Leicester Lass Posted 16 February 2007 Posted 16 February 2007 Academy Battle Past Bluebirds Leicester City's under 18 side extended their lead at the top of the Group B table to six points following a well deserved 2-1 victory at Cardiff City on Thursday afternoon. Kick off for the game had to be delayed after the Foxes got caught up in heavy traffic on the M5. But Steve Beaglehole's young charges didn't let that effect their preparations, registering their 14th victory from 19 games this season to date. City took the lead just before the break - French winger Max Gradel bursting through to set up Andy King for his ninth goal of the campaign. And the Foxes doubled their advantage through Eric Ohdiambo in the second period - with Gradel again involved in the build up. The home side grabbed a goal back in the closing stages, but the Foxes comfortably held on for the win. Walkers Youth Academy Manager Jon Rudkin said: "In all fairness it wasn't a great, but the lads dug deep to register the victory in difficult circumstances. "Obviously the delay didn't help either side, and the pitch was tricky. But all in all we deserved the victory on the day." City: Pentney, Magunda, Lycett, Garner (Cobb), Rowe-Turner, Rochester (Cox), King, Tejan-Si, Gradel, Odhiambo, McKay.
STUHILL Posted 16 February 2007 Posted 16 February 2007 It's great to see him scoring BUT it is at under 18 level, will save my judgement till he gets a run-out with the big boys!
Simi Posted 16 February 2007 Posted 16 February 2007 Gradel was very good against Northampton in the week. Not surprised that he is doing well for the youth team. Hopefully in a couple of years he can actually get a chance. As for King I have never really seen him play but if he keeps scoring well done to him.
Floating Fox Posted 16 February 2007 Posted 16 February 2007 Leave Thracian alone Good to see the Youth team still doing well!
Thracian Posted 16 February 2007 Posted 16 February 2007 It's not me needs convincing. We've tried all sorts in there to no great effect... Williams - 15 starts, limited effect, one goal, not many assists (no longer here). Weso - 8 starts, limited effect, one goal, not many assists (still not fully fit). Tiatto - 24 starts, solid contribution, one goal, assists from free kicks, few from open play (injured). Hughes - 26 starts, solid contribution, three goals, occasional assist (injured). Johnson - 13 starts, pretty awful, no goals, no assists that I can recall. None of the above can head the ball, none of them are particularly accurate at shooting (neither is King but he does have an extraordinary number of shots for a midfielder), none play truly incisive passes, none get deep into the opposition box. And the only guy who does all those things at a time we've needed such a person more than any other single thing in our team, doesn't even get a look in - not even a place on the bench. Perhaps Beaglehole keeps talking him down in case he loses him. Cos he sure has no-one similar to replace him in the Academy team and they'd have a much harder task winning that League without him. In fact had he not been part of the side I doubt they'd be top now because, apart from his own 9-goal contribution, he figures in so many other goals. Positive footballer. Effective! Week in, week out. If all of those essentially ordinary players are ahead of King in the queue, I'm quite sure that with rent-a-team arriving almost daily with new personnel, young King need hold no hopes of promotion for a good while yet. PS: 2-1 was a bit different to the 8-0 tanking we gave em at our place!
Leonisco Posted 16 February 2007 Posted 16 February 2007 Considering our lack of midfield options, I think it's definitely time he was given a chance.
North-LondonFox Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thracian knows his stuff. Too many people would prefer not to try a young player and would rather stick with mediocrity than try a youngster who might not be brilliant at first but has real potential. Amazing to read about how players viewed King and Gradel.
shailen Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Wow the likes of stephen hughes and danny tiatto being our best players! We have moved on since then
FoxesFan123 Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thrac definitely knows his stuff! Lot of posters on here give him a hard time, looking at this forum for years and Thacians input is something I always respect.
Fatbloke Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thrac definitely knows his stuff! Lot of posters on here give him a hard time, looking at this forum for years and Thacians input is something I always respect. Really ??? he get`s ZERO respect from me, he know`s sweet FA and talks crap 99% of the time !
MPH Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thrac definitely knows his stuff! Lot of posters on here give him a hard time, looking at this forum for years and Thacians input is something I always respect. Thracian has backed more than Just Andy king to be a success at the club.... he had to get one right eventually... most of them dissapear down the leagues never to be seen again...
Thracian Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Really ??? he get`s ZERO respect from me, he know`s sweet FA and talks crap 99% of the time ! What's happened Fatbloke? Tried to get it up and couldn't reach? Just laugh and give her a cuddle. it's less messy and will probably last longer. Oh yes, and have a great day!
Thracian Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thrac definitely knows his stuff! Lot of posters on here give him a hard time, looking at this forum for years and Thacians input is something I always respect. Thanks 123 - be interesting now to see if Schlupp can join the list. In the years I've seen him it's hard to remember a single game when he didn't make some major contibution by way of goal or assist. King and Gradel were the same.
Babylon Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thanks 123 - be interesting now to see if Schlupp can join the list. In the years I've seen him it's hard to remember a single game when he didn't make some major contibution by way of goal or assist. King and Gradel were the same. Thrac you have championed that many youngsters odds were you were going to get one right eventually.
hebangsthedrums Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 I won £40 on a race this morning! Spent £57 backing 2/3 of the runners though On serious note, are there any of these lads other than King, Gradel Rowe-Turner & McKay playing league football. Disregarding who they play for - would be interesting to see stats on % of YT players from various clubs that end up making a career out of the game.
deep blue Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 I won £40 on a race this morning! Spent £57 backing 2/3 of the runners though On serious note, are there any of these lads other than King, Gradel Rowe-Turner & McKay playing league football. Disregarding who they play for - would be interesting to see stats on % of YT players from various clubs that end up making a career out of the game. Billy Kee at Torquay.
dhermon Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 I won £40 on a race this morning! Spent £57 backing 2/3 of the runners though On serious note, are there any of these lads other than King, Gradel Rowe-Turner & McKay playing league football. Disregarding who they play for - would be interesting to see stats on % of YT players from various clubs that end up making a career out of the game. Eric Odhiambo plays in scotland for Inverness
lcfcsnow Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Eric Odhiambo plays in scotland for Inverness With Lee Cox whos doing quite well.
Stadt Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 I won £40 on a race this morning! Spent £57 backing 2/3 of the runners though On serious note, are there any of these lads other than King, Gradel Rowe-Turner & McKay playing league football. Disregarding who they play for - would be interesting to see stats on % of YT players from various clubs that end up making a career out of the game. Worley scored an own goal the other day in League 2 i think.
Finnegan Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Thracian knows his stuff. Too many people would prefer not to try a young player and would rather stick with mediocrity than try a youngster who might not be brilliant at first but has real potential. Amazing to read about how players viewed King and Gradel. Nonsense. Despite his protestations, all too many posters on Foxes Talk are well aware he's given his backing to far more flops than successes. Getting one right every now and then when you sing the praises of the majority of the academy isn't great vision, it's probability. There's a reason it's Fez writing regularly for the Mockery. Love to read his views on our youth products, endlessly more grounded, down to Earth and rational.
deep blue Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Worley scored an own goal the other day in League 2 i think. Louis Dodds scored for Port Vale today.
Thracian Posted 5 March 2011 Posted 5 March 2011 Nonsense. Despite his protestations, all too many posters on Foxes Talk are well aware he's given his backing to far more flops than successes. Getting one right every now and then when you sing the praises of the majority of the academy isn't great vision, it's probability. There's a reason it's Fez writing regularly for the Mockery. Love to read his views on our youth products, endlessly more grounded, down to Earth and rational. It's a good job you don't work for the Mercury - with your selective interpretation of what amounts to truth and your clear misunderstanding of the word "backing". The reality was basically this:- Richard Stearman (Backed wholeheartedly and suggested, along with DavieG that he would make a good centre-half which is where he now plays for Wolves in the Premiership). James Wesolowski (Backed strongly although in the end I didn't think he'd recover sufficiently from his injury woes to commnd a place as a first choice midfielder. Still played regularly in the Scottish Premier League though.) Levi Porter (Backed strongly and he had a perfectly reasonable first season in the Championship scoring and making goals plus having an excellent match in the cup against Chelsea. It was nothing to do with football that his career ended so abrubtly). Andy King (Backed strongly from way back including many pleas for Holloway to use him to boost our attacking options. Had he done so all the evidence suggests we would never have gone down by the one point we did). Max Gradel (Backed strongly from the time he was playing in our title-winning Academy team with King. He scored in something like 16 successive matches and it was obvious he was a natural finisher...and a winner. His success at Leeds hasn't surprised me at all. Fifteen goals in 40 matches from the wing while we've struggled for goals all round. And Fatbloke says it's me knows sod all) Alan Sheehan (Backed strongly. I liked his specialist corners and free-kicks and believe we badly needed those kills in our side and that he was essentially a more effective player than Mattock. In the end his habit of getting sent off when wingers expose his vulnerability on the turn has probably overshadowed anything he does as an attack-minded defender or with his dead ball kicks. He's not done as well as I expected). Joe Mattock (I never rated him very highly and that's been bourne out as time has gone on - in more ways than one). Louis Dodds (It's a Finnegan myth that I rated this guy. I simply said he deserved a chance ahead of Cadamarteri and Horsfield because he'd score more goals. I think he's proved that since, albeit at a lower level and the level I expected him to reach). Chris O'Grady (Rochdale. Chris was another I thought had more to offer than some we were picking at the time and I think we discarded him too early - especially considering how we struggled to score goals under Kelly and Holloway. In the event he's been leading scorer at Rochdale for a while with 33 goals in 70 matches to date. Not exactly a flop) Jeff Schlupp (I've rated him from the first day I watched him several seasons back and see no reason he shouldn't play for our first team or in the Championship for Leeds if they fail to get up! Ryan Beswick (This lad always seemed to score or make goals and I thought him far better than Laczkco who got the shirt for a while. Plagued by injury, disillusioned during the foreign legion invasion of Kaebi and co under Mandaric Beswick seemed to fall out with Taggart before disappearing into non-League. ). Ashley Chambers (I thought he had a chance with his pace and skill until he suffered two serious injuries. I still hope that he can emerge but I'd not bet on it. The injuries were quite long term). Conrad Logan (I thought him a perfectly adequate goalkeeping understudy at one time but have had second thoughts about that). And to demolish another myth I said lots of Academy players wouldn't make it here, including Odhiambo and McKay, and also said the same about seniors like Kaebi, Lackzco, Bori and Djeziri etc from day one even though we still had to put up with people capaigning for the the first two to be included). Oh yes, and because we desperately needed some pace in the side I said Hammond was our best option as a second striker at a time when we were using some real plonkers up front. But there was no question I'd have ever signed the bloke as a preferred choice in the first place or that, bizarrely, I'd have ever done so when we could have carried on playing him as a loanee anyway. Odhiambo and Cox have been mentioned already in the thread so apologies if I've missed anyone else (it isn't deliberate) but at least people can draw their own conclusions. Oh yes and I'd agree about enjoying Fez's comments cos I do too. My own stint with the Mercury ended before you were born!
Finnegan Posted 6 March 2011 Posted 6 March 2011 Louis Dodds (It's a Finnegan myth that I rated this guy. That there quote basically sums it up. Yes, me and only me. I'm the only person that remembers the constant ravings about the club's best finisher. At least I admit (and am happy to parody) my obvious biases, the blinkered Tony Land you sometimes live in is genuinely alarming.
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