Whats happened to our U21 squad ?

[Riversider]

Looking at our player profiles on the official site, it reveals that weve got an U21 squad that consists of just TEN players !!!
2 Keepers, 3 Defenders, 5 Midfielders and NO Forwards !!
The development squad have just had a number of pre season friendlies with an average age of about 17, our Development squad has just been relegated to Division 2 if we dont find some additions soon then I fancy us to finish bottom of that division,
Whats happened to our conveyor belt of talent, any ideas ?

[alexbishop]

Need to retain our Category A Academy status too...

thought we would be recruiting in this area this summer

[mike_corkcity12]

We signed a keeper yesterday on a free transfer from Accrington. Still very stuck for players. As MJG has pointed out, our u21 teams that have played pre-season have a very young average age. Hope Khan isn't skimping on investing in the youth level, especially as it is not subject to FFP.

[ToodlesMcToot]

I noticed this without actually looking at the rosters. The team reports for the U21s' games have had several U18s in them. I was thinking how advanced some of our U18's must be and got excited. Never thought it would be because our U21 ranks were so light in numbers.

Hope that we are focusing on continuing populating the youth ranks more than we appear to be.

[MJG]

Posted this on another thread but I wrote this today

http://www.vivaelfulham.co.uk/under-21-s/next-on-the-horizon-16-620.html

[MJG]

Looking at our player profiles on the official site, it reveals that weve got an U21 squad that consists of just TEN players !!!
2 Keepers, 3 Defenders, 5 Midfielders and NO Forwards !!
The development squad have just had a number of pre season friendlies with an average age of about 17, our Development squad has just been relegated to Division 2 if we dont find some additions soon then I fancy us to finish bottom of that division,
Whats happened to our conveyor belt of talent, any ideas ?

The conveyor belt is still there,  it's just that a number of key ones have already moved off it. So we have what I consider a two season gap now till another breaks through.

[MJG]

Rest assured that Jennings is working on bringing in more players In the areas we are short in.

[ToodlesMcToot]

Looking at our player profiles on the official site, it reveals that weve got an U21 squad that consists of just TEN players !!!
2 Keepers, 3 Defenders, 5 Midfielders and NO Forwards !!
The development squad have just had a number of pre season friendlies with an average age of about 17, our Development squad has just been relegated to Division 2 if we dont find some additions soon then I fancy us to finish bottom of that division,
Whats happened to our conveyor belt of talent, any ideas ?

The conveyor belt is still there,  it's just that a number of key ones have already moved off it. So we have what I consider a two season gap now till another breaks through.

Rest assured that Jennings is working on bringing in more players In the areas we are short in.

Would you expect that Jennings would acquiesce somewhat to that, possibly, two season gap and bring in mostly players to make up numbers (obviously continuing to look for potential) at the U21's and focus more on that up and coming group of U18's?

From where I stand, we have pushed a large number (too many?) of our U21s thru to the first team because of the dynamics of last season. Now it seems that we are still trying to cope with that, figuring out who is going to leave for "bigger" things no matter, who we truly want to keep and build future squads around, and who may have skipped too many steps in their progression and will have to step back in some way.

[MJG]

Looking at our player profiles on the official site, it reveals that weve got an U21 squad that consists of just TEN players !!!
2 Keepers, 3 Defenders, 5 Midfielders and NO Forwards !!
The development squad have just had a number of pre season friendlies with an average age of about 17, our Development squad has just been relegated to Division 2 if we dont find some additions soon then I fancy us to finish bottom of that division,
Whats happened to our conveyor belt of talent, any ideas ?

The conveyor belt is still there,  it's just that a number of key ones have already moved off it. So we have what I consider a two season gap now till another breaks through.

Rest assured that Jennings is working on bringing in more players In the areas we are short in.

Would you expect that Jennings would acquiesce somewhat to that, possibly, two season gap and bring in mostly players to make up numbers (obviously continuing to look for potential) at the U21's and focus more on that up and coming group of U18's?

From where I stand, we have pushed a large number (too many?) of our U21s thru to the first team because of the dynamics of last season. Now it seems that we are still trying to cope with that, figuring out who is going to leave for "bigger" things no matter, who we truly want to keep and build future squads around, and who may have skipped too many steps in their progression and will have to step back in some way.

We have an age gap in the squad. I know the club have a lot of faith in the 15/16 year olds. So its a case of building for a couple of years to get back to a normal level of u18's in the right group and u21's.
The promotion of all the ones involved in the first team has caused this as you say.

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[Riversider]

As I said before, Pat Roberts will do extremely well to get starts for Man City's development squad, its a huge step up from where he has come from,
The likes of Woodrow and Dembele should be told that they are Development players with a potential for first team football, crazy that our youngsters can go from U18 to being told they are now in the first team squad without building up any miles in U21 football , its a policy that needs to change as once youve filled their heads with "you are now in the first team squad" (to keep them happy) it then becomes really difficult to ask them to play a game for their own age group.

[MasterHaynes]

So how come Deano was made Captain yet is only on a 6 month deal? I'm completely confused at what on the face of it seems a succession of bizarre decisions over the last 15 months in the academy which has led to relegation of the U21's last season. The U18's would have suffered the same fate if the new cat A rules were not in place and it looks like we face exactly the same this season.
Just put myself in the shoes of a talented 15/16 year old being courted by various clubs, would I consider FFC as an attractive option to join for the next 2-3 years as a scholar?
A Mid-table championship club just avoided a straight drop to 3rd tier, only 1 player, a Goalkeeper has been afforded a real run, many others released. Youth teams on the slide its likely to be playing in teams that lose more than they win for the next couple of years and they don't want to match what I'm being offered elsewhere. Now what would I decide..... .
I hope its just me being a depressive old fart, but I just can't get rid of these nagging doubts

ps.  Woodrow along with others has been in the U21 for 3 years or more and been out on loan, don't think we can tar all the young players we have with Mr Roberts attitude and as yet Dembele has said he is happy. If they are good enough there old enough.

[MJG]

So how come Deano was made Captain yet is only on a 6 month deal? He has had injures and I think the 6 month deal gives him a chance to show he is over them. Club could easily have dumped him but are giving him a chance

I'm completely confused at what on the face of it seems a succession of bizarre decisions over the last 15 months in the academy which has led to relegation of the U21's last season. The promotion of a major core of the U21 players last year meant that the players left were a lot younger and not quite good enough. In an ideal world we not have promoted so many.

The U18's would have suffered the same fate if the new cat A rules were not in place and it looks like we face exactly the same this season. Hence last season everyone stepped up a year and so teams were weaker across the board. Again this goes back to the major promotion and loaning out of players The group of 16 year olds coming through to the U18's is a good set of players.


Just put myself in the shoes of a talented 15/16 year old being courted by various clubs, would I consider FFC as an attractive option to join for the next 2-3 years as a scholar?
A Mid-table championship club just avoided a straight drop to 3rd tier, only 1 player, a Goalkeeper has been afforded a real run, many others released.  LVC, Woodrow?

[Riversider]

An interesting article with Peter Grant has been released today echoing what I said at the start of this thread, he says that six or seven U18's are going to have to play for the U21's each game, what effect is this going to have on our U18 team this season ?
Feel really sorry for both Peter Grant and Steve Wigley this season as they will be the ones that take the blame when both age groups fail this season , and to be fair the lack of players surely isn't their fault !