Academy/Development/Youth Squads/U18/U21 2026/2027

[coolhandfox]

3 minutes ago, davieG said:

But both were interrupted by serious injuries and are only just fully recovered, hopefully so we'll never know what might have been especially as we've been shockingly bad over that period.

 

29 minutes ago, Phil_Dunphy said:

Agree but Alves has made 6 first team appearances. Albeit mainly a few minutes each.

I know, but I'm not sure we can honestly say that we've had a strong player development pathway into the first team over the last few years.

 

It's only now, arguably more through necessity than design, that we're seeing players like Braybrooke, Alves, Aluko and others being given opportunities.

 

Hopefully, that starts to change the perception and creates a more consistent route from the academy to the senior squad.

[davieG]

11 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

 

I know, but I'm not sure we can honestly say that we've had a strong player development pathway into the first team over the last few years.

 

It's only now, arguably more through necessity than design, that we're seeing players like Braybrooke, Alves, Aluko and others being given opportunities.

 

Hopefully, that starts to change the perception and creates a more consistent route from the academy to the senior squad.

Sure but have we had those players to develop KDH, Barnes, Thomas, McAteer, Stolarczyk have all come through with relatively decent levels of success  and Nyoni / Noubissie who chose to leave who else has missed out?

 

[coolhandfox]

8 minutes ago, davieG said:

Sure but have we had those players to develop KDH, Barnes, Thomas, McAteer, Stolarczyk have all come through with relatively decent levels of success  and Nyoni / Noubissie who chose to leave who else has missed out?

 

I 100% agree they've done a good job, but not to the extent that I'm surprised when players decide to jump ship.

 

For the club to survive in its current predicament, it's not enough to simply be good. We need to be great. That's the reality of the situation.

 

Take Bassey and Maswanhise as examples. One has gone on to become a decent Premier League centre-back, while the other ended up as the top scorer in the Scottish Premiership. Neither really got a sniff here.

[davieG]

6 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

I 100% agree they've done a good job, but not to the extent that I'm surprised when players decide to jump ship.

 

For the club to survive in its current predicament, it's not enough to simply be good. We need to be great. That's the reality of the situation.

 

Take Bassey and Maswanhise as examples. One has gone on to become a decent Premier League centre-back, while the other ended up as the top scorer in the Scottish Premiership. Neither really got a sniff here.

Bassey wanted out because he wanted to a FB but has ended up as a CB anyway. Maswanhhise may prove to be successful outside the Scottish Premier if that's a measure of our failure I can live with that.

 

As for the 2 that jumped ship there's little we could do about that we're never, ever going to compete with the likes of Liverpool and Man City and we'll have to wait and see if they made the correct decision. Also even they lose players who can't get a look in.

 

Of course we need to be better but that applies across the whole club and you could argue that our Academy success has been badly affected by the poor performance of the Senior level of the club soi in the circumstance the Academy and it's staff have performed very well.

[Holly B]

5 hours ago, D_Fox said:

Man city 

Along with two of our u14’s

[BKLFox]

7 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

I 100% agree they've done a good job, but not to the extent that I'm surprised when players decide to jump ship.

 

For the club to survive in its current predicament, it's not enough to simply be good. We need to be great. That's the reality of the situation.

 

Take Bassey and Maswanhise as examples. One has gone on to become a decent Premier League centre-back, while the other ended up as the top scorer in the Scottish Premiership. Neither really got a sniff here.

Are we still using Bassey as stick to beat us with, he’s 27 this year and already peaked he will go no further than Fulham & what have Fulham done they haven’t finished in the top 10 since he’s been there after bouncing relegation/ promotions, I think I can make my peace with Bassey turning us down to move on.

His greatest achievement since leaving us is playing for Nigeria and I’m sure that would have happened if he stayed.

[coolhandfox]

44 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

Are we still using Bassey as stick to beat us with, he’s 27 this year and already peaked he will go no further than Fulham & what have Fulham done they haven’t finished in the top 10 since he’s been there after bouncing relegation/ promotions, I think I can make my peace with Bassey turning us down to move on.

His greatest achievement since leaving us is playing for Nigeria and I’m sure that would have happened if he stayed.

They finished 10th last season and he's never been relegated or promoted with them.

 

As you were.

[BKLFox]

32 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

They finished 10th last season and he's never been relegated or promoted with them.

 

As you were.

11th 🤷‍♂️ 

My point about relegation & promotion was to point out a yo-yo club whose best position in the past 14 season was the 10th during 22/23.

but yay he’s in the premier league pushing 27 so he must have made the right decision 👏 

 

[coolhandfox]

51 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

11th 🤷‍♂️ 

My point about relegation & promotion was to point out a yo-yo club whose best position in the past 14 season was the 10th during 22/23.

but yay he’s in the premier league pushing 27 so he must have made the right decision 👏 

 

So he's essentially a mid table Premier League CB. In the meantime, we’ve wasted around £57m on center backs who aren't Premier League quality (£13m on Vestergaard, £15m on Faes, £14m on Okoli, and £15m on Souttar).

 

This proves my point: establishing a clear pipeline from the academy to the first team is vital to our future fortunes.

 

Whilst you are more interested in mocking the club he end up at 

 

 

[SemperEadem]

 

[lcfc sheff]

Jesus wept people looking into the transfer dealings of a 14 year old boy 

[Ian Nacho]

29 minutes ago, SemperEadem said:

 

How many of these 14 year old prospects actually turn out to be anything half decent? Obviously the more you have the better but a lot of top players tend to steadily progress. 

[honeybradger]

11 minutes ago, Ian Nacho said:

How many of these 14 year old prospects actually turn out to be anything half decent? Obviously the more you have the better but a lot of top players tend to steadily progress. 

Motsi was the last big name 14 year old we had and he did well at u21 level last season. Sadly looks like he is gone as well.

 

I think this situation is going to be happening more and more because of the level of talent we are producing. Hopefully we at least manage to keep a couple of them.

[Stadt]

18 minutes ago, Ian Nacho said:

How many of these 14 year old prospects actually turn out to be anything half decent? Obviously the more you have the better but a lot of top players tend to steadily progress. 

Sterling moved early, so did Sancho. Most players don’t make it but the EV is there 

[st albans fox]

53 minutes ago, SemperEadem said:

 

Must be close to breaking the rules on travel at 14 y o