Recently watched the BBC 3 documentary Boot Dreams. Aside from being a decent watch, Gifton Noel-Williams was the “gaffa” and if I remember rightly, it said at the end of the last episode we signed Jordan Fankwe. 19yr old midfielder in the break up play destructive mould. Has he featured at all for the Under 23s?
Interesting stat I saw on Twitter today: 97% of former cat 1 academy players now aged 21 to 26 never made an EPL appearance. 70% weren't handed a pro contract at an EPL or EFL club. And only 1 in 10 went on to make more than 20 league appearances in the top four tiers of English football.
Are these stats much different to before I wonder? England is producing better players these days, but a) **** knows how much (if any) that can be put down to EPPP, and b) obviously anyone who gets close to England level is basically at the top of the tree
I wonder if there's a higher or lower percentage as you drop down the leagues / categories as the quality gap isn't as wide.
But likewise, how many players in the academies of big clubs were 'poached' from smaller clubs? The ones left behind at smaller clubs who then don't quite make it at those clubs, are they good enough to make it at a level below? It's not like our recent former youngsters are tearing it up at any professional level
It's a hard one to gauge. We've got a few recent ex academy products cutting their cloth at various levels: JJ McKiernan is at Morecombe in L2 Dan Phillips is at St Johnstone in the SPL George Langston is at Eastleigh in the NL Kamil Conteh is at Grimsby in L2 Sam Dalby is at Wrexham in L2 Ashley Charles is at Wealdstone in the NL Dion Pereira is at Luton (on loan at Sutton - L2) Dennon Lewis is at Crawley (NL) George Byers is at Sheff Wed (Champ) O'Nien is at Sunderland (Champ) Our most rated youth talents in recent years (Folivi, Cassidy, Jakubiak immediately spring to mind) are the ones that don't go onto anything really. I can't think of anyone that was poached by a big team that's old enough to judge on their career (other than Sancho) yet. But there's an interesting argument to be had - would the players snaffled up by a Cat 1 academy and then later released have developed better and with less pressure if they stayed at their original club and got game-time at a lower level? Is "good" coaching more important than time on the pitch against players battling for their livelihoods? All pretty much impossible to answer, but interesting to think about it.
Joy Mukena and Harry Forster are both at Crawley now after moving from St Albans and Bromley. That's probably who you meant.
It's not going well for him at the moment, but you have to say Sancho played his cards very well at the start of his career, got some quality coaching at City before taking a step down in levels to Dortmund. Granted, not everyone will be good enough to step into a Champions League team at age 17, but I think the general idea is good if you can pull it off
Aye, trying to rack my head as to who got pinched that I can think of: Galvez went to city and is playing loads for their U21 team at 18 years old. Romari Forde is playing lots for Arsenal u18s Amass and the lad that went to Wolves is too early to gauge. Can't think of any others but I'm sure there must be more
Others in recent years are: Remiero Moulton - at Brighton, 17 James Debayo - at Leeds, 18 Basilio Rieno Socoliche - Palace, 18 Bosun Lawal (kind of, not sure if he was nicked exactly) - Celtic, 20 (on loan at Fleetwood in League One) Emilio Ballard-Matthews - at Wolves, 15, was mentioned above already, but just adding his name here as well to help keep track.
I mean, it's a fully professional league, so probably equivalent to League 2 here, much better than rotting in the reserves with us
Travis Akomeah, 17 > Chelsea Josh McNamara, 19 (g/k) > Manchester City (signed for Southampton in June)
Looks like we are doing it the Watford way. From 0-3 to parity but now behind again Now where have I heard that before recently hmm?
He chipped in with a fair few goals from midfield at Eastleigh as well if my memory serves me correctly. Rest of his game was pretty poor though!
