I suspect this might be more down to him missing so much time with injuries and they want to get a proper look at him.
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I suspect this might be more down to him missing so much time with injuries and they want to get a proper look at him.
Yeah maybe, although Jenson Metcalfe got a 4 year deal at 18 when he was still recovering from injury. It probably also shows the depth of potentially good attackers we have.
EFC_FRANCIS
Player Valuation: £35m
Yeah it wasn't specifically against our lads it was more just an observation on a growing trend in football so I wouldn't take too much weight into that specifically.
Only got to look at us to see Small as our youngest player, ISS was set to break that record til Lampard laid an egg at Bournemouth, Patterson is the youngest northern Irish player and Graham and Loney now the youngest from their clubs. A lot goes into these players breaking these records and not much of it seems to be purely down to quality. Admittedly Graham got a fair whack of mins so he very well could've been there on merit.
It becomes a self fulfilling thing though because the more they hype these kids up the more they get snapped up by bigger teams, leading to the original clubs then having to play younger and younger prospects as a result to replace them or persuade them to stay. An Argentinian club just fielded a 14 year old, Brazilians are leaving at 18 having agreed a move at 16-gone are the days of a Neymar or Arthur staying till 20/21.
Arsenal just broke their youngest player record with Nwaneri, they'll probably break it again with Dowman.
Be interesting to see how they do it this season. Across the two age groups we have like, what, 7 strikers?
EFC_FRANCIS
Player Valuation: £35m
Would put money on the plan being to loan out about 4 of them only to get takers on about 1 or 2. Similar to when Astley got a new deal only to spend 6 months in the 21s.
Theyve currently got U21s: Whitaker, Okoronkwo, Benjamin, Ebere, Sherif
18s: Graham, Loney, Morgan. Plus whoever is in the 16s they like the look of.
Could argue they'll plan to put Ebere and Benjamin on the wings but that only causes a logjam at winger with Heath, Boakye, Catesby and Beaumont-Clark.
Glad about this one. I was ripping my hair out back end of last season when he kept getting benched for Jones.
Raino85
Player Valuation: £35m
You can put a couple on your spreadsheet now and take someone who's a bit older off
Cheers pal, probably will
Alan Whittle
Player Valuation: £60m
Apologies if this is already known but I understand that Freddie Freedman (son of Palace DoF Dougie Freedman) has joined Everton and will play in the U18 squad next season. A central defender who can also play at full back, he was released by Man Utd’s academy at the end of last season.
Tony’s Carp
Player Valuation: £50m
Is him getting released by United a case of nominative determinism?
Alan Whittle
Player Valuation: £60m
Why yes! Yes it is.
Yes he’s featured in the latest “ meet the Scholars” video from the club, if you go back a few days it’s on here.
I like how he turns around the usual BMD playing question into wanting to play at Goodison.