..from Watford manager Ray Lewington http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10400~585480,00.html "He's done very well & with Coxy on the way back it gives me a good problem to have. Jay's getting stronger & stronger, his positional play is getting better & I think we've got a real find there. He's going to improve & become a top quality player but we dont need to rush him. The good thing about our situation at the moment is that we have good senior pros so when we have to put in the inexperienced players we dont have to over-use them, we can take them out, give them a rest & let them work their way back in. I'm sure that this time next year he'll be pushing for a regular first team place." Jay is likely to continue in the first team this Saturday againt Derby as Neil cox needs a reserve game to get match fit.
demerritt was with what before watford? the fire reserves? how did he get a permit to play in england?
I'm sure the threadstarter will have the details, but Jay was playing in the Conference, or maybe the division below that, and Watford spotted him.
I'm not sure what kind of pro or developmental career he had in the states, but I watched him play, as I believe I mentioned here before, for the University of Illinois at Chicago when I was there, and at the time, he was a solid player but he was never, ever the best guy on the field. I never really gave a thought to him even making it to the A-League. And this year he was in England playing for a non-league side (non-league by a long shot, IIRC), and he gets spotted by Watford in a pre-season friendly against them, and now he plays for Watford. It's a testimony to his dedication and work ethic that he's getting payed to play anywhere, let alone for an established club in England. Like I said, if you'd asked me or any of the other dozen or so non-friends-and-family fans at the typical UIC Flames match which of these guys would one day be playing for Watford, Jay's name would never have been mentioned even as the wildest guess.
I'm not questioning your judgment, Dr., but am curious as to yours and others' opinions on an observation/question I have. It seems to me that good defenders frequently get overlooked as youth and even young pro prospects. In addition to DeMerit, how about MLS's Jeff Parke, Jim Curtin, and Nat Borchers? While they may have had good college careers, pretty much nobody had ever heard of them before their first year as pros. Is there something about our youth and college systems that just doesn't allow fairly good pro prospects in defence to stand out?
The U.S. is a country that produces a tremendous amount of youth players. At these youth ages with some skill variations United States youth players are very much on par with much of the world in ability. But there exist no significant professional demand for players in the United States. Therefore most youth players are allowed to die on the vine, so to speak. The very slight, minor, professional demand for players by MLS allows the league to simply keep an eye out for the small handful of players that breakout, talentwise. ie player of the year, All American, NCAA leading scorer etc. This lack of demand for players inside the U.S. allows MLS to ignore millions of youth players like Kenny Cooper, Demerit, the kid from St. Louis now at PSG in France. Sure if these players had breakout years in the US college system or with the National Team then the tiny MLS demand would have them on MLS radar. Millions of talented players are allowed to die on the vine in the US youth system. It has been that way for a long time. But in other parts of the world, Pro clubs need players and are in constant search for talent. For many small clubs freely acquired talent is even better, especially talent they can bring to its best performance.
He wasn't even the best defender on UIC. His Jr. Year, the last year I was there, a guy named Joe Morelli looked better most matches, and would've been more people's picks to make money playing, and indeed he has been around the A-League. And there was another guy whose name I can't remember who was a bad-ass sweeper before that. So maybe his Senior year he was the top defender, but even then, he wouldn't have been the best guy on the field for the Flames... unless he really picked up his game, which as his subsequent career path suggests, is definitely possible. I think you're right that there may be things that keep defenders from standing out, and it may very well be that there's a reason I'm not an agent or a scout. But in terms of players who got talked about, Demerit wasn't considered quite the top guy based on who I was talking to, that's all I was saying. But the point is: from what I can tell, he didn't accept those opinions of his ability and took a pretty big risk and went to England and wound up playing professionally for Watford. Damn fine story.
Try the search button: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/search.php?searchid=423666 https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128299&highlight=demerit
From my understanding of the work permit situation, you can offer your parent or grandparent as a means of obtaining a 'residential' visa which allows you to work full time in UK. After two years residence, I understand you can apply for citizenship & its normally granted.
I saw Morelli and DeMerit once that year. At the time I had never heard of them, but that whole UIC backline struck me as a bunch of thick-set, malcoordinated farmboys. They were utterly shredded in that game, allowing six goals. Now, one of them is playing in the world's sixth-richest league. I don't know what to make of it.
This kind of thing is not new at all, even here in UK, where, as previous correspondents have already said, there is a good demand for pro footballing talent & a large 'conveyor-belt' of upcoming talent. In fact Watford signed a UK national, a 23yr old, at the end of 2002/3 season from Northwood Town, the same team as we eventually got JD from. Scott Fitzgerald ( great name ! ) had not played at any pro level in his life, only made the youth set-up of Northwood Town ( at the time, 3 levels below the Conference ) at the age of 17, & stayed with the same team until aged 23. He got 1 first team start 3 months after we signed him ( last game of the season ) & scored the winner. In 2003/4, he got into the first team after 12 or so games & scored 10 goals in 20 or so games. No one could believe it here either ! My guess is that this happens everywhere for dozens of different reasons & even the best laid out scheme for picking up talent will miss 'late developers' or guys who sufferred injury at a young age only to 'come back' later in life, or maybe just guys who could not be bothered with the training required in their teens, but got more mature about such things as they got older. I seem to remember in Running, a GB international, Paul Evans, finishing 3rd in the NYC marathon, who had never run a race in his life before the age of 28.
So far with U-17 residency and MLS we've only been able to identify those players who show early, with a couple of exceptions. The problem for late maturing players is that too often they leave soccer before they've reached a point where they're good enough to be scouted. And in many cases who can blame them. It's awfully hard to keep going, working hard, etc., without some sense of notice or attention.
Since there was talk about how Jay got hooked up at Watford... I found this blurb on his bio page on the official Watford page. http://www.watfordfc.premiumtv.co.uk "The aggressive American centre-half impressed on his only appearance for non-league neighbours Northwood in a pre-season friendly against Watford in July and signed a one-year deal to remain at Vicarage Road three weeks later. Having graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2003 with a degree in Industrial Design, the Green Bay-born defender moved across the Atlantic after a season in the Chicago Fire Reserves in the United States ' Major League Soccer." So apparently he was with tiny Northwood... and impressed Watford enough during a friendly that they signed him almost immediately. Nice!
Give less credit to the average Euro player and league and more credit to the average Yank player and league.