Development/Youth Squads 2023/2024 Thread - U18/U21

[An Away Move]

Great news that we avoided relegation because of our Category 1 status. Seems Seagrave is not all that bad, eh?

[StanSP]

Fleetwood, Tranmere and Wigan are our opponents 

[Lambert09]

genuinely great news.  Might need some of these guys throughout the season so need to have them playing at a good level. The papa johns games are always a good reality check for them 

[SemperEadem]

Rough on the team that would have swapped places with us.

[sacreblueits442]

20 hours ago, Lambert09 said:

genuinely great news.  Might need some of these guys throughout the season so need to have them playing at a good level. The papa johns games are always a good reality check for them 

... it will be great for the players to have a structure in their setup and games!!!

Too often you are not sure what we are trying to do and we are way behind the other teams. I would suspect the staff in the academies are not going to change as Maresca will have to impart his ideology and then wait to see if it can then be implemented by our existing coaches. Some players will take to the new style of play and some will struggle to come to terms with it. There are some players who need the ball to be played quicker and are more people who get on the end of things as opposed to waiting for the buildup and holding their runs, stopping themselves from drifting offside.

  Wormleighton will thrive I believe in this new regime, he started out as a winger and is very good going forward, and very robust in his challenges. With someone behind him, he will have a license to go and support and also give cover to the defence as needed. Looking for Deniche Hill to have some impact as well, very front-footed player, whose mindset is as a winger and who is willing to try anything to overcome what is in front of him.

 

Edited 23 June 2023 by sacreblueits442
Update.

[Ric Flair]

47 minutes ago, SemperEadem said:

Rough on the team that would have swapped places with us.

Don't think anyone's been impacted in that way have they? There was previously 14 teams in PL2 Div 1 and 11 teams in PL2 Div 2. There's now 1 division made up of them all as long as they have category 1 status. The relegation/promotion is based on that status alone, I.e if we lose our category 1 status then we'd have to drop out.

[Ryy]

6 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Don't think anyone's been impacted in that way have they? There was previously 14 teams in PL2 Div 1 and 11 teams in PL2 Div 2. There's now 1 division made up of them all as long as they have category 1 status. The relegation/promotion is based on that status alone, I.e if we lose our category 1 status then we'd have to drop out.

What’s category 1 actually based on?

[Jabfox]

4 minutes ago, Ryy said:

What’s category 1 actually based on?

Imagine it would have something to do with the coaches, facilities and maybe some sort of pathway plan in place. 

 

Honestly not sure tbf. 

[Ric Flair]

8 minutes ago, Ryy said:

What’s category 1 actually based on?

Quality of coaching, infrastructure, equipment, strategy etc. It may comes as a surprise to some that we achieved that and maintain our status despite many grumbling about the way the academy is ran. There's a lot of good work that does go on, certainly at the lower age levels, there's just a frustration that especially with Seagrave, it could be so much better.

[Old Fox]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Quality of coaching, infrastructure, equipment, strategy etc. It may comes as a surprise to some that we achieved that and maintain our status despite many grumbling about the way the academy is ran. There's a lot of good work that does go on, certainly at the lower age levels, there's just a frustration that especially with Seagrave, it could be so much better.

Completely right Ric - if you look at our infrastructure and the categories to get 1,2 or 3 - we are probably in the Top 6 in the country - Liverpool, Villa, Man U would absolutely kill for our facilities, structure and although Seagrave gets criticism it will take 5 years to see the proper benefit but it will come and be worth millions to us.........

[Ryy]

20-year-olds – Thawatchai Inprakhon, Seksan Ratree, and Pongsakorn Hanrattana – and 16-year-old Thanakrit Chotmueangpak would be the latest cohort to get some experience in England. They are scheduled to fly in on Monday alongside Mueanta.

[AjcW]

1 minute ago, Ryy said:

20-year-olds – Thawatchai Inprakhon, Seksan Ratree, and Pongsakorn Hanrattana – and 16-year-old Thanakrit Chotmueangpak would be the latest cohort to get some experience in England. They are scheduled to fly in on Monday alongside Mueanta.

Live scenes from the Kit mans office...

 

[Kilworthfox]

On 23/06/2023 at 13:04, Ryy said:

What’s category 1 actually based on?

The money the club invests each season in the academy. 

[An Sionnach]

On 23/06/2023 at 15:37, Ryy said:

20-year-olds – Thawatchai Inprakhon, Seksan Ratree, and Pongsakorn Hanrattana – and 16-year-old Thanakrit Chotmueangpak would be the latest cohort to get some experience in England. They are scheduled to fly in on Monday alongside Mueanta.

Its nice to see Top giving his young compatriots a chance but I do not know of one Thai player playing at the top level in Europe. Our only graduates who have come through in the last ten years have been local lads. Even those have taken an enormous amount of stick on here most of which has been entirely unjustified.

[Dan LCFC]

That Mueanta may have half a chance but I do agree on the others.

[CloudFox]

2 hours ago, An Sionnach said:

Its nice to see Top giving his young compatriots a chance but I do not know of one Thai player playing at the top level in Europe. Our only graduates who have come through in the last ten years have been local lads. Even those have taken an enormous amount of stick on here most of which has been entirely unjustified.

I agree that it's a bit of a self-interest thing for Top as a Thai man, but for a while now we've all been saying we need to look at under-scouted markets. Of all the players in Thailand, surely one is talented enough to at least play in a league like League One or the Championship? If the top-most Thai talents come and train at our facilities, there's a good chance one day we'll find one. And whether they play for us or we sell them on, I'd love it to happen.

[CloudFox]

38 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

That Mueanta may have half a chance but I do agree on the others.

I'm really curious about him. Wonder if we'll have a look pre-season, or if he'll go straight to OHL?

[Dan LCFC]

5 minutes ago, CloudFox said:

I'm really curious about him. Wonder if we'll have a look pre-season, or if he'll go straight to OHL?

Unsure. He's spoken of like their best player in a generation so he might be an exception. I do tend to agree that the majority of them are pointless signings for us but Mueanta may not be.

[moore_94]

7 minutes ago, CloudFox said:

I'm really curious about him. Wonder if we'll have a look pre-season, or if he'll go straight to OHL?

Thanks to the new work permit rules he could stay for a bit

 

We might as well keep him around for pre-season and maybe even the start of the season to get a good look at him

Edited 24 June 2023 by moore_94

[Clever Fox]

On 23/06/2023 at 15:37, Ryy said:

20-year-olds – Thawatchai Inprakhon, Seksan Ratree, and Pongsakorn Hanrattana – and 16-year-old Thanakrit Chotmueangpak would be the latest cohort to get some experience in England. They are scheduled to fly in on Monday alongside Mueanta.

There isn't enough space on the Shirts for any of those names. 

[Ric Flair]

I've no issues these coming over to train and up until now that's all it's ever been. Mueanta has been over twice already and clearly impressed, even scored in a pre-season friendly I think. 

 

I don't see this being the start of us just signing Thai players that clearly have no chance of making it, we'd be idiots to use up our limited spaces of non-work permit players. But if there's a standout talent then it is interesting to see if we could unearth a player.

[majaco]

54 minutes ago, Clever Fox said:

There isn't enough space on the Shirts for any of those names. 

The names will never fit for sure.   One's even got a name one letter longer than Dewsbury-Hall .   But Dewsbury-Hall has a hyphen.   So maybe they could come after all.

[Clever Fox]

1 hour ago, majaco said:

The names will never fit for sure.   One's even got a name one letter longer than Dewsbury-Hall .   But Dewsbury-Hall has a hyphen.   So maybe they could come after all.

It would be interesting to hear a match commentary from a Commentator trying to deal with those names.

[Frank Large's Black Book]

2 hours ago, Clever Fox said:

There isn't enough space on the Shirts for any of those names. 

 

Plenty of room on the shirt front now.  Allegedly 

[Lillehamring]

21 hours ago, An Sionnach said:

Its nice to see Top giving his young compatriots a chance but I do not know of one Thai player playing at the top level in Europe. Our only graduates who have come through in the last ten years have been local lads. Even those have taken an enormous amount of stick on here most of which has been entirely unjustified.

it's almost certainly a PR thing - Top clearly understands how valuable the asian market is (see other thai players, a pair of japanese players etc) - it's good for the club, good for the players and no one is really put out.  I can't imagine anyone realistically expects them to make a breakthrough, but it'd be great for business if they did.