England Under 21 Discussions Thread (2004+ born) #8

Gray and Nwaneri. the next on the taxi rank for the seniors.

 

Gray I can see, Nwaneri I am a bit sceptical of. I don't think he has the game between his ears.

 

4-1 Esse header from close range, brilliant ball in from Josh King for the assist. Bizarre the comms were playing it down as a simple ball.

 

Last night’s U21 #YoungLions Player of the Match connected by @EE: Archie Gray 🏅 pic.twitter.com/Lb1bbUv5Gl

— England (@England) April 1, 2026

 

An impressive performance from our #YoungLions at @NorwichCityFC 💪

Lee Carsley on March camp for our U21s 👇 💬

— England (@England) April 2, 2026

 

He's made an absolute hash of MLS's development this season has Arteta. I don't know how Arsenal fans aren't more annoyed at the situation.

I feel like a lot of fans just write young players off as naff the second they inevitably go through an early slump and that's probably the case with MLS atm. I can see a situation where Arsenal cling onto him through fear of backlash from selling him but still don't give him a proper developmental pathway.

 

Jamie Gittens has picked up 'what looks like' another hamstring injury, Liam Rosenior says. Happened in training yesterday after press conference. "It's a real shame for him, I think it's the third time it's happened. We need to help him and we need to make sure he's OK." #CFC

— Cerys Jones (@reallycerys) April 4, 2026

 

I genuinely think a huge barrier on a lot of our young players is there's a real fear of selling them then looking like mugs if they develop great elsewhere, even when there is pathway for them, so they end up rotting as squad depth or on endless loans. Generally the best of the best I think usually make it whatever, Dowman is going to get opportunities for example. It's the players below that tier, the very good young talents who with time and patience could be great, but there's is no will or opportunity to give time or patience.

On a fundamental level of course it makes more financial sense to sell a 3rd choice left back who you haven't shown any will to play anywhere else, but no one wants to take the risk that you say sell MLS for 30m, and he becomes a 80m player in a year or two because that looks much worse than merely leaving them in the squad. The first scenario creates questions over why you let them go, keeping them with no pathway has much less potential blowback. Nwaneri is still comparatively young but its easy to see him falling into a similar situation where there's neither no real pathway for him, but neither any desire to lose him and risk fulfilling potential elsewhere.

Of course youth development in general is a lot more hits than misses, but I suspect this is a common mindset and basically enabled by how much money is in the premier league relative to other leagues.

 

Definitely. Even then you can just insert a buyback clause like Real Madrid do with basically every youngster they sell. It's so wasteful. It's why players really need good guidance around them so they can take charge of their own careers. Blind loyalty to clubs can be disastrous for careers.

 

Chelsea fans not happy with how Acheampong is being treated

Chelsea for 12+ months have called Josh Acheampong “untouchable” but actions speak louder than words and at this point it seems they’re more likely to play Donald Trump at CB or RB.

Josh has every right to want to leave.

— Alex Goldberg (@GoldbergCFC) April 4, 2026

 

He needs to leave one way or another! Just hope we don’t hear some nonsense from Rosenior declaring he’s an important member of the first team squad etc etc. I mean he couldn’t get a start against Port Vale for gods sake, tells you everything you need to know plus for his stage of his development, warming the bench isn’t it.

 

Not to defend Chelsea or Rosenior, but Acheampong did play 2 games for England U21s while Tosin and Fofana likely trained all week in preparation for the game.

 

Should have left after how they treated him a couple of years ago, refusing to play him in U21 games until he signed a new deal.

 

Yeah I can understand that in isolation but just in general his game time minutes since Rosenior’s appointment has been pretty poor.

 

Great diving header for Lankshear to put Oxford ahead. Up to double figures all comps this season.

 

"10 man Pompey simply CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" 🤯

Will Lankshear ghosts in at the back post to give Oxford United the lead at Fratton Park 🟡 pic.twitter.com/hHo22p4WX8

— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 6, 2026

top ball in tbf

 

Really not a bad return for club who have struggled for goals and have generally been quite poor all season.

Noticed Mubama wasn’t on the bench for either of Stokes games over Easter

 

Max Dean scored again for Gent today. Find it quite strange how he’s seemingly overlooked unless Carsley just doesn’t rate the Belgium league which would be a tad harsh for U21 level.

 

It’s the 8th ranked league currently by UEFA coefficient, so can’t imagine that would be a reason. We discussed it during the last window, but he really needs to be exploring striker options outside of Mubama. Dean, Lankshear and Ballard are all scoring goals and have also done so at various ages groups for England. I’m fed up with camps where we don’t even look at viable options up front.

 

Thierry Small has shared a message he received on instagram after yesterday’s game

Preston have put out a statement pic.twitter.com/dd4NU7BU9c

— TheSecretScout (@TheSecretScout_) April 7, 2026