England Under 21 Discussions Thread (2002+ born) #8

AC Milan are keen on a loan with an option to buy for Chelsea's English midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka, 21, who is also attracting interest from Celtic. (Football Italia, external)

 

Manchester City are willing to offer Norway forward Oscar Bobb, 21, or English midfielder James McAtee, 22, as they look to convince Bayer Leverkusen to part company with their 21-year-old Germany winger Florian Wirtz. (TBR Football)

 

Watching Leeds vs. Boro and Hackney is class. It's a monumental failure of PL scouting that he's still in the Championship, there are 5-6 teams he has the potential to instantly improve. This is the third season in a row he's been one of the standout players in the league.

 

His main problem is he isn't French,Spanish or Portuguese.

 

I jinxed him because he was absolutely shocking in the 2nd half

You're right though. Any other passport and he's probably in the PL now.

 

Aston Villa are considering recalling Louie Barry, 21, from his loan at League One Stockport County to send the 14-goal English forward to a club at a higher level. (TeamTalk)

 

He might be lying to surprise opponents but taking Ange Postecoglou at face value it looks like we will be seeing Archie Gray starting matches for Spurs at centre back in both the EL and the PL.

 

Don't really have many other options. We've got Romero, van de Ven and Davies out injured. We've got 1 fit 1st team CB and the only youth CB we have is Dorrington who's slightly struggled to get back to full match sharpness after returning from his own hamstring injury which needed surgery. Gray played CB a couple of times in preseason so wouldn't be too surprised if that's what we go for. Both our DMs are suspended next Prem match too so would have probably got a chance there if not for the CB injuries.

 

Leeds United are the latest Championship side linked with a January loan move for Aston Villa's 21-year-old English forward Louie Barry, who is currently on loan at League One side Stockport County. (Teamtalk)

 

Don't think it's a scouting failure. Most of the big clubs have been monitoring him regularly, and there have been a number of inquiries about his availability. Boro don't want to sell, don't have to after selling Rogers, and he's been happy to stay. He'll be in the top flight next season one way or another though.

 

I do find it quite hard to imagine Boro could have resisted any serious attempt from a PL club, especially not for multiple seasons on the bounce. It's extremely rare that a Championship club could hold onto a wanted player like that, I can't remember the last example of it. They didn't get major money for Rogers either.

I can't imagine, by this point, Hackney not having expressed a strong desire to leave either if there was serious interest, especially when he's repeatedly performing and the team is failing on its promotion goals. Last season's finish was a regression on the previous year too, so another year in the Championship would not have been an easy sell.

 

They got enough money from Rogers (and Akpom the season before) that relieved the immediate financial pressures, and a lot of the conditional payments attached have come in earlier than expected.
I think his injury last season likely put some teams off with the money Boro wanted - he missed pretty much the entire second half of the season. Newcastle made a concrete inquiry last January, but didn't take it forward, and West Ham have been in contact on more than one occasion. Most of the top clubs have been scouting him regularly - maybe he's set on a bigger move than the clubs that are pushing?
He's said on several occasions how much he gets from working with Carrick. It's a similar situation to Kalvin Philips at Leeds.

 

Yeah you are right about his injury tbf, I forgot about that. I think ultimately that's what stopped some sides going more heavily in for Ben Sheaf too.

 

Thought he was playing well and then brought off on 66 mins. I mean, he’s not going to be in their squad for Sunday so kind of surprised to see him go off unless it’s due to fitness issues due to lack of game time.

 

Probably an element of wanting to minimise his risk of injury too given they want to get rid in January.

 

Chelsea reported to have had talks with Ipswich over Delap.

 

Chelsea’s 21-year-old England youth forward Carney Chukwuemeka is attracting interest from Premier League clubs. (Football Insider)

Celtic are reportedly leading the race to snap up fringe man Carney Chukwuemeka from Chelsea on loan in January. (Daily Record)

 

England will be unable to call up players for the U21 European Championship this summer if they are involved in the Club World Cup after FIFA tweaked its rules on reporting for international duty. (The Times)

https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/club-world-cup-u21-euros-england-players-qnmn6ghns

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Club World Cup clash means England stars may miss U21 Euros
Fifa rule change means teams do not have to release likes of Noni Madueke, Jamie Gittens, Rico Lewis and James McAtee for international duty if they are needed for club matches


England will be unable to call up players for the Under-21 European Championship this summer if they are involved in the Club World Cup after Fifa tweaked its rules on reporting for international duty.

Fifa regulations state that clubs are obliged to let players represent their countries during an international window. However, an exception has been made for the 2025 Club World Cup that threatens to limit the participation of some of Europe’s best young players at the Under-21 tournament in Slovakia.

“It is not mandatory for clubs participating in the competition to release their registered players to the representative teams of the country for which those players are eligible to play,” the clause reads, before specifying that players are allowed to report for international duty from June 2 to June 10 — a day before the Under-21 championship begins.

Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Jamie Gittens (Borussia Dortmund), Rico Lewis and James McAtee (both Manchester City) will be unavailable for England if they are included in their clubs’ squads. All four played important roles in qualification for the Euros, at which England will seek to defend the title they won in 2023, their first triumph since 1984.

Madueke, 22, is England’s second-highest scorer in qualifying, with six goals. Both he and Lewis, 20, were recently promoted to the England senior squad and have been earning regular first-team minutes in the Premier League.

The newly expanded Club World Cup, which is scheduled to take place between June 14 and July 13 in the United States, involves both City and Chelsea, while the Under-21 Euros will be played from June 11 to 28.

In 2007, Uefa changed the years the Under-21 Euros took place, from even to odd, to avoid clashes with the senior European Championship and World Cup. Uefa’s regulations for the forthcoming tournament are yet to be finalised, but they have historically referenced Fifa’s obligation for clubs to release players for international duty.

The FA is understood to welcome the opportunity for English players to gain experience in a high-level global tournament such as the Club World Cup, especially with the national team seeking to win the 2026 World Cup.

However, for other national associations such as Portugal, whose senior players are expected to develop experience at Under-21 level, the view may be very different, especially if those players will be squad members at the Club World Cup rather than starters. Portugal face losing players including Benfica’s Tomás Araújo, Chelsea’s Renato Veiga and Porto’s Francisco Conceição (who is on loan at Juventus) for the tournament.

Porto’s Samu — Spain Under-21’s top scorer in qualifying — would be unable to play if he is named in the Portuguese club’s squad for the Club World Cup. Pio Esposito, Italy’s top scorer, who is on loan at Spezia from Inter Milan, could be another high-profile absentee.

Youssoufa Moukoko, Germany’s top scorer, may find himself in a similar situation, but that will depend on the nature of his loan deal with Nice, who have an option to buy him from Dortmund.

France may be shorn of some of their brightest lights too, including Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel, Paris Saint-Germain’s Warren Zaïre-Emery and Bradley Barcola, as well as Chelsea’s Malo Gusto. Similarly, the midfielders Cher Ndour (on loan at Besiktas from PSG) and Cesare Casadei (Chelsea) may be missing for Italy.

In 2017 Dortmund recalled the England player Jadon Sancho from the Under-17 World Cup so he could make his Bundesliga debut, which the club were able to do as the tournament was not played during a Fifa-designated international window. However, England went on to win the competition without him.

The Club World Cup will feature 32 teams from six Fifa confederations, including the European heavyweights Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG and Juventus.

Fluminense, the winners of the 2023 Copa América, whom City beat in the old Club World Cup format last year, are one of the six South American sides, including the Copa champions, Botafogo, and the Argentine sides River Plate and Boca Juniors.

 

Re the Moukoko stuff: are Germany going to get a penalty for fielding an ineligible player in qualifying?

 

I don't know exactly what their obligations are, but I think that would be harsh if they've been presented with ostensibly official documents and signed affidavits that they were accurate, as Dortmund have claimed. They're not the police so they'd have had pretty limited investigative powers beyond that.

 

It might get very messy.

 

I think if there’s serious allegations that might cause some merit then Germany would be better off leaving him out and I would say the same if it was players from England in the same situation but it’s harsh until proven guilty.

 

There was a not dissimilar case in the last world cup qualifying where Ecuador had a player who had actually illegally immigrated there as a child but who's passport claimed they were born there. Ecuador were given a 3 point deduction for the current world cup qualifying for the use of a document with false information, though he was and is eligible for Ecuador under residency anyway.

I'd imagine there'd be grounds for a similar case, though i'm not sure at under 21 there will be complaints made, and at any rate it would be UEFA not FIFA ruling on it. It took years of various investigations to get the Ecuador case sorted. At least going forward there would be little plausible deniability for Germany to keep fielding him, not sure either they or Moukouko themselves would want to invite even more scrutiny.

 

Chelsea are prepared to allow English midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka, 21, to leave the club on loan in January. (Mirror)