Luke Butterfield and Isaac Heath added to Armstrong and Dixon training with first team this week.
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Cameron Manning
Player Valuation: £35m
Jimmy O’Neil came from Irish Junior football as a very young lad and played for a few seasons before he went to Stoke City but I think you mean local lads.….might be wrong, but in the last 70 years I reckon we’ve had just 2 keepers from the Academy who played 50 games for us and they were from a bygone era; Albert Dunlop and Andy Rankin.
I suppose we’re due one
Callum Bates too.
Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
If any of the 3 are to have any future at the club then they need to make an impact soon at first team level.
Butterfield is 21 so im surprised hes still at the club.
Agree, but you could say that about most of our u21s, they’re a fairly ordinary bunch, except Dixon/Armstrong, typical of most years when the majority are League1/2 level. Same with our u21s out on loan, with maybe the exception of Metcalfe they’ll all likely be League1/2. That’s not me being pessimistic, just realistic of what happens most years.
Thelwell and the coaches/ scouts seem to have recognised this and brought in a number of external u21 players like Benjamin, who’s doing well , Tamen, Boakye and Francis Gomez ( out on loan), I haven’t seen much of these last three. This is repeated in the u18s with a promising bunch of players coming from outwith our academy.
EFC_FRANCIS
Player Valuation: £35m
Wonder whether Mills is anywhere near close to being back in training.
….something I’ve asked in the last few weeks, very little being said on his progress.
Is he back on the grass do we know?
Anyone know what Braiden Graham is up to, which age group he’s playing for etc?
…I’ve not seen or heard anything about his progress.
…..I think he’s mainly with U18s but the likes of @blueloon will know more, he’s certainly looked the part when I’ve seen him recently.
Shushhh, we’re keeping quiet about young Braiden , well at least until next month when he is 17 and hopefully tied down to a 3 year pro deal. He’s been playing in a couple of u17 tournaments as well as 3 or 4 u18 games. Coming off the bench in one of the EFL Trophy games is the only u21 appearance I can remember.
For me he’s easily the best 16 year old we’ve had for years, he looks so accomplished in everything he does. He appears “ ahead of his age” in terms of his thinking , and certainly his fitness and movement is better than you’d expect. I’m wondering if his time at Linfield where he was involved with their first team meant he trained harder than other 16 year olds ,often they take a little bit of time to adjust to full time training, but he’s hit the ground running and scoring.
Two secret gingers up front. Although we’ve seen far less of Loney.
Keep them both under wraps, bulk Braiden up a bit and we can sell Cieran to City for £30 mill saying he’s Graham - they're Mancs they can’t understand, or tell the difference between, a Glaswegian or a Belfast accent
….praise indeed, he does look a real talent especially given his physicality isn’t giving him an advantage in his age group.