Fulham Academy Final Footage

[White Noise]

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/May/AcademyFinalHighlights.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XGAm8rMHjEo#!

[Travers Barney]

Good man White Noise.

Champions of England...how far we have come...was out in the evening with Gary Mulcahy who is working for the academy again...he spoke very enthusiastically about the current regime and the players coming through.

For me I thought Ryan Williams was our outstanding player on the day..

Maybe our golden era may turn into era's.

Here's hoping.

[cmg]

Thanks for that.

Mesca's going to be a handful if he can develop more clinical finishing.

Anybody got any idea how many goals Woodrow has scored this season for the u-18s ( he has  scored one for the Res)? He's obviously a very different type of striker than Trotta. I thought he was a great catch for us, but I would hope his numbers match up to Trotta's.

I've always been impressed by Minkwitz, very mature and composed. I don't know what Danny Murphy was like at 18 (he had played around 50 times for Crewe by then) - but Ronny has certainly got something to aim for.

[MOR :]

I went to the game and also thought the Captain Minkwitz was excellent, but special mention to the full backs Brister on the right and Kavanagh on the left who were very good. But the 2nd half performance of Buomesca Tue Na Banga was outstanding, so much better when he'd switched wings to the right.

The future looks very bright for Fulham...

[sunburywhite]

Funny enough Minkwitz reminded me of Murphy in the way he controlled things

Could be very exciting prospect

[MikeR]

Team looked bright overall. Pritchard's failed defensive headers (3:13 and 3:57) seemed notably out of place. Both could have both lead to goals on another day.

[valdeingruo]

I have been very excited at the idea of Minkiwitz breaking into the team, more so than any of the other youngsters because it takes one hell of a footballing brain to pull the strings in the center of midfield. Heres to hoping another youngster to break through, feels great seeing all of these prospects.

[White Noise]

Our final team this year -

Fulham Team: 1. Roberts, 2. Brister, 3. Kavanagh, 4. Christensen (15. Sambou 87 mins), 5. Grimmer, 6. Pritchard, 7. Williams (14. Banya 89 mins), 8. Minkwitz (c), 9. Woodrow (17. Gameiro 82 mins), 10. Altman, 11. Na Bangna

Subs: 14. Banya, 15. Sambou, 16. Tankovic, 17. Gameiro, 18. O'Reilly


Of the players above, the only ones I have not seen praised for either their performances in that game or others in the season are Gameiro, Sambou and Christensen - does anyone have any thoughts on them from what they have seen?

Other than that the team above is awash with quality youngsters and you can see why they won the title. Good to see recently that Omri Altman, Season Kavanagh and Jack Grimmer have all had international call ups too -

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/May/AcademyInternational.aspx

Its interesting to think back to what has happened to players from previous winning sides at other clubs. Everton have a great and sustained record at this level and players like Rodwell, Rooney, Barkley et al have obviously garced their first team. Though Everton have sold some of their youngsters there are others who have stayed. I think a comparison with Everton is not a far fetched objective for Fulham. This is probably not a team that will see Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Savage etc emerge but how much pleasure would we get from Fulham's own version of say Tony Hibbert. He was part of Everton's FA Youth Cup winning side of 98 and, though he has had plenty of injury problems in the 12 years he has been in the first team, he is a real cult hero with the fans and has pointed the way for a good number of other home grown youngsters into the team. At one time it seemed like the unlikeliest thing in the world but it owuld be great to see a player in the not too distant future spend their whole career at Fulham as Hibbert has at Everton. The interesting thing will be which youngsters are let go this summer. We have so many good youngster moving towards the first team that we will not be able to keep them all.

By way of comparison here are the match reports from last years final and this and below is the team we put out in last years final -

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/May/AcademyMatchReport.aspx

http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2011/May/AcademyFinalMatch.aspx


Fulham FC: Jesse Joronen, Cristian Marquez-Sanchez, Alex Smith, Josh Pritchard, Cheick Toure (Capt), Stephen Arthurworrey, Alex Brister, Ronny Minkwitz, Marcello Trotta, Kerim Frei, Courtney Harris

Subs: Grant Smith (GK), Richard Peniket, Charles Banya, Josh Passley, Corey Gameiro

Of last years team Trotta and Frei have obviously stepped up and the only ones no longer with the club are Cheick Toure and Cristian Marquez-Sanchez who both joined good quality clubs abroad -

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11681/7139543/Toure-taken-by-Lorient

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/transfer-news/Fulham-full-back-Cristian-Marquez-Sanchez-set-for-Spain-return-with-Malaga-article761602.html

So here's to the start of Fulham's Golden Generation! We may not be the Manchester United of the South but we may become the Everton of the South. And that would be one hell of an achievement.

[White Noise]

Individual Development


Thursday 17th May 2012




Fulham's U18 side capped off another fine season last weekend as they battled to a deserved 2-0 victory over a physical Blackburn Rovers outfit at Craven Cottage to be crowned 2011/12 Premier Academy League Champions.

The reaction of the players and fans at the final whistle emphasised what winning the trophy meant to the everyone involved with the Club, and Manager Kit Symons was delighted that his team triumphed at the Cottage, especially after losing last year's Final.

"Everyone in the changing rooms afterwards, as you would imagine, was very jubilant and extremely happy, and rightly so after a good season's work," he told fulhamfc.com. "For a lot of the boys it was the second time that they'd won their league which was a great achievement to do two years running.

"They narrowly lost in the Final last season so to go and win it this year was a culmination of two years' really hard work from them and I'm thrilled they've got a trophy to show for it in the end.

"Again, I still maintain that winning leagues and trophies is not what youth football is all about because individual development is the most important thing but, individually, I think they've all developed really, really well.

"So we're delighted with the progress the players have made but also, part of that individual development is the winning mentality and if you've got enough players with this winning mentality then you can't help but win games and win cups and win leagues."

The hard work isn't over for the Academy though as they compete in the Alstatten International U19 Football Tournament in Switzerland on Friday and Saturday.

"It's a European tournament with two groups of four teams and you play each team from your group," Kit explained. "On Friday we play our three games which are 20 minutes each way and then the teams that finish first and second in the group go into the Semi-Finals, with the Final on Saturday and we then fly back on the Sunday.

"Generally when we play these European tournaments most of them are U19 so we're able to take Josh Pritchard and Marcus Bettinelli who are two of the older boys, plus Buomesca [Tue Na Bangna], so we'll have a couple of older ones but we'll be pretty young on the whole. We're used to that though and I've got no qualms going into it because of the quality in the group.

"We come back on Sunday the 20th and then the boys are all off.  They've all got their programmes to keep themselves ticking over and keep them nice and fit and in good condition and we'll crack on again in July."


Read more: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2012/May/IndividualDevelopment.aspx#ixzz1v7s8Zlo9

[elgreenio]

I went to the game and also thought the Captain Minkwitz was excellent, but special mention to the full backs Brister on the right and Kavanagh on the left who were very good. But the 2nd half performance of Buomesca Tue Na Banga was outstanding, so much better when he'd switched wings to the right.

The future looks very bright for Fulham...

think you're looking at Brister through rose tinted specs a bit there, he got taken on a few times to let the winger right into our box and tried a few stupid tricks and flicks trying to beat his man in the wrong area, his old striking habits dying hard.

As for those you mention WN, Gameiro is pretty much the AJ of the youth team, works hard and runs the channels well, though he can be quite aggressive and get in the refs books a bit too much.

Sambou is the youngest mainstay in the under 18's, and boy does it show. Gets overawed in the big games easily leading to mistakes (he trod on the ball in our area in attempt to pass in the final just one example). He's a nice rotation option and shows his defensive qualities in the lesser games but ultimately not sure he'll even get to the ressies.

Christensen has got a better range of passing than Minkwitz in my opinion but that's all he's got at the moment, he's pretty slow so can't break quickly with the rest of the team and isn't physical or brave enough for the English game - just yet.

[MOR :]

think you're looking at Brister through rose tinted specs a bit there, he got taken on a few times to let the winger right into our box and tried a few stupid tricks and flicks trying to beat his man in the wrong area, his old striking habits dying hard.

Agreed a few times he made the wrong decisions in the wrong places but I thought when going forward he made some lovely runs. I wasn't aware he used to be a striker.

[elgreenio]

yeh, this was a while back though. He's certainly better going forward than he is defensively (though aren't most full backs nowadays). Doesn't think he endears himself to the fans with his words though, has the filthiest mouth in the team.

[SouthfieldWhite]

Good man White Noise.

Champions of England...how far we have come...was out in the evening with Gary Mulcahy who is working for the academy again...he spoke very enthusiastically about the current regime and the players coming through.

For me I thought Ryan Williams was our outstanding player on the day..

Maybe our golden era may turn into era's.

Here's hoping.

I like Williams too,Barney, loads of potential. Also I hope Mr Mulcahey put his hand in his pocket when at the bar ;-) he's a good lad really