Academy General Topic

[useless]

Albeit they've lost the last two, U18 form has actually improved in the new year, before then they were gettting thrashed, often conceding at least five goals on a regular basis, at least they've been a little defensively better recently and are now picking up the odd result.

U23s form dipped after January when all the better players left to go out on loan, most weeks now they put out a mismatched team.

Results are a secondary concern for the academy teams anyway, if we really wanted to at the start of season we could have decided to put out a U18 team probably more than capable of winning the league, we also have could decided to put out a U23 team capable of a much better go of promotion, but far better for their individual development for the best U18 players to play an age up even it means the U18 results suffering, and same for the best U23 players, far better for them to either go out on loan or to become part of the first team squad.

Another thing to bear in mind is how good the academy teams are can vary from season to season based on how good the new scholars coming through are, there will always be at least one or two standouts, but some groups will be better than others. We were kind of spoilt with the group that came through and won the FA Youth cup, not always going to have that many good players coming through from the U16s all at the same time, but I think over the last couple of years we've started hoovering up a lot of talent in the lower age groups, some of the best players from local rivals as well as from further afield, so eventually we should get better groups of players coming from our U16s.

Yet another factor is that the academy teams have been really unlucky with injuries, off the top of my head, Aaron O'Reilly, Swinkels, Patterson, Barnes, Frith, Burchall, Shakpoke have all had lengthy spells out, they're some of our best academy players, and there are others besides those that have also missed a lot of the season.

[useless]

Taylor-Jay Hart has been offered a professional contract according to Gregg Evans, I expect he will sign as seems he and his family are big Villa fans, saw pictures of them on twitter all at the play-final against Derby, was apparently named after Ian Taylor.

Also didn't realize that Lindley is another we got from West Brom, I knew he was at Man City at one time and I think Blackburn when he was really young, but I thought we signed him straight from City.

[maqroll]

 

[messi11]

On 18/04/2022 at 19:32, MWARLEY2 said:

Yep it has been noticed. More to do with lack of players of a certain age i reckon. All the good 18 and 19 year olds are with the first team or on loan apart from Lindley and Brad Young currently. Difficult to compete against teams on average 2 years older than us with a defence that tends to be either 16 or 17 or sometimes 18. 

But yes. We are losing far more often since Gerrard came in. 

The kids know Gerrard wont play them until they're 29+ in age so that could be the factor

[useless]

 

[MaVilla]

1 minute ago, useless said:

 

where on earth is Shakpoke?, it feels like he has only played a couple of games for us, and being injured 95% of the time?

[useless]

He's been injured, picked up an injury at the end of last season and looked like a really bad one, was in ieg braces and on crutches, working his way back to fitness, but unfortunately this season has pretty much been a write off for him.

[messi11]

2 hours ago, MaVilla said:

where on earth is Shakpoke?, it feels like he has only played a couple of games for us, and being injured 95% of the time?

Yeah unlucky, It happens to a lot of players. they get injured a lot.

[useless]

I see the club are advertising for a Senior Academy Sports Scientist, part of the description of the role and the first thing mentioned is 'optimising player availability', seems like they've taken note of all the lengthy injuries we've been getting at academy level and trying to bring someone who can come in and help us do something about it.

[7392craig]

@sir_gary_cahillDo you think any of the current crop of youngsters look like they might be ready to start for us next season?

[sir_gary_cahill]

21 minutes ago, 7392craig said:

@sir_gary_cahillDo you think any of the current crop of youngsters look like they might be ready to start for us next season?

Different players develop at different rates, no 2 players develop at the same rate. Even the great Jack Grealish went out on loan to Notts County before establishing himself in our first team. Our current set of young players are probably the best I’ve seen but I remember saying that about the Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Easah Suliman, Andre Green, Matija Sarkic, Jake Doyle-Hayes, Keinan Davis and Mitchell Clark group. The likes of Tim Iroegbunam, Aaron Ramsey, Louie Barry all have a real chance, I find myself saying that about a lot of young players. What about you craig7392? Do you think any of our current young players might be ready to start for our first team next season?

Edited April 24, 2022 by sir_gary_cahill

[7392craig]

29 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

Different players develop at different rates, no 2 players develop at the same rate. Even the great Jack Grealish went out on loan to Notts County before establishing himself in our first team. Our current set of young players are probably the best I’ve seen but I remember saying that about the Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Easah Suliman, Andre Green, Matija Sarkic, Jake Doyle-Hayes, Keinan Davis and Mitchell Clark group. The likes of Tim Iroegbunam, Aaron Ramsey, Louie Barry all have a real chance, I find myself saying that about a lot of young players. What about you craig7392? Do you think any of our current young players might be ready to start for our first team next season?

I don’t know enough about most of our youngsters, I’ll admit. Ramsey looks like he could develop into a real gem, I think Carney when I’ve watched him is always the standout player. I really have my fingers crossed on Louie Barry coming good.

[MWARLEY2]

The great thing about our youngsters is that they really are youngsters.

Chrisene 18 Iroegbunam 18 O'Reilly 18 Chukwuemeka 18 Bogarde 18 Feeney 16 Barry 18 Kesler 19 Aaron Ramsey 19

Then look at Cameron Archer who is 20 now. And how much he improved over the last 12 months. If those above continue to develop then we have some exciting times to look forward to.

Some will fall by the wayside for sure but some of these will become  premier league players. It is in the lap of the gods and their personality whether they will turn into really really good players. 

 

[Villa_Vids]

9 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

The great thing about our youngsters is that they really are youngsters.

Chrisene 18 Iroegbunam 18 O'Reilly 18 Chukwuemeka 18 Bogarde 18 Feeney 16 Barry 18 Kesler 19 Aaron Ramsey 19

Then look at Cameron Archer who is 20 now. And how much he improved over the last 12 months. If those above continue to develop then we have some exciting times to look forward to.

Some will fall by the wayside for sure but some of these will become  premier league players. It is in the lap of the gods and their personality whether they will turn into really really good players. 

 

Yeah. Gone are the days when we had 23 year old Jordan Lyden winning an u18 trophy ( in which he celebrated on Instagram like a world cup ) but him being classed as a young player.  Then he is loaned out  to a lower league club with a big ego because the club didn't manage his development correctly. 

Full credit to Mark Harrison. I don't think we will see the true fruits of his work until later too, possibly five years down the line. Very positive indeed.

[MaVilla]

57 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

The great thing about our youngsters is that they really are youngsters.

Chrisene 18 Iroegbunam 18 O'Reilly 18 Chukwuemeka 18 Bogarde 18 Feeney 16 Barry 18 Kesler 19 Aaron Ramsey 19

Then look at Cameron Archer who is 20 now. And how much he improved over the last 12 months. If those above continue to develop then we have some exciting times to look forward to.

Some will fall by the wayside for sure but some of these will become  premier league players. It is in the lap of the gods and their personality whether they will turn into really really good players. 

 

You can prob add Kerr Smith (17), to that list mate, in terms of genuine talent.

 

[MWARLEY2]

1 hour ago, Villa_Vids said:

 

Full credit to Mark Harrison. I don't think we will see the true fruits of his work until later too, possibly five years down the line. Very positive indeed.

Fully agree with this. We fluked it with an oustanding set of youngsters winning the fa youth cup. But the fruits of what Mark Harrison will do is 5 or 10 years down the line. He now has the budget to go and ensure that every single young player in the Birmingham area  with potentiall is offered the chance to play for Villa. No more missed chances . 

I see us ending up like Chelsea with alot of players coming through every year but it will take some time. 

[MWARLEY2]

32 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

You can prob add Kerr Smith (17), to that list mate, in terms of genuine talent.

 

I forgot Bidace as  well. So many of them 

[OutByEaster?]

There's also a fair bit of talk that we're going to be recruiting pretty aggressively this summer.

Incidentally, what happened to that young striker from Rangers and the links to him?

[villa4europe]

Rory Wilson

Several papers said it was close but it wasn't done, not much on it now other than a report a few weeks back saying rangers might give him his debut in an attempt to get him to stay 

[useless]

Broggio started for England U15 today agaist Chile U15, they won 5-0, he provided two assists. The game was streamed on facebook, wish I had known as would have watched it and posted a link on here in case anyone else interested. The game against Italy on Wednesday is apparently also going to be streamed I will keep a look out.

Max Lott, Ashton McWilliams, and Alexander Hammond not in the squad as far as I know, but I think they're younger and were in the December camp as that was a bigger group for the purposes of looking at some of the younger players. Triston Rowe, and Proctor still qualify for the U15s, as still play for us at that level sometimes, but promoted to U16s at international level.