England U-17 Discussions Thread #3 (2007 born)

Quite funny that the German nerds were trashing England from the first game but not a peep on their forum about this result, lol.

 

Apparently Germany had two penalties, but both were saved.

 

Those were from the penalty shootout after the game.

 

Said before this lad will be one of a few from City around elite group squad, only concern someone on here posted something about dual nationality passport issues.
I’m sure England will want him involved, at U17 he would be a real handful a fullback would not enjoy facing

 

The dual nationality issue with Ndala strikes me as quite bizarre, even the official club website has him down as Manchester born, but allowing for bad information on youth players, it strikes me as odd this still apparently hasn't been sorted - you would assume he would surely have been in the last under 17 squad.

Clearly its not a case of him being overlooked given we have him as the only '06 in the under 18's, and and at any rate he's probably in the best form of all the '06's.

 

Are there even any credible reports that he has eligibility issues?

 

There's not really many reports about him at all. It's just an inference based on him being called up to the non-competitive under 18's but never to the under 17's despite masses of players called up to that level. Clearly something is off there.

Of course there could be other factors at play, I seem to remember something about Shola Shoretire's dad only wanting him to play above his age group for example.

 

I found this article on him.

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/joel-ndala-man-city-vale-8043333

City signed him from Port Vale when he was 10 and he'd been recommended to Port Vale by his school so he's definitely been in England long enough to qualify.

 

But that doesn't mean he has a passport. Fabio Carvalho played for us and was eligible for a passport when he did so but never bothered get one.

 

I think this is probably right. There's no record of any combination of "Joel"/"Tshisanga"/"Ndala" being born in the UK in 2006, and although I can't find any reliable sources, there are a number of comments online about him moving to England with his family a year or two before he joined Port Vale. Seems highly like that the Man City website's information is mistaken or misleading, and that he was born in DRC or somewhere else abroad.

 

Believe he was born in the DRC. There was an article that said so around the time of him signing for City, although I can't find it anymore.

 

And actually, almost all of the Man City academy profiles have Manchester as the "location", including some who I know were born elsewhere, like True Grant (born in Derby).

 

I’m not sure but he’s been very unlucky with getting injuries at the time when camps/call-ups are taking place and I believe City didn’t give him permission to accept a call up on a recent occasion.

 

Jimmy-Jay Morgan has moved to Chelsea which is a bit disappointing for one of this groups better players (from the little i've seen) development, its back to the bad old days at Chelsea - difficult to see a long term pathway even for the likes of Chukwuemeka and Casadei who they bought in for huge money, yet alone people going into the youth team.

 

Jimmy Jay Morgan will miss the elite rounds of qualification due to injury. He has had surgery on a knee problem and will be out for 3 months. Travis Akomeah also unlikely to be fit by next month.

 

Any updates around the squad for elite rounds in a few weeks? Notoriously difficult for schoolboys to be included in squads at this time due to exams.

 

Looks like Nwaneri is leaving Arsenal with City the likely destination.

 

Archie Gray signed his first professional contract last week. Be good if he is selected but Gray only came back from a long injury absence this month.

And of course England didn't. Denmark & Netherlands both had games last month though. I'm curious if this is some strange FA strategy or whether they find it difficult to get players released by their clubs.

The couple of matches against Germany at the start of this calendar year were the only U17 games scheduled since October and even that squad was missing the majority of players that had participated in the qualifiers.

It was also less than a year since these 2006 lads had lost 5-1 to Germany at U16 level. Many of the same players featured in both games.

According to @AJ123 both Setford brothers are missing this month apparently. I assume they're not injured. Ted Curd might be absent also.

There's a late change to the Chelsea team after Ted Curd hurt his hand during the warmup, Luke Campbell starts in goal instead. https://t.co/ZAzA04Eq0B

— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) March 18, 2023

Curd started all three qualifiers last year. Not sure who'd be next choice goalkeeper.

Was it a bad injury? As far as I can tell he hasn't played in 2023.

Pity, Morgan was first choice striker. And I believe Leon Chiwome who scored a hat-trick in their last International against Germany and was probably the most talented alternative is also injured.

 

I made a very similar point last year, I think it was during the World Cup about our lack of training camps or arranging matches for our Youth teams. I think our FA took the World Cup period to have a jolly holiday and just forget about the whole Youth set up for a while, while everyone else was taking advantage of the situation. I found it odd then and I find it even stranger now but that’s our FA for you, they think they know better than everyone else and just do the polar opposites each time. I think Simon Jordan has it right when he says the FA don’t know how to wipe their own backsides!

 

He returned to training last month so hopefully it won't be too long before he's back.

 

Apologies, I thought Tommy Setford was last with 18s. I have no inside info on them and he could well be with the 17s this Friday.

 

Three #U17EURO elite round qualifiers coming up for Ryan Garry's #YoungLions! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

— England (@England) March 21, 2023

 

Setford is in! Good to see Nwaneri in there. A midfield three of Golding, Lewis-Skelly and Gray should be interesting.