Voinjama Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 People talk about the Manchester United team and how they won the league with kids. But if you look at the spine of the team. The goalkeeper, the 2 centre backs, the centre midfielder and striker. They were all 24 or older. Schmeichel, Pallister, Bruce, Keane, Cantona. Other members of their first team were 24 plus too. Irwin, Cole, Sharpe and David May. In conclusion they won the double with experience with 3 youngsters thrown in there. Anyone agree disagree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted March 16, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 16, 2012 butt, beckham, g. neville, p.neville, scholes and giggs all played a part. 6 is a lot to bring through all at the same time. if we get gardner, bannan, albrighton, herd, weimann and clark all playing a part in the first team we'll have done exceptionally well. plus there's the fonz, carruthers, johnson and another winger too whose name escapes me for the mo. not saying they'll all end up as starters but if we get 5 or 6 from the 10 or so knocking on the door we'll have done amazingly well. any more than that and the academy has completely excelled itself beyond any kind of reasonable expectations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I agree that those 6 contributed, but the way people say they won it with kids. Technically its not quite right. Plus Giggs actually came through about 4 years before the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaRoy Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Our exciting youth beat Ajax 3-0 in the NextGen series convincingly, a team which has played twice away since in the competition to Barca (in quarters) winning 3-0 and Liverpool (semis) winning 6-0. If it weren't for a shocking linesman against Marsielle and some terrible play acting by them, we'd have probably won that competition. Also to think pretty much all those players, bar Gardner are yet to make it to the first team, is quite an exciting prospect for the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted March 16, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 16, 2012 I agree that those 6 contributed, but the way people say they won it with kids. Technically its not quite right. Plus Giggs actually came through about 4 years before the others. yeah giggs was through first you're right. the winning with kids thing just comes from the hansen quote after they got beat with all the kids on the field. they weren't bit part players in the title thoguh that season. looks like we might be bringing through a similar number of first team quality players. the nextgen team we can count as a second batch i spose. as was said above only gardner has played in the first team from that team. carruthers has made the bench though i think? if we can have 5 or 6 senior players around their peak (28ish) to help bring them through could be exciting times ahead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Getting back to the Villa youth team, I was surprised to realise this week they haven't been much involved in the FA Youth Cup this season. Must have gone out quite some time ago. What went wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyClarke Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Young side, a little bit inexperienced and got knocked out 1-0 at Brighton after missing a hatful of chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Young side, a little bit inexperienced and got knocked out 1-0 at Brighton after missing a hatful of chances. We were much the better team and Brighton were delighted that we didn't have our shooting boots on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 That's a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaRoy Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Young side, a little bit inexperienced and got knocked out 1-0 at Brighton after missing a hatful of chances. We were much the better team and Brighton were delighted that we didn't have our shooting boots on. Probably had an eye on the NextGen series too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaz-Villan Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Glad weve kept hold of Daniel Johnson, how come he only got a year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I think that's standard for that age player but I'm not entirely sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 the nextgen team we can count as a second batch i spose. as was said above only gardner has played in the first team from that team. carruthers has made the bench though i think? Johnson definitely made the bench at the back end of last season I think. I would agree with your point. Its just a shame that McTool will probably be the man charged with bringing them through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaGoMarching Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I think for the good of our club and these young players, we need to back them to the hilt. Whether we like it or not, they are the players who'll keep us up, and they are the players who actually give a shit what division we play in next season. The biggest blow is that we wont' have Petrov to help them, the guy always to time out for the youngsters. Essentially Barry Bannan and Ireland are our senior midfielders. We've got to stay patient with them, they will make mistakes but by the same token they'll give there all, I honestly couldn't have seen a more experienced team coming from 2-0 down yesterday, and yes we lost it in the end but we can't let the kids get disheartened. They're effort was massively appreciated. This is a massive learning curve for them, and we have to back them all the way, Baker and Gardner switched off for both Ivanovic goals but they've learnt the hard way now. Regardless of who the manager is, we need to stay behind them, for the future of our club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daweii Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I said it a lot yesterday.. We threw the kids in at the deep end against a Chelsea side that has barely changed since they battered us 7-1 a few seasons back. To score 2 goals against that kind of competition with a side comprised with an outfield age average of 23 and factoring in Given an average age of 25 is great news for the future. I know it may sound defeatist but had we played this team against Stoke, Fulham, Newcastle etc.. We'd have probably won. Some posters on this forum are far too harsh.. Some said yesterday was the worst Villa performance they'd ever seen. What I saw was players for once playing slick passing football and smart lofted passes when required. Yes there was no cutting edge but it was a mixture of having many players out and playing Chelsea.. I thought yesterday was promising, yes we lost but the small things I saw were great.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 people ought to factor in a side thaty hasn't played often together as units against a chelsea side on the up on the back of champions league progress. The experience gulf was huge so expecting great things is harsh. Hoping, fine, but expecting? They've got a way to go but its harder coming into a team with no confidence as well. Still the experience should serve them well and I'm glad they're getting the opportunity. herd lichaj albrighton gardner wiemann clark and maybe bannan can all improve and have time to do so. They need help which an incompetent manager isn't providing, and as much as it may be seen as excuse making, the absence of dunne and petrov is a loss in terms of influence and the guiding hand. collins and ireland aren't captain material, and given can only do so much from goal. they've got a big challenge ahead of them, and I'm partly excited to see how they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macandally Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 We have a generation of youngsters coming through who potentially could define the club for the next 5-8 years. They need to be carefully managed but some of the interplay yesterday was good to watch. As for lacking penetration, I couldnt help feeling that they were held back. As soon as we lost the ball the majority of the players virtually ran back to our own box. We couldnt or didnt coherently press up the pitch. Can you imagine those young legs get in and about Jon Terry? We didnt target him with Gabby like we should have, expose him to pace. Same with Cahill, he has some qualities but to me, Cahill is a poor mans Jon Terry and if we had run at him he would have been all over the place. I guess what I am saying is that there is plenty of potential with these players. I rate Lichaj, Herd, Gardner, Wiemann and Albrighton. I think they can play, they just need to be let lose to go and play and therein lies the problem. They are not being allowed or put in the right position to play their natural game. We need a management team to bring these guys through, Grant and McLeish are not it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papillon Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 The thing about youth players is that it is impossible to say how much they will define the club as you say. All clubs would argue that their youth are as good as everyone elses, but just look at Arsenal and there are numerous examples of highly regarded players being laid off to mediocre Prem and Championship sides. Players with much more higher potential ability if we were to use the FM lingo. And also, those players are brought up to play with world-class players every day and gets to learn from Vieira, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Fabregas, Nasri et al. We have no players even remotely close to shining their boots, so the learning curve is even tougher to achieve. We have used the terms before, and we all know what happened to HUGE talents (in our own description) like Luke Moore and to a degree, Nathan Delfouneso. These were players we were branding as sure things to score 20 goals every season, but they are just nowhere near now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Very impressed with the players who have came through the ranks yesterday...I know some only played because of injuries but it is a good tribute to the club to see so many starting and so many more on the bench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YLN Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Villa v Liverpool Reserves is watchable online tonight. Starts at 7pm. VILLA: Siegrist, Webb, Donacien, Williams, Stevens, Grealish, Carruthers, Johnson, Cameron, Burke, Drennan. Subs: Ward, Barrett, Graham, Kinsella, Robinson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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