The youth

[LVFox]

Plenty on here describe Seagrave as a giant waste of money, and whilst there is a slight vanity project element to it, the youth players we are seeing now have to be apportioned to it.

 

I’ve been really impressed with just how comfortable they all look, and the level of their decision making. Aluko, Page, Monga, Joseph and Evans all look at least capable of being good squad options (don’t get me started on how good I think Monga already is).

 

Cifuentes is the perfect coach to give them this responsibility too, if he does what he did at Hammarby.  

[DezFox]

I’m really excited about this generation of youth players. However. we need to be realistic, many will make it at different times,  some will not make it at all. I want to play as much youth as we can but it needs to be done with careful strategy and we can’t rely on just that. Hopefully some come good, it’s certainly a good time to do it. 

[Saxondale]

16 hours ago, Finnegan said:

I would absolutely love a generation of fantastic young players from our own academy. 

 

But I do think some of you need to calm down. Some of these kids are incredibly young and so far you've watched them play behind closed doors friendlies against two pub teams. 

 

Yes, exactly this. The difference in standard between a decent level professional game and a youth / reserves / friendly fixture is colossal.

 

I remember watching the reserves or development squad a few years back and thinking the guy playing left back stood out like the next Paolo Maldini.

 

That guy was called Bakayoko, who was a French player we signed who I don’t think ever played a first team game, obviously because he wasn’t good enough.

Edited 13 July 2025 by Saxondale

[coolhandfox]

17 hours ago, Finnegan said:

I would absolutely love a generation of fantastic young players from our own academy. 

 

But I do think some of you need to calm down. Some of these kids are incredibly young and so far you've watched them play behind closed doors friendlies against two pub teams. 

 

100% this, people seem to casually forget all the under 21 teams getting smashed in the Johnson Paint by league 1 and 2 teams.

 

 

[teblin]

16 hours ago, Finnegan said:

I would absolutely love a generation of fantastic young players from our own academy. 

 

But I do think some of you need to calm down. Some of these kids are incredibly young and so far you've watched them play behind closed doors friendlies against two pub teams. 

 

I agree to some extent. But also as fans we have had very little to get excited about. Pub teams is a little harsh too.

 

From yesterday 

Monga is a bit special and different to the others coming through.

 

Page looks a player, but won’t go into the team yet, will be on bench as an option.

 

aluko has all the attributes physically to be a good championship full back, but still needs time.(I know he played CB yesterday)

 

didn’t see enough of Evans to comment, but has flashes of quality.

 

Then you have Nelson who’ll be in and around the team no doubt.

 

Alves who has undoubted ability but needs to improve decision making.

 

The one thing it may give us this season is something different from the bench and energy.

 

 

[JimmyC74]

Monga, Page and Aluko have been really impressive during pre-season but, I would expect the new manager to be careful about introducing these lads / managing their minutes to prevent burnout.  

[Gevans_97]

13 minutes ago, JimmyC74 said:

Monga, Page and Aluko have been really impressive during pre-season but, I would expect the new manager to be careful about introducing these lads / managing their minutes to prevent burnout.  

Agreed. I think people really need to temper their expectations with the young lads and their playing time. They look brilliant, yes, but will still need bedding in. 46+ games in a season is insane for a 16 year old. 
 

Even Monga, who from a purely technical aspect is already good enough to start, probably won’t consistently for a while. We’re still talking about literal children here, their bodies are still growing, and the sports science team will absolutely be all over managing their minutes. 
 

think as fans it’s going be tricky to remain patient after what we’ve seen this pre-season

[cityfanlee23]

We are actually in quite a difficult situation at the moment but it's a nice problem to have, dependant on points deductions, if we want to get promoted we will need a good balance of experience, the issue being the experience at this level that we have are the exact positions we have talent coming through.

We all desperately want our young players to get a proper chance this season, I just don't see how we are going to give them all a chance. 
Alves is fighting potentially Bilal and Ayew
Aluko is fighting Thomas and Kristiansen
Evans is fighting Fatawu/Mcateer/Ayew
Monga is fighting Mavididi/Bilal/BDCR
Golding is fighting Skipp/Winks/Ndidi
Louis Page is fighting Skipp/Winks/Ndidi
Wilson-Brown looked decent yesterday... 

You've got Choudhury and Soumare fighting for these positions too. 

I really think we are going to need to make some really difficult financial decisions now where the likes of Choudhury, Soumare, Skipp, Kristiansen, BDCR, maybe Ayew are moved on at ANY price and we just take a short term hit on the chin, subsidise their wages and send them out. 

 

[sdb]

16 hours ago, HarryDee8 said:

Watched the highlights, Kasey mcateer, Kristiansen, winks, Skipp, chaudhury are all rubbish.  

 

We need to start the youngsters over them

Surely you didn't need the highlights to establish this!!!

[jayfox26]

23 hours ago, Tielemans63 said:

If the club are brave enough to give these youngsters a chance, I think some of the goodwill the club have drained out of the fanbase could be restored almost instantly.

 

I could happily live with not competing for automatic promotion if we had a young and hungry team fighting for the club. If you're good enough, you're old enough and a few of these lads look miles better than these overpaid dickheads who've got us relegated again.

 

*this was meant to just go in the match thread but I ****ed that right up  'vxxxxjjhfheehddjdod' wasn't a great title thread.

The decision to play the youth will be down the manager, not Top and Rudkin. The goodwill will be restored when either he sells up or he actually employs people to run the club that actually know what they are doing.

[scinnell]

In my opinion I'd be worried if youngsters other than Nelson and possibly, Monga were in our first staring XI. Yes, we know the unreal ability of Monga and others, but the next stage of their development is to introduce them from the bench and see that they can impact a game before we give them starts. We know that Mavididi and Fatawu are great options at Championship level and I don't think that should change at the beginning of the season, regardless of Monga's potential. You give them starts once they impact games from the bench - I'm sure they will get their chance with the amount of games we will play anyway.

Edited 13 July 2025 by scinnell

[coolhandfox]

13 minutes ago, scinnell said:

In my opinion I'd be worried if youngsters other than Nelson and possibly, Monga were in our first staring XI. Yes, we know the unreal ability of Monga and others, but the next stage of their development is to introduce them from the bench and see that they can impact a game before we give them starts. We know that Mavididi and Fatawu are great options at Championship level and I don't think that should change at the beginning of the season, regardless of Monga's potential. You give them starts once they impact games from the bench - I'm sure they will get their chance with the amount of games we will play anyway.

I'd chuck in Alves to that list, him and Nelson are more then ready, Monga is just a freak.

 

The rest I would be drip feeding in.

[HarryDee8]

47 minutes ago, sdb said:

Surely you didn't need the highlights to establish this!!!

I just thought under kingy and his fitness demands. Might see these guys actually become good.

 

But guess I was expecting too much

[Gloria]

I do worry that without the EPL protection VAR offers the youngers, that they will get the shite kicked out of them by some old Championship lags...

[Buzzell]

On 12/07/2025 at 15:28, Finnegan said:

I would absolutely love a generation of fantastic young players from our own academy. 

 

But I do think some of you need to calm down. Some of these kids are incredibly young and so far you've watched them play behind closed doors friendlies against two pub teams. 

 

Suppose this is a good opportunity for the young lads to show what they can do considering how shit we’ve done in the market. I do agree mind that we don’t need to get too carried away though. 

[Ryy]

We should be trying to move players like Silko and Wanya on as it’s pure profit and neither are good enough 

[TJB-fox]

On 12/07/2025 at 15:38, RyCleary said:

The mad thing is I think we're more likely to compete for promotion if we play them, not the other way

Has to be balance. Neither will work, has to be a middle ground. 

[TJB-fox]

15 minutes ago, Ryy said:

We should be trying to move players like Silko and Wanya on as it’s pure profit and neither are good enough 

How much we getting for them

currently? Not a lot 

[Ryy]

35 minutes ago, TJB-fox said:

How much we getting for them

currently? Not a lot 

Could get 2.5mil for both 

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, Ryy said:

Could get 2.5mil for both 

No chance! 

 

[Stadt]

4 hours ago, Gloria said:

I do worry that without the EPL protection VAR offers the youngers, that they will get the shite kicked out of them by some old Championship lags...

Think this is a bit outdated tbh. It’s not as if Fatawu was kicked to bits the other year. 

[mozartfox]

1 hour ago, Ryy said:

Could get 2.5mil for both 

Baht??

[LFEFox23]

Realistically, Nelson is the only one who can start for us week in week out, all the others need time or maybe even a loan.

[Gloria]

6 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Think this is a bit outdated tbh. It’s not as if Fatawu was kicked to bits the other year. 

I hope you're right 🙏

[Stadt]

13 minutes ago, LFEFox23 said:

Realistically, Nelson is the only one who can start for us week in week out, all the others need time or maybe even a loan.

Alves played well for Cardiff last season despite how bad they were. Thomas was thrown in at the deep in the PL and Aluko looks like he has better attributes than Thomas did at that age.

 

If Monga looks as good as he might be, even now, then he should start as many games as he can. We don't really have any natural forward thinking 8s so if Page can add something nobody else does then why shouldn't he start.

 

I've said similar before but if we had a 18 year old Messi on our books he'd have to prove himself on loan at Walsall first - according to some on FT