The Big "Paucity of English Youth Talent" Debate!

Maguire to Leicester for £12m rising to a possible £17m according to Sky & BBC.

 

The BBC think Roberts "is expected to leave City permanently ahead of the new season" rather than go somewhere on loan: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40292943

I think getting out of City is best for his future prospects, a squad role there was realistic for him but wasn't going to take him anywhere fast. With lots of clubs fighting for his signature I'm sure there's a much better situation for him out there as long as most of them don't get priced out.

As a slight aside, I do think it's a distasteful aspect of modern football comparable to third party ownership that rich clubs are starting to strategically buy-to-loan players with the obvious intention of flipping them for a profit later on as City have done with Mooy and Unal this summer and as may well have always been the main aim with Roberts. Mid tier good at development teams get priced out of the market for such players, then develop those players on loan anyway, then at the end of the day the rich get richer off the back of the work of the mid tier teams.

 

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I hope Wenger buys him because he would fit in perfectly at Arsenal.

 

Yeah, the downside of a permanent departure is that more foreign clubs will be priced out than English ones. Not that he has to go abroad to progress, but it's no bad thing if he has the option.

 

There are some recent England youth internationals among the players released by last season's Premier League clubs. Adam Philips, James Yates, Bradley Fewster, Stefan O'Connor, Sam Howes, Russell Griffiths, and a few others.

 

Couldn't agree more with this and was something I was discussing with friends yesterday, could even look at someone like Bamford, and other players at Chelsea like Michael hector who will never play for them

 

Huddersfield are in talks to sign Izzy Brown for £8m. An opportunity for Premier League experience which he would probably have had already if he'd stayed at West Brom, but there you go. Chelsea get their healthy profit out of the deal.

 

I've also written a list but was waiting for after the U21 Euros to post it. Might as well dump it here to compare and contrast differences in opinion. Mine includes a few of the stand out 98s:

GK: Gunn, T. Smith, Woodman, Henderson, Ramsdale

LB: Chilwell, Galloway, Henry, Dasilva

RB: Kenny, Walker-Peters, Alexander-Arnold

CB: Holgate, Gomez, Tomori, Fry, Clarke-Salter, Moore/Tuanzebe/Adarabioyo/Worrall, Oxford

CM: Loftus-Cheek, Winks, Onomah, Cook, Maitland-Niles, Ejaria, Davies, Field, Viera

AM/WF: Gray, Kent, Palmer, Roberts, Brown, Ojo, Lookman, Dowell, Edwards

FW: Abraham, Rashford, Solanke, Calvert-Lewin, Armstrong

10 96s, 8 98s, 27 97s. I think players who have been in League One like Barnes or Colkett have potential but need to show more at a higher level in club football to be considered as realistic options for the U21 squad, Crowley for whatever reason seems out of favour. I think Rashford should be considered for the U21s but probably won't.

Narrowing down those 40+ names to a potential first 23 man squad:

Gunn, Woodman, T. Smith;

Chilwell, Kenny, Walker-Peters, Holgate, Tomori, Gomez, Clark-Salter;

Loftus-Cheek, Winks, Onomah, Cook, Davies, Gray, Palmer, Roberts, Brown, Lookman;

Abraham, Solanke, Calvert-Lewin;

Tom Davies is the only 98 to make the cut for the squad because I assume the FA will want to reward/keep around stand outs from the U20 WC but Trent AA and Oxford could force their way in rather quickly. With that in mind Dowell may well sneak in ahead of Palmer. Gomez ahead of the other 97 CBs is fitness dependent.

 

great work gents. Grealish should also still be eligible.

 

Grealish is 95-born, the next cycle is open to 96s and younger.

 

Quite a lot of the 97 group are dual eligible as well, that's the nature of the beast. The FAI would probably love to have Maddison but all of Gray, Palmer, Roberts, Brown and Lookman are ahead of him on merit. Who would he replace in a strongest 23? Plus Ojo is another talented and sought after dual national who deserves to being the conversation and who hasn't made the, theoretical, cut.

It's a similar story with Colkett. He definitely could have a good season in the Championship with the right loan, but Loftus-Cheek could have a good season in the Premier League with the right loan, Davies is already a Premier League starter, Cook will be hoping to kick on from getting into the Bournmouth team at the end of the season, Winks will be back from injury and Onomah will hopefully be getting more minutes off the back of an excellent World Cup.

I wouldn't completely discount anyone but the long list cut off has to be somewhere, although I'm now thinking the cut off should definitely have been after Colkett. Listing 23 is an interesting exercise but I agree that in the real world they should pick bigger squads initially to keep more players involved.

 

Have to say, whichever squad you go with it looks a stronger group than the current under-21s. Obviously there are only two players who are currently lost to the seniors (Alli, Rashford), but even if you take out another five you can make some very good elevens with plenty left over. The last two years have felt like a little bit of a slump in quality to me, certainly compared to the group before, so it would be good to see the standard come back up.

 

One possible hurdle with any plan to call up a bigger squad is that the clubs probably wouldn't be under any obligation to agree. They have to release players for the official squads in international game weeks, but I don't suppose that they're compelled to release extra players for training camps.

 

Shouldn't be too much of an issue as all fixtures will fall in the designated international breaks

 

Very interesting. According to the record, Chris Willock has been in Lisbon since Thursday and set to sign for Benfica B

 

would it be a good move ?

 

That article got posted on r/soccer and it was downvoted to oblivion. Lots of people can't see past their "fcuk the Daily Mail" world view to assess the article on it's individual merits...

Chelsea/Man City academy players looking at the lack of opportunity in the first team and getting out earlier is something I've hoped would become a trend. One player doing it doesn't prove anything yet, and Chalobah leaving wouldn't really be part of it as he's almost 23, but it's something to keep an eye on. If you expand it out to other clubs, Chris Willock seems to have assessed his options and chosen to make the jump but the likes of Ola Aina and Tosin Adarabioyo both eventually accepted the large pile of money with limited opportunities option when their contracts were recently expiring.

 

There are other factors at play there as well. Big club fans are often incredibly defensive of anything that paints their club in a negative light, no matter how justified. There are also a huge number of foreign Premier League fans there, and anything that seems to be asserting the Englishness of the Premier League is automatically taken as a depreciation of their fandom. Which, frankly, it is, but I don't see a lot wrong with wanting Premier League clubs to prioritise their long-standing status as community institutions over the wishes of TV viewers in the US or Malaysia.

Most clubs won't do that though, so I tend to agree that players need to recognise the issue and leave at the right time - which, thankfully, they seem to be doing in increasing numbers from Chelsea and elsewhere. But Chelsea's revenue streams will be fine: for every youth player who leaves for "only" £3m, they'll have another like Aké who goes for closer to £20m, so there's no great incentive for them to change their model.