Also this paragraph doesn't paint a pretty picture “He has authority and behavioural problems, and we have to look at the bigger picture to find out the root cause. There was a time when it would have been seen as impossible for him to play professionally, let alone make it in the Premier League. Going to sound silly but I'm gonna presume that he has not been diagnosed with some kind of learning disability? Reminds me of my Nephew who has a learning disability ( ADD ) and is easier to understand and deal with once diagnosed.
He may have an introverted personality but that does not excuse his poor timekeeping, because if he can't do a simple thing as turn up on time, then that does bode well for his future. Because he strikes me as a kid who the game has always come easy to him, and probably from an early age he was always the stand out player at every level he played at, and just got by on his skill alone. But as we all know, ability can only get you so far, because unless you have the desire to make the most of it you will come up short. So unless he wakes up and smells the coffee, he will end up like Crowley and Morrison, playing in obscurity, and imo, I think that is where he will end up.
In contrast to Edwards there is a nice piece on James Milner today - I'd always assumed he had the right attitude without know much about the details: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...pool-midfielder-James-Milner-set-run-run.html
Nice little video from A Bola on Chris Willock strutting his stuff for Benfica B: . Always loved watching him play but in some ways it makes me sad. I was so excited about this group. Remember these lads making fools of people at u16/u17 levels. And now we have Willock languishing in Portuguese lower divisions and Edwards looking like he doesn't have the mental capacities to be a top player. Yan Dhanda has been completely jettisoned from the England setup.
Languishing is a bit harsh, he's a 20 year-old who's played nearly 2000 minutes in a men's professional league this season, at a club and in a country where development of talent is taken a bit more seriously than if he was to have been sent on loan to the Championship or League One. Arsenal's loan policy is highly dubious too, so there's no guaranteeing that if he'd have stayed he'd have been in a better position. He wasn't going to waltz into a good Benfica team and play immediately, his first season has gone pretty well tbh.
England U20 Player minutes in the PL ('97 born) Lewis Cook - AFC Bournemouth - 1968 Dominic Calvert-Lewin - Everton - 1842 Joe Gomez - Liverpool - 1720 Tammy Abraham - Swansea City ( Chelsea ) - 1609 Jonjoe Kenny - Everton - 1588 Marcus Rashford - Manchester United - 1478 Ainsley Maitland-Niles - Arsenal - 664 Aaron Wan-Bissaka - Crystal Palace - 538 Dominic Solanke - Liverpool - 475 Isaiah Brown - Brighton ( Chelsea ) - 306 Josh Sims - Southampton - 159 Ademola Lookman - Everton - 152 Hamza Choudhury - Leicester City - 145 Kyle Walker-Peters - Tottenham Hotspur - 98 Jack Simpson - AFC Bournemouth - 72 Axel Tuanzebe - Manchester United - 1
Some decent talent here. Though if Tuanzebe only has 1 minute one has to wonder if some real talents aren't playing at all.
Not really surprised at this but where next for Edwards?? He really needs a good move this Summer and needs regular first team football somewhere. Personally think he needs a move abroad as will suit his playing style more, if he goes to a Championship Club I fear he will just get bullied physically and not get much playing time. https://amp.theguardian.com/footbal...er?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true
I am afraid Edwards is all but finished, at least no one expects here that he redeems his talent. I know he is young but his mentality seems like a big problem.
Wouldn't write him off completely. He's still 19 and loads of lads with problems as kids ended up making it. If he joins a lesser side and actually gets some game time, who knows what will happen. Find it hard to judge him when he's just not playing at all.
Quite a strange one - Mackenzie Heaney (1999) has today signed for Newcastle Benfield, who play in the Northern Football League Division One.
Likely a temporary move to stay fit and ready for a bigger move later in the window, he'll have the freedom for that, though I don't actually think he's that good.
It's a bit worrying how big the drop off is with the talent from the North East. Most vanish off the face of the earth after the age of about 18. I'm not expecting every player who plays for England in the underage teams to make it to the PL and the Senior side but players like Dan Wright + Bradley Fewster and loads more before them only go one way after lingering in the U23s for years. Even someone like Conor Ripley who is doing alright for himself in L1, is overweight and looks like a mid 30 pub player already.
There is certainly an issue of what happens to them after U18 football. Like you say they seem to pad their U23 squads with these players to compete for a title and then eventually release them. Saying that I'm trying to think of one North East player that isn't a centre back that has impressed for England at U16, U17 or U19 level?
Interestingly, Paul Woolston was amongst the twenty(!) U23 players released by Newcastle (plus an additional five U18s). As were Kyle Cameron and Alex Gilliead, who all represented England at youth level at some point. Of course, that's not a guarantee they'll go onto have a career at their club but it solidifies JRSG's point about players lingering in the U23s. Seems like the majority of players at the majority of clubs elsewhere in the country don't face the same problem. On the topic of Woolston - despite him being a 98 (though technically he could still be eligible for this thread) I thought he was a decent enough goalkeeper. Not the best and probably unlikely to overtake Woodman but I thought it was pointless of Newcastle to keep other goalkeepers such as Brendan Pearson (who was also released) and Nathan Harker around when they had Woolston and Otto Huuhtanen ready to step up from the U18s. Considering essentially 90% of their U23s have gone I'd expect they'd be recruiting heavily this summer. Perhaps they'd identify players who are on the international radar but not the "bigger" names - for example Cole Dasilva or Sadou Diallo, who were both other international (although Cole is with Wales) 1999s released this summer. Would then be interesting to see if they go onto make the first team there, breaking the trend somewhat. But yeah, can't say I'm too confident with the pathway at the club.
Do we reckon Woomdan is good enough to be Newcastle's number 1? Would be a huge shame if he doesn't make it in my opinion. But Newcastle don't seem interested so far.
Has anyone seen anything about them having another edition of the U20 Elite League or was it a one off?
Imho he is. And ive always felt that. I think its backed up by his performances for england in the u20 and toulon and his loan at aberdeen. He needs to leave but he will be a prem / england keeper one day
Fixture pages on the Dutch, German and Czech FA pages suggest so. https://repre.fotbal.cz/tym/terminy/3
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/foot...rcus-edwards-bayer-leverkusen-permanent-deal/ Not sure if there is much in this, maybe, maybe not but I usually take these things with a pinch of salt especially when written by journalists that are lazy with there research. In the article it states that Chris Willock has established himself as a first team regular with Benfica first team , so yeah not sure about this.
A fresh start in a new country would probably be perfect for him. It would force him to come out of his shell, there'd be no hiding out there.