Academy And Under-23s

So the U21s are away at Millwall and 5-0 down at half-time !

 

Making the case for a call up to the first XI?

 

Keeping the prem vultures away.

 

Only conceded 2 in 2nd half so 7-0. Millwall top with 12 wins from 22 v our 6 from 19.

 

Bad start for Clevs.

 

Millwall U18s beat QPR U18s 12-0 at the weekend as well, seems they've got a few decent young players coming through

 

Hopefully they will all be signing for prem sides soon.

 

Yep. No bounce for us.

 

Clevs out!!

 

He was clearly too inexperienced. Doomed from the start.

 

I think our highest rated young players are still with the U18s or below.

U21s tend to be an odd age group as typically the best players will already have been nicked by then or called up to the first team.

It seems we also had two trialists in the team, who I'm guessing did not impress.

The former England youth international CB who joined us after getting released by Forest was the one player I noticed there who I suppose some might have hopes for, but perhaps there's a reason Forest released him. Adeyemo was also starting up front. Maybe not fully fit again yet?

 

I watch games in the Professional Development League across town when I get the chance. Ours when we stage them at The Vic, QPR sometimes play at Hanwell (as well as a few at Loftus Road, clubs are compelled to play four or five games each season at the main stadium rather than the training ground), and I will also occasionally trot over to The Den for their games there. All rather civilised actually, you get taken up to the posh seats for the game. Today's game was always in my diary.

Anyway, Millwall's U21 set up/team is a very well developed one, they won this last season, and I've already seen them on a couple of occasions this season. Superb display from them today, and I can easily see them harvesting around four or five future first teamers from their current crop of youngsters, which is what clubs at our level need to be doing. The difference between the teams was as comprehensive as the scoreline suggests.

 

https://twitter.com/SebC__/status/1767224255849099321/photo/1

From what I can work out from this picture, trialists were Karmani Ryan (18 year left winger at Arsenal) and Kieran Morgan (17 year old CDM at Tottenham)

 

Looking through that Millwall team it was a very experienced one compared to our lot.

Walker and Lawson are both 20 and Boateng is 21. Trueman (the goalkeeper) is 27. Shaun Hutchinson is a 33 year-old pro and one of their first choice CBs, only returning from having being out a few weeks with an injury.

Romain Esse is 18 but has made 3 starts and 12 sub appearances for the first team this season and they rejected a bid from Hull for him in January.

Adam Mayor is also 18 but they just bought him from Morecambe for £300k rising to £1mil after him already having started 20 games and getting 3 goals and 5 assists for them in League Two this season (and having made 17 starts and 17 sub appearances in League One last season).

By contrast all our team was 18 or 19 (or 17 for Morgan), and the only ones with any professional minutes were Adeyemo (93 minutes total and coming back from a long lay-off), and Coyne who made 5 appearances for Perth Glory 2 years ago.

While 7-0 is bad, it seems no surprise therefore that we were comfortably beaten.

 

Indeed it was an experienced line up with a couple of senior players getting run-outs on way back from injury. As you say Esse has already been in and around the fringes of the 1st XI.

Their centre forward (no. 9) Hearn is very strong and confident up front, scored twice in first half, but pulled up with a hamstring injury early in second. Boateng and sub Abdulmalik (who was on loan at Wealdstone earlier in season) carved out a superb goal between them (that made it 6-0). Another player who has stood out when I've seen them is Lawson, had an outstanding game against Ipswich U21 a couple of weeks back.

As I implied in my early post, there should be a handful of players among their youngsters good enough to step up sooner rather than later. And their U18's also have an F.A. Youth Cup semi-final at Leeds to look forward to in April, so they are clearly doing something right in bringing players through.

 

Would Cleverley have even been taking charge of that now?

Considering it was in Swansea it seems unlikely

Maybe they were missing Clevs' influence?!

 

Adam Balletta was in charge...

https://www.watfordfc.com/match-report/under-18-swansea-city-2-0-watford

Looks like he's normally lead coach the U9-14s phase, so it seems everyone's acting up across the board.

 

Looking at their forums and the highlights of the Chelsea game, from their U18s I'm surprised their left-footed right winger Jack Howland has not been nicked by a bigger club. They have a CB called Josh Stephenson who they also rate highly.

 

Improved since TC left them.
TC out !

 

Do pay attention! Tom Cleverley was the U-18 coach; Charlie Daniels is in charge of the U-21 side.

Does that mean that you will be prepared to allow TC to continue in his role as Interim Head Coach?

Please do not be offended, The undeniable truth. This comment was made in jest.

 

A full international call-up for one of our young lads, Amin Nabizada, who was on the bench for the cup replay against Southampton, has been called up by Afghanistan

 

I doubt we have ever loaned them a player that has scored a championship goal before!

 

Did anyone go to the under 21 game at Vicarage Road today?

It was possibly the most inept performance by 10 outfield players on the same side that I've ever seen at any level. Shockingly bad. In fact it's the first time I've ever left an academy game early and it was only because I was with a couple of friends that I didn't leave at half-time. Sigh. What a **** of a burden it is to have such friends.

I always look for bright spots no matter how bad a performance and I thought Massiah-Edwards showed a nice spikey character regardless of not playing well before injury forced him off. Amin Nabizada also looks a tricky player with lots of tight turns against close-up markers. Despite not really having an end product today and looking somewhat lightweight - he is only 16 after all - he looks an intriguing prospect considering his form for the under 18's this season.

But all that is by the by, what caught my eye before the game was the sight of Tom Cleverley with a couple of staff with him.

My feeling is Cleverley will not become a top coach based off the sense he has absolutely zero presence about him. No air of authority or standing whatsoever as he walked along the front of the Elton John stand and up towards the seated area near the back. He could have been the cleaner looking for a lost mop such was his demeanour.

Again, that's not really why I'm posting though.

My question is; Do the club employ Dan Gosling in any way, shape or form? One of the goons walking in with Cleverley looked 99.99% like Gosling and, unlike our current head coach, he was wearing the 2023/24 WFC attire the coach's wear. Anybody know if he's back at the club?

 

He was doing co-commentary on Hive Live for the first time for the West Brom game if that means anything at all.

He mentioned that he did some coaching badges at the same time as Clevs, so I imagine they're pretty close.

Nothing more than that was mentioned, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's giving Clevs some assistance on a perhaps fairly informal basis.

 

Another thought is maybe he's being lined up to be a replacement U18s or U21s head coach for next season depending on what happens with Clevs?

 

Thanks LR. Yeah, that makes sense. He'll also know Charlie Daniels from their time at Bournemouth together.

Ooh, that's an interesting hypothesis. After Gosling's interview with Andrew French a while back he sounds like the right type of character to help young players develop, so I'd be happy for that to happen if your inkling is correct.