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U23 Development League 2021/2022


BOF

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1 hour ago, Xela said:

Its not really about winning games at this level is it? 

You have to get that winning mentality installed into their mindsets though. No point going into it thinking it’s just about the development of individuals. 

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12 minutes ago, Tayls said:

You have to get that winning mentality installed into their mindsets though. No point going into it thinking it’s just about the development of individuals. 

Our u23s are in the second division and finished in the bottom half of that last year. Yet look at our great youth players! The better players should be out on loan and the real young talents should be, I guess, in the u18s? Carney was in the u18s last season (FA Youth Cup) and now in the first team. I'm not sure how much exposure he had in the u23s?

edit: Chuk played a lot of u23 games as well! I'm confused :D 

 

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11 minutes ago, Xela said:

Our u23s are in the second division and finished in the bottom half of that last year. Yet look at our great youth players! The better players should be out on loan and the real young talents should be, I guess, in the u18s? Carney was in the u18s last season (FA Youth Cup) and now in the first team. I'm not sure how much exposure he had in the u23s?

edit: Chuk played a lot of u23 games as well! I'm confused :D 

 

I was under the impression that our U23s were pretty much all under the age of 20? And then our U18s were 15/16/17. I may be completely wrong, but I just have what Purslow said during one of his Q&A sessions stuck in my mind. 
Either way though - should all be about getting the win! 

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Last season we basically had two seperate U18 teams one that competed in the 18 League and another that competed in the U23 league, the team that we used in the U23 league featuring the likes of Barry, Chukwuemeka, Kesler Hayden and so on was also the team that we used in the FA Youth Cup, and one of the things that helped them do so well in that competition was the fact that they were used to playing against older and better players, whereas for the most part the opposition players were used to playing U18 league football.

At one point last season our U23s actually had a lower average age than our U18 team. This season it's slightly different as the U23s have started with a few older players (by our standards) like Archer, Thorndike Caleb Chukwuemeka, and Sinisalo yesterday, but at the season goes on I imagine they will be phased out to make way for younger players.

Winning is important but it's not be all and end all in Academy football, most important thing is the development of individuals either for our first team or so that they good enough to go and get a career somewhere else, last season we could have just kept the likes of Archer, Vassilev, Wright, Dominic Revan, Sinisalo and played them in the U23 league and won a lot more games and probably would have challenged for promotion, but that wouldn't have been good for their development and would have also meant blocking the progress of some of the youngers players.

Leeds last season won the U23 league quite comfortably, but they're not regarded as having one of the best academies, because their U23 team was full of players in their twenties and most weeks they'd play with two or three first teamers as well, in the U18 league where they had no choice but to play players under eighteen they finished near the bottom of the table.

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I watched the u23s on the official site last night, anyone could tell within 5 minutes that Josh Feeney is going to be a player. He has all of the ingredients to be a top player, he’s strong in the air and quite elegant and good on the ball too. It’s hard to believe that he is only 16 years old, he just looks class, he’s a centre back that we signed in the Summer from Fleetwood Townhouse 

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1 hour ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

I watched the u23s on the official site last night, anyone could tell within 5 minutes that Josh Feeney is going to be a player. He has all of the ingredients to be a top player, he’s strong in the air and quite elegant and good on the ball too. It’s hard to believe that he is only 16 years old, he just looks class, he’s a centre back that we signed in the Summer from Fleetwood Townhouse 

At this rate he could end up touching 7ft tall too!

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Does anyone else think that our academy doesn’t seem overly focused on results? It seems to me that they frequently play people out of their normal position on purpose. Perhaps to give them more experience etc.

Several of the youth players going on loan have said that playing in the lower leagues is different from academy football because it all about the result rather than the performance.

For this reason I don’t see us winning the U23 league this season 

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2 hours ago, mallett said:

For this reason I don’t see us winning the U23 league this season 

We finished towards the bottom of the 2nd division last season

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On 28/08/2021 at 21:56, mallett said:

Does anyone else think that our academy doesn’t seem overly focused on results? It seems to me that they frequently play people out of their normal position on purpose. Perhaps to give them more experience etc.

Several of the youth players going on loan have said that playing in the lower leagues is different from academy football because it all about the result rather than the performance.

For this reason I don’t see us winning the U23 league this season 

We shouldn’t be winning the U23 league either - the other clubs basically have 21 year olds as their sides.

I often lookout for our U23 side on betting sites (due to lots of goals :D) and we’re rarely the favourites in games. Middlesbrough U23 were odds on against us and Fulham were slight favourites too. Yet here we are, unbeaten from our first three and 2nd in the table. 

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23 minutes ago, BOF said:

I'll be updating the front page stats later. I've been recovering from surgery so everything was put on the back burner :thumb:

 Get better soon chief - some things are more important than updating threads 👍This is arguably one of those times 

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Front page stats updated with Boro win and Flum draw. Next up is tomorrow's Papa John's trophy tie away to Wycombe Wanderers at 19:00.

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The Villa website has been updated with all (most) of the new u18 players in their kits. A few new names there for me. 

Patterson not on there but I assume thats because he's under 16? 

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19 minutes ago, BOF said:

Front page stats updated with Boro win and Flum draw. Next up is tomorrow's Papa John's trophy tie away to Wycombe Wanderers at 19:00.

Hope you're feeling better. 👍

ps You haven't got a GK listed as playing in the Fulham game :)

 

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6 minutes ago, Xela said:

Hope you're feeling better. 👍

ps You haven't got a GK listed as playing in the Fulham game :)

 

I am thanks.  And thanks for spotting that ! Random excel blank formula-itis. I had him in but it wasn't seeing him :thumb:

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If there's no Premier League Cup this season then I'll cover the Birmingham County FA Senior Challenge Cup on the front page as the 3rd featured competition, as it does contain under 23s. At present there is no sign of a Premier League Cup happening. If there is a Premier League Cup then the Challenge Cup will have to make do with the academy thread.

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13 minutes ago, useless said:

There's a Premier League Cup for U23s but we're not taking part...

We're in the U16, U17, and U18 versions though.

Ahha, well that settles that then. Thanks, I'd missed that through my usual channels.

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