria next to his name... but then images of him with the England set up. So anybody's guess. Is he related to Lukas?
Brothers. You probably know this but Lukas was born in Germany too, and apparently their parents are Nigerian and German.
Agreed, I was just trying to figure out which omissions were significant. Looking at the squad again, it's only CHO who really has a case to be bumped up, and the attacking talent in the under-19s makes a strong counterargument, so perhaps it's not such a surprise that only Foden made it.
The first game is on tonight. I wonder how many people will be mislead into thinking it's the "real u18s". The info on the screen menu has "the future of international football..". I remember Lou Mcarie several years ago, weeks after one of these games was on Sky, claiming the future wasn't looking bright because none of them playing looked special.
Whatever happened to Matt O'Riley? He was one of the higher rated cm prospects of his group, then the world cup came around, and he's since not been in and around the squads.
I'm not sure if he's injured right now, but this is the first squad of this age group since the WC and none of the midfielders are in the U19s so competition is strong. Skipp has had a great season and was unlucky to miss out on the WC (and generally seemed neglected throughout the U17 cycle for some reason). Felix Nmecha has seemingly made strides at City (and also is probably England want to keep sweet and away from Germany if possible and hasn't been involved for a while) and then Callum Wright is a new name. I'm sure O'Riley is still in the discussion for every squad, there's just a lot of guys they probably have to juggle to keep around. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/england-u18/startseite/verein/31269 I don't really know where they get their info, or if it's accurate. But transfermarkt have Curtis Anderson out for Solomon Brynn (Middlesborough), with Stephen Walker (Boro) and Alex Denny (Everton) in the squad too. The rest of the squad is correct, so it'd be strange if it was inaccurate. They've not taken Lyons-Foster out yet though so who knows.
O'Riley tweeted about a month ago that he was back in training, but I don't think he's actually made a Fulham squad at any level since then. Presumably either re-injured or taking the slow road back to fitness, which would be understandable given the issues that he's had.
That was already up actually. They posted their squad with him in a day or two before we posted ours. Did seem like an odd situation.