The Big "Paucity of English Youth Talent" Debate!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...rt-single-young-home-grown-player-season.html

Football League clubs who give youth a chance... but eight sides have failed to start a single young and home-grown player this season

 

'Brighton, Norwich, Cardiff, Preston, QPR, Bolton, MK Dons and Newport are the teams in question.

They have not named one player in the starting line-up who was under 21 as of June 30 this year and is eligible for England or, in the case of the Welsh clubs, Wales.'

I'm not saying there's not some semblance of a point in there, but it's a very arbitrary condition, that skews it and suggests them 8 clubs are somehow drastically worse than others. Bolton have Zac Clough and Josh Vela (Kaine Woolery was also taken form them on deadline day) as regulars and Norwich have the Murphy twins playing. They're just four players off the top of my head that this piece discounts cause they've picked a random age and date as the cut off point.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...g-his-11million-move-to-everton-a7512746.html

 

With the media coverage of this 13yr old lad going from Southend to Man City I started thinking about how his career would differ due to the move. He's not the the first player to leave a club at a very young age and it seems to have been the making of some and the breaking of others careers. Just for a bit of fun I thought i'd choose 3 players who left their first clubs for a big club at a young age and guess at the stage they would be now if they'd chosen to stay rather than move.

Raheem Sterling (QPR)- would have probably broken in to the first team at 16 and made 40-50 appearances for QPR before ending up at a top side so no real change from what happened.

Izzy Brown (WBA)- would have made sporadic first team appearances near the end of the first few seasons, few loan moves then become established in the first team by the time he was 18

Sheyi Ojo (MK Dons) similar route as Dele Alli, would have broke in to the first team around 16 made 100+ appearances before moving to a top 8 prem team like Everton or Spurs

 

It's ambitious to say Izzy Brown would be established at West Brom at 18. It's often harder for these lads to break through at the bottom half sides than it is the top sides.

There's way too many variables to be entirely sure with any of these guys. Two years in an amazing Chelsea youth set up, a full season at Vitesse and then a full season split between both ends of the Championship may turn out to be a better path for him. Certainly a pretty impressive range of experiences to have under his belt having just turned 20.

 

Yeah, I can't see Brown as a certainty at West Brom managed by Tony Pulis. He's at a good place now, Huddersfield are a team on the up, playing good football with a quality manager.

 

Yep hes a klopp kinda guy and huddersfield are doing ridiculously well under him

 

Are Harry Kane and Antoine Griezmann excluded from the list for any reason other than the fact they make his argument weaker? Higuain and Lewandowski are both the sons of professional athletes so I doubt their upbringings were that underprivileged either.

The passage trying to shoehorn himself into the underprivileged category is laughable: "It was tough at Monaco when I was a 17-year-old. We didn’t have the same kit as the first team — we wore stuff that was three seasons old." Three season old kits, the poor soul.

What does he think of Tammy Abraham's easy transition from the Chelsea academy to Championship football? Or the fact that Gabriel Jesus was flanked in Man City's impressive front three by two young European academy graduates? I'm not pretending the academy system is perfect, but that article is poor.

 

Last season's Man City intake was dubbed the 'Golden generation' How does this one compare ?

Local
Curtis Anderson (signed from Blackpool)
Jeremie Frimpong
Nathaniel Ogbeta
Ryan Corrigan (signed from Everton)
Keyendrah Simmonds
Henri Ogunby (signed from Bury)
Rabbi Matondo (signed from Cardiff)
Yeboah Amankwah (signed from Man Utd)
Bobby Duncan (signed from Wigan)

They got a few foreign players and released a couple of players on the England radar in Simms & Elewa-Ipeaku

 

Don't think it's nearly as good; this year's first-year intake had Foden, Dele-Bashiru, Latibeaudiere, Francis and Rosler amongst those who'd started there very young, Sancho, Poveda and Smith signed from other English clubs, and Gonzalez added from abroad. Think they're all of a higher calibre than those coming in this year, although Frimpong and possibly Anderson (don't know what to think about Duncan just yet) would have a good case for being as good as some of them.

 

Taylor Richards

 

Felt like there was one I was missing. And he was signed from Fulham.

Talk is from u15s downards lots of 'Blue' Manchester boys.

 

Think Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, WBA and Forest will have strong intakes as well just from England selections.

 

Most experienced young players, by year of birth (31 European top division leagues) by @CIES_Football

 

Im coming tound to ali a bit more glad hes getting so many games

redmond starting every game as well or was

 

Re Spurs you're right. I started thinking about our intake next year and personally couldn't whittle it down anymore I spoke to a parent who confirmed my suspicions and it will be around 16. Which includes one signing from abroad of Tainio and surprisingly includes Poch Jr. I think the main reason for the massive intake is due to a lot of CMs/AM/Ws which couldn't be culled, then needing to have cover elsewhere. Saying that though there aren't many internationals but a lot of very good players e.g. Thorpe, Shashoua, Patterson, Clarke

 

Chelsea's is led by Hudson-Odoi and Panzo on that front, with Lavinier and Mola also having caps, but the group overall isn't quite as strong as some of those from recent years. Not terrible by any measure but maybe just a step down from the readiness to step up overall.

Hudson-Odoi is spectacular though, will be pushing for U23 inclusion by next season at this rate.

 

I know it's difficult to be objective, but where would you rate him in comparison to the other 2000s?

 

I'm not going to check all of these but are these accurate?

Only thing I noted with a quick scan was Lewis Cook, who has played 1 Prem game and 80 in the Championship is noted as having 35 games on this? Or am I just misunderstanding something?