The paucity of English opportunity thread

Discussion in 'England' started by wellno, Aug 9, 2017.

  1. Marcho Gamgee

    Marcho Gamgee Member+

    England
    Apr 25, 2015
    Somewhere in English Arrogance land
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Either be sold or sent out on loan I would guess. Onomah probably back to the Championship and by the sounds of it Edwards to the Bundesliga but that seems to have gone quiet lately. Personally would like to see Onomah in the Bundesliga or a foreign league also tbh.
     
  2. JRSG

    JRSG Member+

    Mar 25, 2015
    Club:
    Torquay United
    I much prefer the loans at this point. The ones in January are always just for cover and there's only like 15 games left at that point. I'm unsure about the Tuanzebe loan myself, but at least he's got a full season run at it.
     
  3. AJ123

    AJ123 Member+

    Man Utd
    England
    Feb 17, 2018
    Walker-Peters, like Tuanzebe at United, impress every time they are given a chance but Spurs and United prefer to spend big money on mediocre players like Aurier and Lindelof.

    Surely Walker-Peters should play more this season.
     
  4. Jenks

    Jenks Member+

    Feb 16, 2013
    Club:
    --other--
    The English transfer window is closed. Onomah can't go to an English club.
     
  5. JRSG

    JRSG Member+

    Mar 25, 2015
    Club:
    Torquay United
    He can on loan. Probably heading to the Championship.
     
  6. ChristianSur

    ChristianSur Member+

    May 5, 2015
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
  7. Jenks

    Jenks Member+

    Feb 16, 2013
    Club:
    --other--
  8. BarryfromEastenders

    Staff Member

    Jul 6, 2008
    ChristianSur, David Hurford and Jenks repped this.
  9. BarryfromEastenders

    Staff Member

    Jul 6, 2008
  10. hussar

    hussar Member+

    Jun 24, 2015
    BarryfromEastenders repped this.
  11. Marcho Gamgee

    Marcho Gamgee Member+

    England
    Apr 25, 2015
    Somewhere in English Arrogance land
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    That’s exactly what I was thinking or hoping! Lol
     
  12. Jenks

    Jenks Member+

    Feb 16, 2013
    Club:
    --other--
    Getting rid of Boothroyd would indeed be the main upside. Who would replace Ashworth though?
     
  13. hussar

    hussar Member+

    Jun 24, 2015
    I would nominate Barry From Eastenders, Juni or Garibaldi11!
     
  14. Marcho Gamgee

    Marcho Gamgee Member+

    England
    Apr 25, 2015
    Somewhere in English Arrogance land
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Just thought I’d share this here for those that don’t have a subscription for The Times. Just a bit of insight into the City Academy and players for those who are interested.

    How England’s future is being forged in Manchester City’s crucible of youth

    The Premier League champions’ impressive academy promises an abundance of talent for club and country for many years. Exclusive picture by Bradley Ormesher

    Paul Hirst
    August 18 2018, 12:00am, The Times


    [​IMG]
    From left: Ian Carlo Poveda, Tom Scott, Felix Nmecha, Keyendrah Simmonds, Tommy Doyle, Phil Foden, Joel Latibeaudiere, Nat Ogbeta, Curtis Anderson, Luke Bolton. See table at the bottom of the article for more informationTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER
    Share
    Save
    Between them they have more than 100 youth caps, three World Cup winner’s medals and they may well end up becoming stars for club and country at senior level.

    These ten teenagers are some of the brightest lights in Manchester City’s state-of-the-art academy, and the good news for Gareth Southgate is that they are all English.

    Phil Foden, the skilful midfielder known by City fans as “the Stockport Iniesta”, Joel Latibeaudiere, the commanding centre half, and Curtis Anderson, a goalkeeper as good with his feet as he is with his hands, were all part of England’s victorious Under-17 World Cup campaign last season.

    City have high hopes for Lukas Nmecha, who does not feature in this exclusive picture for The Times because he has been loaned to Preston North End. The striker who, like his brother Felix, was born in Germany but represents England, scored the winning goal in the Under-19 European Championship final against Portugal 13 months ago. Pep Guardiola hopes Nmecha, 19, will challenge Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesus for a place in City’s starting XI when he returns next season.

    Much of the focus has been on Guardiola spending almost half a billion pounds on transfers since his appointment in 2016, but there is also hard work going on in the club’s academy to make sure that they do not have to part with such a vast amount of money on incomings in the future.

    Speak to Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the City chairman, and he will tell you that in the future he wants the first team to contain five or six academy graduates.

    The man in charge of trying to deliver that bold target is Jason Wilcox, who succeeded Mark Allen as academy director ten months ago.

    Spend any amount of time in Wilcox’s company and it will quickly become apparent that he is a man who shares Guardiola’s determination, attention to detail and ambition. Wilcox’s goal, as he puts it, is to make City’s academy “the Oxbridge of football”.

    “When you think about a university that you want your child to go to, you think about Oxford or Cambridge, it’s such a prestigious achievement and we are a school,” the former Blackburn Rovers winger explained.

    “Our kids are coming to a school of football but their education is so crucial. I want us to be the best academy in the world.”

    [​IMG]
    Foden is already part of the first-team squad, impressing in the Community Shield win over Chelsea this monthALAMY
    City have an advantage over their rivals in attracting the best young talent because of their £200 million training ground, which houses the senior squad and youth teams. In total there are 16 outdoor pitches, indoor pitches, state-of-the-art gyms and classrooms. More than 200 young players train at the academy each day.

    Owning such a facility can have its drawbacks, though. Some youngsters walk through the gates and immediately think they have made it. Their minds turn to Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton washbags and souped-up Land Rovers. Wilcox is keen to stamp that out.

    “We have got to make sure that we don’t allow our players to become that special because they are not that special, they are normal,” he said.

    To enforce his point, he relays two stories to the youngsters to remind them how lucky they are. The first relates to his youth career, when he joined Blackburn after being rejected by City. “I trained with the first team at 16 for the first time and the next day I turned up thinking I was going to do so again, but [the coach] Jim Furnell handed me a hedge trimmer and said, ‘You’re going to cut one of the lads’ gardens instead.’ ”

    Wilcox also tells his youngsters about a loan spell at Blackpool, where the players got changed in Portacabins, there was no running water and the car park was not tarmacked. “On my first day, an ice-cream van turned up at the end of training and the players sprinted to it,” he said. “I turned to [the manager] Simon Grayson and said, ‘What’s that all about?’ He said, ‘This guy brings us sandwiches at the end of training, and tuna is the only good one. The rest are soggy, but he only brings four tuna, so you have to be quick to get one.’ I never lost a tuna sandwich run after that.”

    City’s youngsters are reminded regularly that they must remain grounded. When the likes of Nathaniel Ogbeta and Luke Bolton joined the first team on their pre-season tour to the United States, they occasionally helped carry the balls and water bottles to training.

    “The person is just as important as the player and they need to be grounded,” Wilcox said. “The message is: don’t go over there and start complaining about the shorts being the wrong size or the water in the pool being a bit cold. Small things like that can damage your career.”

    City’s youngsters are given a crash course in life skills during classes at the academy and at St Bede’s, a local private school with whom the club have had a partnership since 2011. This year almost 80 of City’s youngsters will spend 20 hours a week at the school.

    As well as regular school subjects they are taught how to use social media responsibly, about how important timekeeping is, and about respect. The teams and their coaches will often travel to games on public transport rather than be driven there on a plush minibus with tinted windows.

    City are not trying to create shy youngsters. They must have an air of confidence too. “We want someone who is respectful, but when they cross that white line, they have to play with personality,” Wilcox said.

    Foden is a perfect example: a local boy who is so talented that he outshone Cesc Fàbregas in the Community Shield, but humble off the pitch. The teenager spends his spare time fishing with his father. Foden was drinking Vimto on City’s title parade bus in May, not champagne.

    Wilcox concedes that not everyone will make it at City, but he talks with just as much pride about Jacob Davenport signing for Blackburn as he does when speaking about Foden.

    There have been failures within the academy. City did not do enough to stop Jadon Sancho, one of England’s brightest teenagers, joining Borussia Dortmund last summer.

    City have ruffled feathers by going abroad to sign teenagers such as Eric García, the 17-year-old defender who joined from Barcelona last summer. “It’s a huge compliment that we have got players coming from a football club like that who want to come and take their education on here,” Wilcox said.

    The teenagers in our photo are all highly regarded by their City and England coaches. For three years in a row, City reached the FA Youth Cup final, even though they lost all three to Chelsea. If there are to be more success stories, the joined-up thinking between the academy and the first team will help. Each age group play 4-3-3 so players are familiar with the system when they get to the first team. “We all play the same way,” Wilcox said.

    If a player is loaned out, he will only be sent to a team that play in a similar fashion, such as their sister club Girona.

    That the first team are housed in the same facility helps. Guardiola will call on Wilcox to lend him a player if the first team are short. The Catalan’s enthusiasm for the academy permeates throughout the campus.

    Working with Guardiola is a dream for Wilcox, who read books and watched countless clips of the Catalan’s former teams in action, but he knows his position will be under scrutiny if he fails to deliver. “This is not Disneyland where we are all just coming in to have a nice time,” he said. “We have to be accountable. I know that Pep is looking at the next ones coming through and I have to make sure that I provide players who understand our way and who are able to take on board his instructions.”

    Brilliant generation: The City stars
    (see top image)


    1, Ian Carlo Poveda
    Age 18 Forward
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-18

    2, Tom Scott
    Age
    17 Goalkeeper
    Elite Development Squad
    Men’s England goalkeeper camp 2017

    3, Felix Nmecha
    Age
    17 Midfielder
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-18 (also called up by Germany)

    4, Keyendrah Simmonds
    Age
    17 Forward
    Under-18 squad
    England Under-17

    5, Tommy Doyle
    Age
    16 Midfielder
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-17

    6, Phil Foden
    Age
    18 Midfielder
    First team
    England Under-17 World Cup winner
    England Under-19

    7, Joel Latibeaudiere
    Age
    18 Defender
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-17 World Cup winner
    England Under-18

    8, Nathaniel Ogbeta
    Age
    17 Defender
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-17

    9, Curtis Anderson
    Age
    17 Goalkeeper
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-17 World Cup winner
    England Under-18

    10, Luke Bolton
    Age
    18 Forward
    Elite Development Squad
    England Under-19
     
  15. wellno

    wellno Member+

    Jul 31, 2016
    Man City do love their academy puff pieces.
     
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  16. hussar

    hussar Member+

    Jun 24, 2015
    He was a good player, Jason Wilcox and seems like knowing his trade. Would be better to see more ex-pros like him in the youth setup, even in the place of the likes of Ashworth.
     
  17. ChristianSur

    ChristianSur Member+

    May 5, 2015
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    One English starter out of twenty-two for Chelsea v Arsenal, plus one sub. ******** both of these clubs entirely.
     
  18. Marcho Gamgee

    Marcho Gamgee Member+

    England
    Apr 25, 2015
    Somewhere in English Arrogance land
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Yeah, I just commented on this very issue on the senior thread!! A quota system anytime soon would be good but I know it won’t happen :confused:
     
  19. hussar

    hussar Member+

    Jun 24, 2015
    David Hurford repped this.
  20. wellno

    wellno Member+

    Jul 31, 2016
  21. hussar

    hussar Member+

    Jun 24, 2015
  22. Marcho Gamgee

    Marcho Gamgee Member+

    England
    Apr 25, 2015
    Somewhere in English Arrogance land
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...zio-sarri-defends-napoli-loftus-cheek-staying

    So it would seem like RLC will have to stay at Chelsea until at least the next Transfer window :confused: What a waste of talent, especially after last season at Palace and making the World Cup Squad! So at least until January, he’s likely to sit in the stands twiddling his thumbs or sat on the bench and maybe a few Cup games. I wonder if he will be in Southgates Squad come Thursday or will he be back in the U21 set up? Will be interesting to see though and if he’s not in the senior squad and has that hunger to get back in he will have one day to try and get a loan move abroad.
     
  23. Juni

    Juni Member+

    Nov 26, 2010
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Newcastle's academy is one of the poorest in Cat 1, by most measures, and no amount of hammering a much weaker Sunderland will change that.

    There are already too many Cat 1 sides at 24, they'd be a firm candidate to drop down if there was ever contraction of the U18PL. There are Cat 2 academies like Ipswich and Palace and Charlton and both Sheffield clubs worthier of a spot too.
     
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  24. wellno

    wellno Member+

    Jul 31, 2016
    This new F365 segment about Liverpool reminded me of the Chelsea fanzine article I put in the OP a year ago: https://www.football365.com/news/premier-league-winners-and-losers-102

    Something, something, identity.
     
  25. dbs235

    dbs235 Member

    Mar 30, 2013
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Just seen the Leicester line up for tonight's League Cup game against Fleetwood and at first I was disappointed not to see any English players but then I realised its actually because they're all first choice now and they're playing a weakened team.
     
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