I went last night. Of the senior players on the pitch not one made a claim of getting close to the first team. Gilmartin made a couple of good saves but was at fault for the 3rd, Belkalem obviously knows he won't play for the firsts, Connor Smith worked hard but lost the ball a lot (and blamed everyone else) and Hoban was solid but didn't boss it like a senior player should against kids.
From the looks of it so far this season, much investment is needed in our U21 programme if any of them are to realistically challenge for a spot in the first team squad. The results have been poor thus far and hopefully we can sign a few talented trialists to strengthen the team.
Would be brilliant to see this guy make it here. http://www.wdsport.co.uk/2015/08/connor-smith-shows-true-heart-and-phenomenal-workrate/
Sounds like Kewell was pretty pissed off at what he saw. http://www.wdsport.co.uk/2015/08/i-didnt-throw-a-tea-cup-because-there-wasnt-one-in-there/
Didn't look it either - turning around and writing things on his note pad/pointing fingers. Of course from his point of view he will want to impress to catch the eye of those look for somebody to work with a 1st team.
Good size, athletic, decent passer but has never kicked on for whatever reason. Needs to have an incredible season for the under 21s and show what he can do if he gets a run out in the cups or impress out on loan if he's going to get another contract.
Tell me about it! ... I got through about quarter of it, apart from it's all at walking pace there is really nothing I've seen I couldn't do myself at that age (I was a left back) so why the video?
Kewell has a bit of a go at... ... the amount of hours the kids are allowed to practice. In the back of my mind I am wondering if he is leaving himself open to the charge that him playing too much early on helped cause him to retire early through injury. But if we can look past that, he seems to talk some sense. http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...ys_say_players_need_a_break__that_s_rubbish/? Maybe our nanny state is contributing to Englands relatively poor showing in developing great young players.
Burnout? Players pretty much do half days and then have 2 hours of kickoutbout at the weekend, for 2/3rds of the year. If they burnout it's because of the socailising and late nights during the season that people with a regular 9-5 can't do on a schoolnight. Kewell is right.
Kinell ... most days I'd be out with a football in the garden or in the park from home time till it was too dark to see and impromptu matches could last up to 3 or 4 hours . For the school double headers were a regular thing with barely a break in between. What already active kids really don't need is a couple of hours doing star-jumps, sprints, laps and circuit training which I got tons of once I joined a local team ... we need to let the ball do the work!
Met Xane (Zaineddine) and his father today. Very nice people. Still up in the air whether he'll be staying with us or not. Said they are waiting for the right offer.
The U18s are in action this afternoon against Crystal Palace. KO is 2.30. Palace have a very good academy I believe, so I'm expecting an exciting game.
U21s currently 3-1 down to Palace. Been totally outclassed so far according to WD Sport. Interesting to see that one of the Palace scorers is Keshi Anderson, who supposedly was in our academy for a while. https://twitter.com/WatfordFC
6-2 now. Another penalty for Jakubiak after Obi was brought down. Apparently it wasn't even a penalty according to Affleck. Cleanest tackle you'll ever see.
I think we had a few scholars and the two centre mids were trialists. Add that to the fact that Palace always seem to have some very decent development players and it was a bit predictable that we'd be beaten. Feel a bit sorry for Kewell. It's not really about results with the under 21s but ultimately everyone looking in from the outside is going to judge his first stab at management on these results. It looks like this season we're going to be chucking a load of trialists at him as well as we're looking for good youngsters to pad out the under 21s and who will hopefully make the step up to the first team.
