England U-16 Discussion Thread #2 [R] (2010 born)

I don’t think so, if Dowman was one day younger he’d be in JJ’s age group. Dowman is playing several years up for England whilst JJ is in his age group and hasn’t stood out among his England peers so far. There’s a physical development difference of course and it would be great if we had two Dowman level players coming through right now but I’m a bit sceptical. Hopefully I’m wrong.

 

Yeah I’ve seen the hype mainly from users on X basically trying to give the impression he’s on the same sort of level as Dowman which I find a bit extreme mainly due to what you talk about but I haven’t seen enough of JJ to be able to have an opinion other than seeing comp posts of him. It would be great if he gets to the levels of Dowman but a better gauge would be if he was skirting around Utd’s first team squad for matchdays and getting some playing time but currently he’s not so I would think your more on the money with your assessment.

 

You wonder if JJ Gabriel might seriously look at that Barcelona route. Obviously he's nowhere near physically developed yet but he seems quite a lightweight technician and all he has to do is look around the PL to see how those types of players tend to fare.

It's too early to call yet really because you would've said the same thing about Cole Palmer at a similar age but he physically matured very quickly. Something to keep an eye on though.

 

said it before, but the JJ hype train has a lot to do with those around him. hard to read the tea leaves on him this early.

 

What does @ADM99 think?

 

He's a remarkable talent, no two ways about it. For the record, I think Dowman is the bigger talent but I actually think what Gabriel is doing right now is arguably more impressive than what Dowman was doing at the same age.

The question with him is if/when he grows, how will that affect his movement. Because that sort of elasticity he has is absolutely ridiculous and possibly his biggest strength.

 

Barcelona are stepping up efforts to sign JJ Gabriel but United have already taken measures to counter any interest, with Amorim and Jason Wilcox key #mufc https://t.co/iD8tr2hER6

— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) December 3, 2025

Barcelona are interested in JJ Gabriel

 

Impressive stuff from JJ last night

JJ Gabriel, what a talent. One of the most exciting things is we don't even know what his best position is yet. It's going to be special watching his progression.

The youngest scorer in FA Youth Cup history for Manchester United.

[Via @UnitedAnalyst7] pic.twitter.com/oQtyC9Mpee

— Adam (@AdamJoseph) December 9, 2025

 

Grouped with Montenegro, Poland and Ukraine in 1st round qualifying for the 2027 U17 Euros

 

Two cracking free kicks from Reggie Watson. Scored one and hit the bar with another which led to Grimwade’s goal.

 

Should have been a lot more goals for Chelsea there, seems like there’s a lot of promising players.

 

City’s opening game against Inter Milan highlights here:

 

Apparently Barca are his dream club so it's more a question of when than if this happens.

 

I'm going to assume he has an Irish Passport, so realistically the January 2027 window onwards after he turns 16.

 

City U16’s v Barca U16’s on now. Halftime 2-0 City.

https://www.youtube.com/live/x5Udq4pryxw?si=JvMZ50SMdtQak5Cx

 

The commentary on there says Cadamarteri is eligible for the US too. Can't find any info verifying that.

 

Both Chelsea and City through to the semi finals. Think Chelsea have been more impressive if I’m honest.

https://t.co/1MUdGBA35X

— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) December 12, 2025

 

I wonder if it’s a mistake as on his bio in X he has Scotland, Jamaica and England flags on display, US flag isn’t present.

 

Also on this game, I nearly had to turn off with some silly parents of some City players ( presumably ) cheering embarrassingly and then I heard some woman shouting ‘ hit it long ‘ and ‘ get it up the pitch ‘ etc reminded me of the dark days of when I was a nipper and you would hear ‘ get rid of it ‘! Thought we had turned a corner with this stupid mindset.

 

By most accounts of people involved in youth football, parents are still very much a negative influence at games. It's likely much more an issue at grassroots level than academy level, but it's something the FA have needed to take a good look at for a while. They probably just need banning from watching tbh.

 

Friendlies against The Netherlands:

Goalkeepers: Cooper Eric Covington (Bristol City), Jack Peter Hames (Leicester City), Mikel Jack (Tottenham Hotspur), Charles Phillips (Arsenal)

Defenders: Joseph Deighton (Manchester United), Shadrach Ekiugbo (Liverpool), George Jobling (Chelsea), Chase Kapotwe (Fulham), Cyril Lartey (West Bromwich Albion), Bobby Martin (Southampton), Thomas McDermott (Chelsea), Rory Sykens (Brighton & Hove Albion)

Midfielders: Zac Christie (AFC Bournemouth), Muawiya Ghanem (Newcastle United), Olly Lloyd (Aston Villa), Mishel Nduka (Arsenal), Emerson Nwaneri (Arsenal), Kwasi Senyah (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Oluwatitojumi Wellspring (Tottenham Hotspur)

Forwards: Mylo Bernard (Crystal Palace), Joshua Blake (Aston Villa), Oscar Johnson (Aston Villa), Vincent Joseph (Liverpool), Heaven Kilwa (Aston Villa)

 

From a duals perspective, Joseph Deighton has previously represented Wales & actually played against us at the recent tournament in Turkey, while Cyril Lartey is originally from Italy & I believe he has a brother that lives there & plays professionally.

 

Also, Emmanuel Fejokwu is in the Dutch squad.

 

Only 2 players from Chelsea and none from City. I presume this is partly due to the Messi Cup?