Not convinced. He moved to England age 10 so will have a lot of memories of Venezuela and he only qualifies for Portugal through a grandparent.
The big danger for Rodriguez I would guess is Venezuela offering him a world cup place should they qualify for it next year (which they're pretty decently placed for the play offs right now), that'd put him in a tough place. He's already turned them down already for senior call ups though so it does seem at least for now his intention is to move forward with England. I imagine we will probably accelerate him through the age groups too, particularly given the paucity of strikers in the years ahead of him. Portugal seems neither here nor there, he joined them for seemingly one camp at under 15 level. Seems unlikely he feels much connection to Portugal based on grandparent links, and Portugal don't really offer much different in terms of potential future success than England do.
Would it be that surprising to see Rodriguez in our U21s by October/November? The batch of strikers for our next cycle is pretty much Scarlett, Dean (out with ACL), Mubama, Lankshear, Lowe & Danns. After that we're probably looking at Mheuka and Rodriguez in terms of realistic U21 candidates. Rodriguez is the only one of those names (bar Dean) who actually has a settled situation at a club and has a proper development pathway in front of him. The others are all in pretty uncertain situations. If he starts getting regular senior minutes for Lyon, which seems somewhat likely, then I think he's a good chance of a pretty quick fast track to the U21s. It probably makes sense for this group too given it'll open up more playing time for Gray and Tyjon.
Yeah, I'd think if he gets any kind of senior time at the start of next season he'll be a pretty strong candidate for the under 21s given the complete lack of strikers ahead of him. I mean of the options there none of the competition has managed to crack doing anything in the championship yet, so its a very low bar to hit. Just the occasional sub appearance would put him above anything we've seen from those names outside Dean. Naturally these things can evolve pretty quickly though, hopefully a couple kick on going forward. I think Mheuka is our most talented all round striker in the under age groups right now, but it seems unlikely he's going to get first team minutes unless he's let out on loan somewhere, in which case it seems unlikely he'll jump up the pecking order just yet.
I'd say Spain considering they are likely one of the biggest title contenders for the foreseeable future and he's most likely fluent in Spanish. A striker of his profile would also be quite a bit different to the striker profiles they usually produce which means he could make their team by being a bit of a wild card option so could be a factor for them if they really wanted to try and persuade him at some point.
Is he eligible for Spain? I thought his grandparents were Portuguese. He confirms on the FA website he has only lived in Venezuela, England and now France.
He moved at the age of 13, and he have a lot of friends in the Venezuelan Squad. But you can be sure that Ale will stick with England. I had the chance to interview him (And Alessandro Milani) for my podcast (about the Venezuelan national team), and he seems pretty set on representing England. In fact, the Venezuelan coaching staff is a bit upset with him because he made them spend a lot of money without even sending a reply to Vizcarrondo. P.S.: I’m Venezuelan and a sports journalist covering the youth national teams of Venezuela.
He said in his Lyon interview he moved to England when he was 10 and in a recent FA interview, I doubt he’d have a passport if he moved at 13 given it was less than 5 years ago. https://www.ol.fr/en/news/article-26 https://www.englandfootball.com/art...ro-rodriguez-interview-uefa-u17-euro-20252205
good shout on us being limited in a "proper" striker. only counterpoint is i feel we do really well at graduating our players through the youth ranks unless there is a Rooney type situation abound. Nwaneri played for the 19s before making his way up to the 21s. same with Foden. i suspect we'd do the same here.
With Rodriguez having made his debut for Lyon already and Arteta saying Dowman will be part of the Arsenal's first team squad next season both could be doubts for the World Cup.
Striker is a tough position for a young player to break into, especially with its importance. I’m not too familiar with Lyon’s squad, will he be likely to get much playing time next season? I could be wrong, but I can’t see Dowman being ready for more than a few cup appearances and some time on the bench before the World Cup, so hopefully they let him go. Also how come Dowman hasn’t played much with Arsenal’s U21s when he looks well above the 18s?
U15s can't play in PL2 (or U21 Cup) games. He played once and Arsenal were politely reminded that it's not actually allowed. Same happened to a coupla other clubs. But agreed, he won't be playing more than one or two times for the first team next season and even that'll depend on kind cup draws. He's good but that step is massive, he'll mostly play because they wanna make sure they keep him. Think about Nwaneri this season, his U18 season, and how they've balanced his minutes, then realise Dowman will be two age groups below that next season.
I am more concerned about Rodriguez. Lyon are in the Europa League again so he will surely be on the bench for those at least. Will Arsenal really have much use for a 15 year old Dowman in the first half of the season? Other than potentially League cup matches.
Good points but then I think Nwaneri would've played more if his form didn't drop off, rather than it being a considered plan to manage minutes. Obviously Saka coming back made a big difference. I do think Dowman will get more minutes than just a few token appearances but it is right to point out just how young he is. If he were one day younger he wouldn't be legally able to play above u18 for another year.
Yeah I forgot about Dipepa. I like him a lot so fingers crossed he gets some chances. I like Morgan a lot too. Loans are a bit of a lottery but Gillingham fans seemed to really take to him.
Didn’t see the game but France beat Belgium 3-2, Belgium with an almost 2 goal superior xG so seemingly quite unlucky. And Portugal beat Italy in the other Semi on Pens.
He's had a great season, bit of a shame he didn't get more chances at the U17 Euros but can understand it with how many other dribbly players we had in the team
Manchester City and Barcelona have expressed an interest in Arsenal's 15-year-old English midfield prospect Max Dowman. (FootballTransfers), external
James Beadle is set to join Birmingham City on loan. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sp...irmingham-city-james-beadle-transfer-31784311 Presumably unless he has an Irish or other EU passport then he can go at 16.