Jack Harrison got a goal and an assist in the last game of the regular MLS season yesterday (skip to 2:16): He has a very strong chance of winning the "rookie of the year" award over there.
Jack Harrison has been shortlisted for "rookie of the year" in MLS, as expected, and Bradley Wright-Phillips has been shortlisted for the MVP award.
Seems a decent player. Would of liked England u-21 to involve him in past squads. Think he'll need to move back to England to have any real chance of becoming a better player.
People have long said that young English players should go abroad to get experience and I'm sure people on this forum will have noticed the incipient trend of young English players doing just that, mostly on loan. I'm posting this as a WIP tracking of the situation. The list of players getting England youth caps while based abroad in the last five seasons is (permanent/loan): 16-17: Patrick Roberts, Freddie Woodman, Lewis Baker (0/3) (Scotland counts right?) 15-16: Roberts, Lewis Baker, Nat Chalobah, Izzy Brown, Dom Solanke, Danny Collinge and Taylor Moore (2/5) 14-15: Moore, Collinge (2/0) 13-14: Eric Dier, Moore (2/0) 12-13: Dier (1/0) There were quite a lot of players who went abroad on loan last season who didn't get capped (including Brandon Barker, Dan Crowley, Tafari Moore, Mukhtar Ali and Ashley Smith-Brown all of whom were in the Netherlands) while I think every loanee abroad got a cap in 15-16 so last season saw a slight increase in young English players abroad not a dip as the list of caps may suggest. Dier and Moore both moved abroad as kids for non footballing reasons so we've gone from nothing to something very quickly. The change has mainly been driven firstly by Chelsea and then also by Arsenal and Man City choosing to loan English players abroad. Young, English and previously capped players confirmed abroad for next season so far are (club/current eligability): Permanent: Mandela Egbo (Gladbach/U21), Jordan Rossiter (Rangers/U21), Danny Collinge (Stuttgart/U20) Loans: Reece Oxford (Gladbach/U20), Fankaty Dabo (Vitesse/Senior) The strongest rumours floating about at the moment are linking Chris Willock (Benfica/U20) and Kaylen Hinds (Wolfsburg/U20) with moving abroad on permanent deals, either deal going through would see the first young Englishman moving to the continent since Mandela Egbo and Ravel Morrison going abroad two years ago. Of potential loans, Mason Mount to Vitesse stands out as an interesting, and plausible, sounding rumour.
I've seen comments from Harrison saying he'd love to play for England but also in the process of getting U.S citizenship. MLS isn't a bad quality league these days and with the impact he's made you'd think he'd merit a place in the next under-21 group. You've gotta wonder if the FA are actually aware of him though - anyone got any contacts there to tip them off what they're missing?
Harrison is 5 years away from US citizenship. If he's still stuck in MLS at 25 we won't be missing out on anything. He's shown improvement this season but competition for the next U21s group will be fierce. Who would bump out someone like Patrick Roberts, Demarai Gray or Ademola Lookman because Harrison has been playing well in MLS? There's been zero talk of English clubs showing an interest in buying him. I wonder if they bother scouting MLS much these days.
I wouldn't put him ahead of those guys certainly but I'd say he'd merit a squad place over the likes of Harrison Chapman who are in the current under-20 set up, given that there are few other 1996 players to compete against.
Chapman got 15 minutes at the U20 WC and was only in the squad because Patrick Roberts and Izzy Brown were unavailable. Add in the 96s and Chapman is going to be a way down the U21 pecking order himself.
Kaylen Hinds signs for VFL Wolfsburg - Willkommen! Der englische Junioren-Nationalspieler @kaykaymiles_ wechselt von @Arsenal zu den Wölfen ➡️ https://t.co/DIgC0QihRt #vflwob pic.twitter.com/Psw9D22b9S— VfL Wolfsburg (@VfL_Wolfsburg) July 8, 2017
You use loads of players in an u21 cycle. I'd just be in favour of getting Harrison across to get him involved and gauge where he's at. It can't really hurt. I'm sure it'd interest English + European clubs to see him in a new setting too.
Over on the German thread I think they are a little concerned with a sudden influx of our kids targeted and signing for German Clubs but don't think they have much to worry about long term as I'm presuming there is only a short window of opportunity before Brexit kicks in as don't think our kids will be able to move so freely as they can at the moment.
I don't think it's anything to do with Brexit. I just think our kids are undervalued when they're in this age range and smart clubs are trying to pick them up whilst they can. Just like the English clubs have done with Spanish kids over the last decade.
The current situation isn't, of course. He's saying that in future English kids may not be able to move to Germany as easily as they can now because brexit may result in the end free movement. Of course restrictions would go both ways and English football currently has a lot more incomings than outgoings. It's entirely hypothetical but if Arsenal hadn't been able to sign Jeff Reine-Adelaide perhaps Chris Willock would have got more game time this season just gone and wouldn't have wanted to leave.
Yeah that's pretty much what I meant, I mean I'm no expert on this matter and not seen to much in direct rule changes with football as yet but I'm guessing it should follow the end of free movement rules that everyone else in the U.K. will have to follow therefore us leaving the EU is going to have a negative effect on our players moving abroad but equally they should in theory get more of a chance with Premier League teams, hopefully.
If their FA works anything like ours in terms of who is recommended for a work permit, then players who have spent plenty of time with the national youth sides would have nothing to worry about. Brexit might also allow us to introduce England-eligible quotas to the Premier League too.
Even though I would like to see some kind of quota system in place for English eligible players starting games, I wouldn't get to hopeful about it I'm sad to say. Dan Ashworth was on TalkSPORT a few weeks ago, just after the U20's winning the World Cup and the question was put to him about quotas and disappointingly and surprisingly his response was to basically dismiss the idea and said we didn't need it.
#Sampdoria make first contact for #Arsenal's Jack #Wilshere https://t.co/wMcXc286rB— Pablito (@ilcano22) July 13, 2017
If they're really only asking €10m then I think Wilshere can expect plenty of competition for his signature irrespective of his injury record.
I know you're right, but why should he have to move back. With English youth proving itself on the international stage and the better EPL clubs being so rich as to not need to bother with youth I hope English players move abroad rather than sit on benches or languish in the lower divisions.
MLS having a summer schedule and being on a different continent are both factors that count against it. Lots of travel and jet lag will effect performances. Secondly there are clear question marks about the quality of the league; there are lots of suspect looking defenders, more failed MLS imports than successes. If a prospect was in League One it would be fair to say they would need to play at a higher level to get a look in for England U21 squads, MLS is in the same boat right now. Harrison could try and get a move to Holland, France or wherever if he wanted but we all know somewhere in England is much more likely. And if they spend money on him they'll probably play him (unless he joins the Man City loan farm).