Watford are planning to open talks on new contract with the talented winger Adrian Blake. He scored an hattrick for U21s in PL Cup yesterday, Watford are planning to promote him to first team 🟡⚫️ #WatfordFCBlake’s out of contract in the summer and PL clubs are monitoring him. pic.twitter.com/YfbfTsLJP4— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) November 26, 2022 He is in this age group. I wonder if he will be called up someday.
Mainoo scored for United last night in a 2-4 friendly loss against Cadiz. Put in a decent performance.
I think it's been mentioned on here before about players like Alfie Harrison excelling in City's academy but not being involved with England. I've been looking at Matthew Whittingham's stats for the season and in the u18 league he 6 goals and 9 assists in 11 games. His positions are DM, CB or LB! Never capped by England. Seems a little odd. Maybeb @ADM99 knows something?
I've seen Whittingham a couple of times this season & he looks a good player. Quite tall, elegant on the ball & as you mentioned pretty versatile, although I'm not sure he's ever played CB. However, it's worth pointing out that he's a 2nd year now & the oldest player in City's U18s so that, combined with the fact City are always very dominant, means it's not a huge suprise to see him putting up those sort of numbers. Until he starts making PL2 appearances he's probably unlikely to be called up.
He mostly plays as a number 10 for the best attacking team in the country. He's pretty good and I think at least warrants a call-up to get a closer look as some players (especially late physical developers like him) thrive in international groups but it might be that he's a particular beneficiary of playing with loads of really good players. I remember Charlie Brown was scoring 20+ a season for Chelsea and I thought he deserved an England look but he might've been in a similar position given how things have unfolded since (he's still got a good Championship scorer career in him imo, just needs things to fall right for him in the years ahead).
17-year-old Will Alves with a nice little cameo for Leicester tonight he almost grabbed himself a brilliant assist.Brendon Rodgers is a big fan of the attacking midfielder 🏴🤝 pic.twitter.com/pWiqCNWiY3— TheSecretScout (@TheSecretScout_) December 20, 2022
He was the victim of a disgusting tackle, not surprised sadly after seeing that https://twitter.com/kielos85/status/1605825757686775808
What a horrible, malicious tackle! Hope the lad gets a proper dressing down from their management team after that! Should be ashamed!
What a blow for him after he was just on the fringes of the first team. 9 months out and because of a malicious tackle. Youth football is pretty rough for flair players. I guess some of these young lads can’t control their emotions properly yet. You used to see more of this at senior level but thankfully it’s seem to be mostly gone from the game now.
I would be interested to see what sort of punishment the lad who made that awful, deliberate tackle will receive? I mean he’s basically tried to end someone’s career there and he really needs some kind of punishment worthy if it and not just playing after three games! This sort of thing needs nipping in the bud with much more severe consequences.
Personally I feel a lot of those sort of challenges are encouraged by certain coaches and / or teams. I have seen so many tackles that are totally out of order in so many youth matches. Saying that the players who make these tackles are such and such an age is irrelevant, they know what the consequences can be. The player and their club should be held accountable. A tackle(assault) that could end a career should not be punished with merely a red card and three match ban.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/...ws/leicester-city-player-posts-injury-8023280 Leicester City player posts injury update after horror tackle Will Alves undergoes operation after suffering an ACL injury ByBruna Reis 15:39, 12 JAN 2023 Young Leicester City midfielder Will Alves has undergone a 'successful' operation after suffering an ACL injury last month. The 17-year-old was victim of a horrendous tackle in City under-18s 3-1 FA Youth Cup win over Wolves. Defender Caden Voice jumped into air and came down on Alves' knee with studs up. The injury came only one day after the youngster had made his second senior appearance for Leicester, coming against MK Dons in the Carabao Cup. At the time, Alves wrote: "A week full of ups and downs, devastated to announce that I have torn my ACL. I will give everything to get back on the pitch to do what I love the most. I’ll be back stronger." As he faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines following his operation, Alves updated his fans on social media. "Really pleased to have had a successful operation," he wrote on Instagram. "Thank you to everybody who has helped me over the past few weeks. The road to recovery begins now."
This lad is a Kings Scholar at Eton. The same scholarship won by names such as George Orwell, John Maynard Keynes, Aldous Huxley and errr Boris Johnson and Kwasi Kwartang. A mixed bag to be fair.
So here's the thing with that comp of Tudor. Watching it in isolation wows you, but I was there and he didn't especially stand out over four or five other Chelsea players in what was a very good team performance. No criticism of Tudor per se but he's a very easy player to like and make comps of, whereas Louis Flower or Donnell McNeilly or Harrison Murray-Campbell or Kaiden Wilson are less so.
Never been called up, which is pretty unfair on a player who scores a LOT of goals and does a better job of all-round CF play than many other 05s.
Mainoo got his Premier League debut yesterday. It certainly seems that Ten Hag has singled him out as genuine potential first team player. He's getting minutes over other midfielders in the academy like Iqbal who is two years older. Kobbie Mainoo cameo vs Leicester - Debut in the PL https://t.co/TROd40HQxr— Comps MU 🎥 (@CompsMU) February 19, 2023
Last match for these lads was against Belgium in September and next game is against the same opponent. Followed by Croatia & Switzerland. I gather England U18 are finishing their season early June against Norway, USA & hosts Portugal. If the U17 team fail to qualify for their tournament (quite possible v Denmark & Netherlands) there will probably be a few 2006 born players selected.