mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
If we get 3/4 into the 1st team that would be brilliant
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If we get 3/4 into the 1st team that would be brilliant
...I suspect it’s club strategy to play highly paid professionals such as Garbutt, Grant and Henen. The same has happened this season with Browning and Galloway. It’s almost certainly a decision taken out of Unsworth’s hands.
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onlyme
Player Valuation: £10m
My lad spoke to Gordon before the game and he explained he wasn't involved last night due to injury.
I agree 100 % about Evans. It just proves how difficult it is to make a judgement on a 16 year old.
Stephenlloyd
Player Valuation: £40m
I don’t believe that one bit. Why would the club say you carry on playing lads who have no future and will be leaving shortly. If that’s the case why wasn’t Charsley playing, surely he’s one of the highest paid at the 23 level
I I definitely don’t think that’s would be Brands’s plan for the Academy
Stephenlloyd
Player Valuation: £40m
Gibson was injured at the start of the season, so I can see why Browning was playing abd we don’t really have a left back at that’s level, mainly centre backs with a left foot. Foulds is really the only other one who could have played there. And he’s similar to Galloway. In his 20’s abd probably moving on in the summer.
BornBlue76
Player Valuation: £35m
Fantastic lads!! Well done to all the players.. I suspect we will see a break up of this side next season.. or at least we should. The u23s mustn't become a bottle neck of talent. Some big calls to be made not only around the u23s but also the back up in the first team.
League & cup winners playing pretty turgid but effective football to be completely honest. Great achievement, little bit wary it was a way to boost Unsworth’s own CV, I would be shocked if more than 4-5 of that squad ever step foot on a pitch for the first team in the next few years.
It was a great achievement by Unsworth,but I’m with @Stephenlloyd , on this. I would rarely criticise our youngsters or their coaches but mixed in with the elation has been a wee feeling of disappointment in our play. This was achieved by a superbly coached defence essentially using 5 key players throughout the season, Browning, Galloway, Feeney, Gibson, Astley. We rarely lost a lead, conceded only 14 league goals all season, it was effective but frustrating watching the likes of Matty Foulds and Alex Denny being brought on to shore up a 2-0 lead with more creative individuals not getting a look in.
I’m a huge Ryan Astley fan as said on here many times so I watch his performance carefully. While he’s not an attacking fullback he rarely crossed the halfway line last night, and I would have loved to see him running past Bowler on the wing and drawing defenders away to allow Bowler to cut inside. Astley, when he needs to be , is one of our most skilful ball playing defenders , but you didn’t see any of that last night. I’ve watched him play right back for Wales U19s and he got forward a lot more then , he’s made mistakes this season but we’ve only caught glimpses of his potential.
To balance that both Gibson and Feeney have developed nicely this season, though whereas you could see Gibson providing 1st team cover at left back , Feeney is one of the few young defenders who’ve only played one position, CB. This may count against him.
Next season we should have 3 or 4 exciting attacking players moving up from the u18s and capable of playing in a style closer to the one Silva uses. I think Unsworth/Ebbrell have earned a crack at managing a league club somewhere, and wouldn’t be too unhappy to see Paul Tait stepping up.
I’m a huge Ryan Astley fan as said on here many times so I watch his performance carefully. While he’s not an attacking fullback he rarely crossed the halfway line last night, and I would have loved to see him running past Bowler on the wing and drawing defenders away to allow Bowler to cut inside. Astley, when he needs to be , is one of our most skilful ball playing defenders , but you didn’t see any of that last night. I’ve watched him play right back for Wales U19s and he got forward a lot more then , he’s made mistakes this season but we’ve only caught glimpses of his potential.
To balance that both Gibson and Feeney have developed nicely this season, though whereas you could see Gibson providing 1st team cover at left back , Feeney is one of the few young defenders who’ve only played one position, CB. This may count against him.
Next season we should have 3 or 4 exciting attacking players moving up from the u18s and capable of playing in a style closer to the one Silva uses. I think Unsworth/Ebbrell have earned a crack at managing a league club somewhere, and wouldn’t be too unhappy to see Paul Tait stepping up.
bluebud
Player Valuation: £35m
I'd like to see a few of our younger player have loans abroad, would be interesting to see how they cope but also to see how they compare to prospects from that country, for instance, how would someone like Josh Bowler get on in the Dutch league compared to a similarly aged player in the same position that we might have an interest in?
BL.
Is there a possibility that Dave Unsworth is more focused on winning than developing players in the right way to play in the first team down the line ?
....but there is a strategy here that appears to be working. These are not all long-serving Academy players. We are buying young talent, some have already established themselves into the first team squad (Stones, Holgate, DCL, Lookman).
Others are a residue in a very successful PL2 team; Virginia, Bowler, Adeniran, Gibson, Hornby, Galloway et al.
If you consider Kenny and Davies as local lads who have established themselves. Perhaps none of last night’s team will establish themselves in our first team, but overall the strategy is working very well and the bigger picture should be applauded.
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As a chief scout he’s great. Why we thought that’d make him a great director of football I’ll never know.
Utd look like they’ll make the same mistake with either terry phelan (great coach) or Rio Ferdinand (great player) being earmarked for a top role in their set up.
toffeejack
Player Valuation: £100m
fantastic achievement from the lads, it's so annoying that we can do this though and only think a couple will become squad members at best though. Players like kenny, walsh and ledson recently looked the business, like they'd properly make the step up and yet they've turned into league 2 level players.
When you see a 21 year old like richarlison as one of our best players, you realise just how far off most of these kids are despite the success. Taking nothing away from the achievements though.
When you see a 21 year old like richarlison as one of our best players, you realise just how far off most of these kids are despite the success. Taking nothing away from the achievements though.
Well he is focussed on winning, nothing wrong with that in itself and they are quite keen that players develop a “winning mentality” that will stand them well in the future. You could argue that he’s done exceptionally well with an average squad with no significant stars. Equally despite our reputation for bringing through youngsters , if you exclude one off Europa league appearances only Galloway from last nights squad has appeared in a 1st team squad. I may be wrong , but I don’t think we’ve had any new youngster appearing in a PL squad this season or last season either - the usual suspects appeared over two seasons ago or at the start of last season if I remember right.
So I do find it unusual that no new players from a team that have won two trophies have appeared in a PL squad this season. Unsworth or Sliva’s fault I don’t know but certainly a disconnect . I’m not advocating that any of these kids are good enough to displace any of our current squad, just unusual for a club with our reputation not to have had a “new” youngster in a PL squad for a long time.
