Philw
Player Valuation: £50m
We had better get him signed up on a new contract. Him and our other youth players are far more important than Allardyce. I would literally fire BFS to ensure Dowell stayed.
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We had better get him signed up on a new contract. Him and our other youth players are far more important than Allardyce. I would literally fire BFS to ensure Dowell stayed.
DCL is fast...
lol lol I’d sack him anyway & Dowell staying would be a bonus
Philw
Player Valuation: £50m
lol lol I’d sack him anyway & Dowell staying would be a bonus
Well most of us would do that anyway, but if for any reason they were thinking of keeping him on...
Unsworth was writing about the U23srecently , nothing really new but the last paragraph caught my eye.
“A lot of young lads from our Academy have been given an earlier opportunity in the Under-23s team than they would have imagined – and we probably would have imagined, too. But I’ve been delighted with how they have applied themselves. The experience of playing at this level, from where they’ve come from and in such a short space of time, is invaluable. They will all be better players for it.”
From memory we had 9 players from the Academy step up to U23s , not all 9 are going to progress any further with us but hopefully there will be a few who do, or maybe I’m just looking for a bright spot in our season.
Hornby and Denny established themselves pretty early and should be regular U23s next season. Con Ouzounidis arrived late in the season but appeared to do enough to earn a contract. Joe Hilton in goal looked confident and ready to push Hewelt. The other 2nd year was Manasse Mampala who didn’t really get much game time , but scored regularly for the u 18s . So you’d think those five will be with us next season.
Then we have the younger ones , 1st year and younger. Anthony Gordon stood out at u18 and didn’t look out of place in the U23s in the small number of minutes he got before his injury. Similarly Michael Collins proved himself at u18 and looked confident in his few U23s games . Ellis Simms was named in the U23s squad and I believe got a few minutes as a striker but still a raw talent and too early to judge. Last but not least, Ryan Astley, a 16 year old schoolboy not only played at u18 but stepped up to play CB against Sunderland U23s . Seeing someone play for only 90 mins on a streamed feed with no sound is hardly the best basis to judge someone, but he was easily the MoM .I want to see more of this kid, he’s the best 16 year old I’ve seen for us in years.
So , not a lot new there really , and most of this we’ve discussed before, but thought it worth bumping this thread to show we have some bright spots , particularly given all the depressing threads we currently have
“A lot of young lads from our Academy have been given an earlier opportunity in the Under-23s team than they would have imagined – and we probably would have imagined, too. But I’ve been delighted with how they have applied themselves. The experience of playing at this level, from where they’ve come from and in such a short space of time, is invaluable. They will all be better players for it.”
From memory we had 9 players from the Academy step up to U23s , not all 9 are going to progress any further with us but hopefully there will be a few who do, or maybe I’m just looking for a bright spot in our season.
Hornby and Denny established themselves pretty early and should be regular U23s next season. Con Ouzounidis arrived late in the season but appeared to do enough to earn a contract. Joe Hilton in goal looked confident and ready to push Hewelt. The other 2nd year was Manasse Mampala who didn’t really get much game time , but scored regularly for the u 18s . So you’d think those five will be with us next season.
Then we have the younger ones , 1st year and younger. Anthony Gordon stood out at u18 and didn’t look out of place in the U23s in the small number of minutes he got before his injury. Similarly Michael Collins proved himself at u18 and looked confident in his few U23s games . Ellis Simms was named in the U23s squad and I believe got a few minutes as a striker but still a raw talent and too early to judge. Last but not least, Ryan Astley, a 16 year old schoolboy not only played at u18 but stepped up to play CB against Sunderland U23s . Seeing someone play for only 90 mins on a streamed feed with no sound is hardly the best basis to judge someone, but he was easily the MoM .I want to see more of this kid, he’s the best 16 year old I’ve seen for us in years.
So , not a lot new there really , and most of this we’ve discussed before, but thought it worth bumping this thread to show we have some bright spots , particularly given all the depressing threads we currently have
Unsworth was writing about the U23srecently , nothing really new but the last paragraph caught my eye.
“A lot of young lads from our Academy have been given an earlier opportunity in the Under-23s team than they would have imagined – and we probably would have imagined, too. But I’ve been delighted with how they have applied themselves. The experience of playing at this level, from where they’ve come from and in such a short space of time, is invaluable. They will all be better players for it.”
From memory we had 9 players from the Academy step up to U23s , not all 9 are going to progress any further with us but hopefully there will be a few who do, or maybe I’m just looking for a bright spot in our season.
Hornby and Denny established themselves pretty early and should be regular U23s next season. Con Ouzounidis arrived late in the season but appeared to do enough to earn a contract. Joe Hilton in goal looked confident and ready to push Hewelt. The other 2nd year was Manasse Mampala who didn’t really get much game time , but scored regularly for the u 18s . So you’d think those five will be with us next season.
Then we have the younger ones , 1st year and younger. Anthony Gordon stood out at u18 and didn’t look out of place in the U23s in the small number of minutes he got before his injury. Similarly Michael Collins proved himself at u18 and looked confident in his few U23s games . Ellis Simms was named in the U23s squad and I believe got a few minutes as a striker but still a raw talent and too early to judge. Last but not least, Ryan Astley, a 16 year old schoolboy not only played at u18 but stepped up to play CB against Sunderland U23s . Seeing someone play for only 90 mins on a streamed feed with no sound is hardly the best basis to judge someone, but he was easily the MoM .I want to see more of this kid, he’s the best 16 year old I’ve seen for us in years.
So , not a lot new there really , and most of this we’ve discussed before, but thought it worth bumping this thread to show we have some bright spots , particularly given all the depressing threads we currently have
Never managed to catch the Sunderland game, is Astley really that talented?
In a word YES. People on GOT quite rightly laugh at and mock some of the comments made about our youngsters so caution needed as all I have to go on is one match. If I was doing a scouting report I’d write “ Ryan Astley. Playing his first match but fitted in straight away and looked comfortable all game. Had the height , strength and good positioning to win his headers , tackled effectively and once while closed down by an attacker near the touch line turned inside with the ball , beat his man and calmly played the ball out of defence”. I guess my colours are firmly nailed to the Ryan Astley mast, at 16 who knows how his career will pan out , looking forward to seeing more of him.
P.S. Anybody else seen him play?
Better prospect at 16 than Gordon? (Obviously different positions)
I have a feeling we’ll have a super strong U23 side next season with a couple of signings.
Actually that’s a fair point in that when I re read my post I should have put in “ best 16 year old defender” but I was too late to change.
Billy Dean
Player Valuation: £70m
I hope we never give Astley up or let him down in any way.
Sinski
Player Valuation: £6m
I saw a little of that Sunderland game. Saw Astley bring the ball out of defence with control and composure and then had to go and look up who he was. Seemed to have a bit of pace to. Looks very promising.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
See ledson has moved to Preston as widely expected. Undisclosed so not sure if we got any of the fee
Badge1878
Player Valuation: £8m
Signed for PNE earlier; great move for him.
We got anyone going to the Toulon tournament?
Squad was due to be announced after the WC squad, so any day now. I would imagine it’s u21s at its core plus a few u20 and U19s. There’s a lot of decent players still involved in matches e.g. Villa , Fulham , RS who won’t be picked so may be an interesting mix of recognised/unrecognised.