Development/Youth Squads 2021/2022 Thread

[Lambert09]

Age doesnt matter. Value and ability matters, that is all. 

[sacreblueits442]

7 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

My real point is not about ability , that is subjective, its about age. These players go drifting about on loan until their early twenties. There comes a time when you have to make your mind up.

....are you looking for a definitive age, in which you no longer hold a player from the academy to his contract!!!

 

[thegaffa]

36 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

My real point is not about ability , that is subjective, its about age. These players go drifting about on loan until their early twenties. There comes a time when you have to make your mind up.

Kasper was out on loan until he was 22, muzzy izzet was out on loan to us at 21 and let’s not forget the fact that the legend that is lord Vardy did not even play professional football until he was 25.

 

Players develop at different ages.

[An Sionnach]

There are about 10% of players who make sudden improvements in their mid-twenties but we can't retain these players on contract as habitual loanees  in the hope that might happen in my opinion. I would make them available for transfer at 23 if you can offer them little hope of a first team squad position. We have seen that bringing young players into the squad early can be lucrative with Chilwell and Thomas has also become a valuable asset. Vardy and Mahrez may be  great examples of making it late but the vast majority of top class players are recognised young as Fofana has been. In fact if Wesley had come through our academy would he have been in our first team squad at 18 as he was in France.

[davieG]

10 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

we can't retain these players on contract as habitual loanees

Well obviously not all of them but if there's some that you feel that have developed at a later age 19/20/21 who would benefit from real league experience in the hope that they'll then have a good/better chance of making it in the PL then that seems the right thing to do.

 

No one on here that I've seen has advocated keeping all Academy players on our books until they're 23+ in fact quite the opposite. Until last year this topic was full of fans moaning about the U23s being full of older players whilst playing against teams full of 18 year olds.

 

Many like myself even suggested it should revert to U21s as it was originally set up.

[Lambert09]

38 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

There are about 10% of players who make sudden improvements in their mid-twenties but we can't retain these players on contract as habitual loanees  in the hope that might happen in my opinion. I would make them available for transfer at 23 if you can offer them little hope of a first team squad position. We have seen that bringing young players into the squad early can be lucrative with Chilwell and Thomas has also become a valuable asset. Vardy and Mahrez may be  great examples of making it late but the vast majority of top class players are recognised young as Fofana has been. In fact if Wesley had come through our academy would he have been in our first team squad at 18 as he was in France.

I think that if they are out on loan we aren’t negatively effecting them, we are assessing what they can actually do and let’s face it that system hasn’t hurt chelsea at all.  Our issue is keeping players that aren’t good enough at the club at a too old age. We need to get players out on loan earlier and we need to make the right decisions on where to send them. 

 

When the players have failed on loan the club has been quick to cut ties. Layton Nduku, loft, being some recent ones.  leshabela will be gone this summer and wakeling will likely follow the same path. 

 

we’ve got a great crop right now but we need to get them out on loan to make room for the next crop to come through. next year we need to get alves, nelson, popov, mashwinese, womleighton , wanya and braybroke all out on loan. 

 

Show that they can do it at a certain level then push them up to a bigger club before integrating them into the team. If any of them are even close to first team they will go to the championship. otherwise expect a few years. we are never going to push a player straight from league 1 to the first team, simply because we have no need to rush it. let the players make mistakes at other clubs and learn from them not in multimillion pound games. 

 

We all love an academy product but why can’t our fans have a bit of patience and trust the process. it’s proven to work. 

 

one last thing. in barnes first season and a half  back from loan, our fans started to lose patience with him lacking end product.  without his loan his confidence would have never been built and our fans wouldn’t be patient enough to wait for 3 years for him to hit the appropriate level. if he’d gone straight into the first team we would have sold him to the championship after a year or 2 and someone else would have ended up getting a gem… all because we didn’t want to let him learn his trade before being thrown in the deep end. it’s not the 80s any more, it’s the toughest league in the world you can’t just throw players in and expect them to fly. very very few have the ability to do it. 

Edited 28 April 2022 by Lambert09

[moore_94]

Final home game of the season for the Under 18s today against Villa

 

 

Subs: Weeks, Cook, McAlinney, Lewis, Thomas

Edited 30 April 2022 by moore_94

[moore_94]

Someone called Tristan Thomas on the bench today

[Jabfox]

19 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Final home game of the season for the Under 18s today against Villa

 

 

Subs: Weeks, Cook, McAlinney, Lewis, Thomas

No Jack butterfill? Or does he play for the 23s now? 

[BKLFox]

Is Oli Ewing injured and what’s general thoughts on him, due a loan, stick with DV squad?

[moore_94]

Richards and Briggs have just scored in 70th and 72nd to go 2-1 up

[Ric Flair]

17 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Richards and Briggs have just scored in 70th and 72nd to go 2-1 up

Looking forward to seeing more of Briggs next season, was held in a similar regard to Alves in the younger age groups from what I gather.

[moore_94]

4 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Looking forward to seeing more of Briggs next season, was held in a similar regard to Alves in the younger age groups from what I gather.

Any idea who the Tristan Thomas lad on the bench is?

Edited 30 April 2022 by moore_94

[Ric Flair]

2 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Any idea who the Tristan Thomas lad on the bench is?

No pal, never heard of him.

[FoxSince88]

Tristan is a distant family member, Been at city for many many years and is very talented attacking player 

[Lesta2014]

Congratulations to Lewis Brunt on his premier league debut. Did okay when he come on, nothing special. Speaks volumes for hamza though I think that this lad came on ahead of him?

[Chelmofox]

1 minute ago, Lesta2014 said:

Congratulations to Lewis Brunt on his premier league debut. Did okay when he come on, nothing special. Speaks volumes for hamza though I think that this lad came on ahead of him?

Hamza is out. Not had a sniff through a period where we needed a lot of rotation. 

[Mark]

45 minutes ago, Lesta2014 said:

Congratulations to Lewis Brunt on his premier league debut. Did okay when he come on, nothing special. Speaks volumes for hamza though I think that this lad came on ahead of him?

Strange decision to be honest, may as well have put Braybrooke on the bench and gave him some minutes considering Brunts main position is centre back.

[st albans fox]

7 minutes ago, Mark said:

Strange decision to be honest, may as well have put Braybrooke on the bench and gave him some minutes considering Brunts main position is centre back.

Brunt is physically way ahead of the other boys - it’s no surprise that he’s got his chance first 

 

we’ll see more of him over the next few weeks as Brendan has a look at what he’s got at PL level 

[An Sionnach]

Brunt is older than Thomas so is by no means a raw kid. He is somebody who might benefit from a year in the championship. The trouble is our loanees spend too much time on the bench. Finding a club who will give him a fair chance won't be easy.

[Ric Flair]

21 minutes ago, Mark said:

Strange decision to be honest, may as well have put Braybrooke on the bench and gave him some minutes considering Brunts main position is centre back.

Wanya Marca is ready, he should be the one getting a chance. Fair play to Brunt though.

[Stadt]

Brunt can play at DM, LB & CB. I wouldn’t be surprised is he features a fair bit next season because of his versatility 

[Angus Scott]

1 hour ago, jamesp26 said:

Hamza is out. Not had a sniff through a period where we needed a lot of rotation. 

But who'll buy him & if anyone does they certainly won't pay him what we do so I can't see him leaving

[TommyK]

55 minutes ago, Angus Scott said:

But who'll buy him & if anyone does they certainly won't pay him what we do so I can't see him leaving

I can see a few clubs wanting him. There is always a deal to be done. Either if it means paying some of his wages. 

[Lesta2014]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

Strange decision to be honest, may as well have put Braybrooke on the bench and gave him some minutes considering Brunts main position is centre back.

Brunt can’t do europa so with KDH and Maddison struggling Braybrooke may be with the squad Thursday. I imagine we will get some indication from u23 selection how bad they are injury wise though.