When did Gerrard breakthrough at Liverpool?
Edit: Ignore that he was 18. Swear I thought he was after 20 or was that Murphy.
When did Gerrard breakthrough at Liverpool?
Edit: Ignore that he was 18. Swear I thought he was after 20 or was that Murphy.
Is anyone saying they are destined for greatness? I'd just ask for players of the same age in the same position who are doing better.
Not every youth player turns into a Rooney. But you don't have to be to hold down a place with Everton. A Barkley or Osman would be more than good enough for our first team now.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
Gerrard had no England recognition until u21 level
Of course they would, but then Barkley himself was a regular for us at 19 and made his England debut before he was 20 so he's maybe not the best example?
All three of the players I mentioned are good, I like them, don't get me wrong. If you've not seen people bigging them up as future stars I can only assume you don't read many of the threads on here because it's full of them. I've seen people say Kenny is like a better version of Coleman, DCL is regularly compared to Kane, and just a couple of days ago I saw a post saying Holgate was one of only 3/4 players in our squad who would get a game for the top 4. The fact he can't even get a game for us notwithstanding.
I'm not trying to denigrate the talent these lads have, just pointing out that 21 isn't that young to be expecting someone to put it together and start producing the goods. I would say that all three of those mentioned have massive seasons ahead of them, because if they haven't cemented regular places for us by the age of 22/23, I would start to think they never will. There's nothing wrong with being a bit player for us, or moving to a slightly lower level, I'm simply commenting on the belief of some that we have a number of excellent youngsters by pointing out that they may not actually be quite as excellent as we'd like.
Yeah Murphy was a child prodigy at Crewe, I think he was playing every game for them when he was about 16. Think he was 19/20 by the time he moved to Liverpool, but he took a year or two to really break through from what I remember.
Well Coleman was still League of Ireland at 20 so maybe not the best example
21 is a reasonable age as most will have physically matured by then.
What I don't like is when our youth players are written off when we have £20m-£45m signings who played worse.
DCL is no worse out wide in a 4-3-3 than Siggy.
bluebud
Player Valuation: £35m
This years academy graduates have not been officially announced yet but some have been added to the OS profiles, the lad Rafael Garcia that we have reportedly signed from Fulham has not been added yet., only 12 so far, usually there are about 14-15 places so still room for Marcel to add a few of his own picks.
Joe Anderson:- Left back (maybe in last years intake? not clear on the OS)
Jack Barrett:- Goalkeeper
Mackenzie Hunt:- Midfielder
Rhys Hughes:- Attacking midfielder, Wales Under-17 caps.
Harry Tyrer:-Goalkeeper
Ryan Astley:- Centre back, Wales Under-17 caps, also eligible for England
Bobby Carroll:- Central midfielder
Seb Quirk:- Central or Right midfield, His second uncle is Duncan Ferguson.
Josh Hosie:- Right-back, Wales Under-17 caps, also eligible for England and Scotland.
Jonathan Anderson:- Defender, Born in Rome.
Pedro Neves:- left winger, Sao Paulo-born Neves signed from Charlton aged 15. He has represented both his native Brazil and Portugal at Under-15 level.
Max Thompson:- Forward
http://www.evertonfc.com/teams/under-18s?page=2
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Yeah no arguments there.Well Coleman was still League of Ireland at 20 so maybe not the best example
21 is a reasonable age as most will have physically matured by then.
What I don't like is when our youth players are written off when we have £20m-£45m signings who played worse.
DCL is no worse out wide in a 4-3-3 than Siggy.
I think what i'm getting at is I think it's good to be realistic about how good players are. There are many on here who would have you believe Kenny, Connolly, Holgate, Davies, Lookman, Dowell and DCL will be the core of the England team at the next world cup. Obviously that's possible, but it's really not very likely, and I think if even 3 of them go on to get a single cap we should be very pleased and proud.
As an aside, players like Coleman fall a little outside of the scope of what i'm saying, as do the likes of Vardy and Maguire who I mentioned earlier. If you come through the ranks at a lower level and aren't exposed to top level coaching and training until you're in your 20s then obviously you may well progress rapidly a little later. For those who've been in and around PL academies and coaches from their teens you would usually expect them to be showing the required levels by around 21.
Got quite a few Welsh youth internationals haven't we.
Good spot!, I’ve been waiting for the usual group picks.
Joe Anderson was last year’s intake , played quite a few times for the u18, Jonathan Anderson is the new one, he appeared in at least one u18 squad late on.
The three Welsh lads , Astley , Hosie and Hughes have played together for Wales since at least u15 s. There are two others who we had/have who were also in the Wales teams with them, Michael Ellery a Centre back and Edward Jones a left back , so far it looks like they’ve been dropped by us.
Max Thompson was the player we signed from United back in February. He had recovered from injury and playing again for United’s u16 so a bit strange that we got him, presumably they indicated he’d be let go.
There’s also a high number of players who appeared for our u18s as schoolboys, Bobby Carroll, Mackenzie Hunt , Harry Tyrer, Jonathan Anderson and of course Ryan Astley who made a full appearance for the U23s.
I didn’t realise Astley was also England qualified. He’s such a prospect that I’d expect Wales to fast track him up through the ages this season in the same way they did with Chelsea starlet Ethan Ampadu. It’ll be interesting seeing how all these youngsters get on, but the one who excites me the most is Astley. I think he’s capable of ripping it up at U23s level this season, it may need Feeney to go out on loan to make way for him though.
scratchnsurf
Player Valuation: £40m
What the hell is a 'second uncle'?
There’s an interesting sidetrack to the Belgian “golden generation” discussions. Most focus on the style of play they changed to , implementing it at all levels years ago. They also did a lot of studies on when young players mature. They found that youngsters who were younger in their age group were not progressing as well as their older counterparts . A lot of these youngsters were discarded , but a lot made it later on , years later compared to their older counterparts in the same age groups. They basically said that as a small nation they couldn’t afford to be losing any young talented players at all, so they made big efforts to put things in place that didn’t disadvantage the later developers.
Our dilemma is that we too can’t afford to miss out on any of our late developing youngsters, so need to give them every chance. Equally , not all will make it in the PL and if you have too many young players who’ve been kept too long it blocks the development of others.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
IF that was said i'm sure it was tongue and cheek, only things i've seen like that is they are both at least equal to where coleman and kane were at 20 yrs age which is undeniable.
WHEN it has been said, I believe it was in all seriousness.
DCL is 21, when Kane was 21 he scored 31 goals for spurs, I look forward to our boy doing the same to prove his ‘undeniable’ similarity.