[Paul01384]

superb performance tonight by Donnellan, ready for the first team NOW
squad at least
he should be playing in our league cup matches for sure

[Standaman]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/saido-berahino-proves-it-is-probably-better-not-to-move-to-a-big-club-academy-too-soon-10469982.html

When England Under-17s won the European Championship finals in May 2010, Sir Trevor Brooking, then the Football Association development director, proclaimed them “the best group we’ve had in six or seven years” and also wondered aloud when they would get a chance to play first-team football. On that score, Sir Trevor could hardly have been more prescient had he predicted last week that Callum Wilson was due a Premier League goal or three.

Today is a landmark for that winning team in that all bar one are no longer eligible for junior international football. Gareth Southgate will name his Under-21s squad today for the new Euro 2017 qualifying cycle and from the class of 2010 only Nathaniel Chalobah, the baby of that group then, will be young enough to continue playing at that level.

Apart from Chalobah, the boys of 2010 were all born in 1993 and to say that their fortunes have been mixed since then would be putting it mildly. Of course, every schoolboy team has its forgotten faces who never make the grade, but this was not just any schoolboy team. These were the champions of Europe, conquerors of Spain in the final and, as Sir Trevor said soon after, capable of producing more top players than the average junior squad.

 
So far this season only four of that squad – Saido Berahino, Ross Barkley, Jack Butland and Connor Wickham – have had any game time in the Premier League. The rest are spread over the leagues, forging their young careers with varying degrees of success; from Benik Afobe in the Championship with Wolves, to Bruno Pilatos, who played at Jarrow Roofing in the Northern League last season.

Ross Barkley’s recent displays will have impressed the England manager, Roy Hodgson Ross Barkley’s recent displays will have impressed the England manager, Roy Hodgson 

It is worth noting that, beyond the four who have played in the Premier League this season, there are only a further three who are currently in the squads of top-flight clubs. They are Andre Wisdom (on loan at Norwich City from Liverpool); Luke Garbutt (Everton) and Sam Johnstone (Manchester United). Others, like Chalobah and Will Keane, still at least have Premier League parent clubs.

What is notable about the Under-17s of 2010 is that the four who have played Premier League football this season did not start out at the academies of the big four. They were given their chance early by the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Ipswich Town. By way of comparison, the three Manchester United players in the 2010 squad – Johnstone, Keane and Tom Thorpe – have made two Premier League substitute appearances for United between them.

Sir Trevor was right about that, too, asking at the time where “at Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool” young players would get first-team opportunities. “Every place in the league is worth £750,000,” he said, “so even at the end of a season you don’t get a chance to try out youngsters because you might lose three places and cost yourself £2m in the transfer budget.”

Five years on and the notion of a piffling £750,000 being a consideration to a Premier League club seems gloriously outdated. In the summer of 2010, the Premier League was about to embark upon a three-year television deal worth £1.77bn. It hardly needs pointing out that from next summer it will be dividing up £5.14bn.

Of course, if it was simple to develop teenage boys into elite footballers everyone would be doing it. Some from 2010 will simply not have been good enough. For others, injuries have intervened, like George Thorne, now at Derby County and recovering from a cruciate ligament rupture, or Keane, who suffered the same blow. Josh McEachran seemed to slip into the comfort zone of a huge contract at Chelsea. Luke Williams is now at Scunthorpe United. His former Middlesbrough academy team-mate Pilatos was last spotted on trial at Blyth Spartans.

This is not intended to mock or diminish young men who have given their lives to make it as professional footballers, but no one can have any hesitation in saying that four Premier League graduates by 2015 would have been considered a disappointment in 2010 and certainly feels that way five years on.

There are some, like Afobe and possibly Thorne and Keane, who could yet work their way back to the top flight but that will be a hard journey. English football has, it should be pointed out, yielded some late developers from the generation of 1993-born boys who were not considered good enough in 2010. Harry Kane and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have blossomed into top players and there is hope that Patrick Bamford, Alex Pritchard and Jon Flanagan might yet have good Premier League careers.

What is the lesson? In the case of Berahino it appears to be that it is better to play first-team games at your parent club. If he does move this week, to Tottenham Hotspur or elsewhere, it looks like he will do so as a £25m man with 72 Premier League appearances to his name, which is more than Kane and only eight fewer than Oxlade-Chamberlain.

One wonders whether Isaiah Brown, 18, another West Bromwich academy boy who signed for Chelsea’s academy in 2013, will have made the same number of first-team appearances by the time he reaches his 22nd birthday, as Berahino did earlier this month. The word is that West Bromwich’s academy in Sandwell has another fine crop of players on the way. Even if the club lose Berahino this summer, his will be a useful case study for staff to use with parents whose heads have been turned by an offer for their sons from a big club academy.

Last year, England were European champions at Under-17s level once again, with a squad that included the aforementioned Brown, Patrick Roberts, signed by Manchester City from Fulham this summer, and Joe Gomez, recently acquired by Liverpool from Charlton Athletic. The cycle begins anew this season and in October England’s latest generation will be one of 24 teams playing at the Under-17s World Cup in Chile.

As ever, any promising signs at that tournament will be seized on by the FA and the Premier League that the Elite Player Performance Plan is working – and perhaps it is. But the boys of 2010 will know that, despite their early promise, the clock is already ticking and much of what Sir Trevor feared five years ago has come to pass.


Interesting article from Sam Wallace in the Independent something that I think every fan knows and which is why my heart sinks a little when I see a promising youngster head to City or Chelsea and why I desperately want to see our youngsters given a chance.

[A5HB]

Interesting one...a quote from academy manager Mark Harrison on the official site...

“In the last three years, we are ranked fifth in terms of PL appearances from home grown players. That’s out of 24 clubs, so that’s significant recognition of the productivity of the Academy in terms of producing players”.

Question is what does 'home grown players' mean, British ? or our own academy products.  Can't be academy products can it ? Outside of Saido, George Thorne played a few before his first knee injury...other than that very brief appearances by Izzy Brown....stumped after that.

If it's home grown in terms of the Premier League 25 man squad quota, then it will include all sorts of players. Any player who spent a certain amount of time at the academy of a club in England before a certain age counts as home grown in this scenario. It's a bit ridiculous as I remember reading that Clichy and Fabregas count as home grown because they spent a long period at Arsenal, despite being foreign and going on to represent their own countries.

Given we have a fairly big British make up to our squad, this isn't a surprise. In the last three years you could include Brunt, Morrison, Fletcher, Lescott, Gardner, Foster, Myhill, Daniels, Jones, Wisdom, Dawson, Berahino, O'Neil, Baird, Thorne, Reid, Sinclair, Ridgewell and maybe more as well as Chester and Lambert from this year.

[Paul01384]

0-0 draw today away at Molineux
anything but a bore draw though

started off very brightly but faded, we really missed the two Kiddy loanees which left Tyler Roberts on his own up front, no end product when we were on top
backs to the wall in the second half when every ball we played forward kept coming back

Rose: Ezewele, Howkins (Barbir), Donnellan, McCourt: Elbouzedi, Cleet (Leko), Ward, Samir Nabi, Edwards: Roberts (Smith)
other sub Ross

[Hunnington Baggie]

On the plus side, the U21's won 1-0 against a Villa team containing Jores Okore, Adama Traore and Libor Kozak.

Andre Wright (on loan at Kiddie) got the winner late into the game.

[Baggies]

Albion got through their first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup today at Tividale FC.

Not a great game. With the international break, Jonathan Leko, Danny Barbir, Rob McCourt and Tyler Roberts were all missing, while Tahvon Campbell, Andre Wright and Alex Palmer are still at Kidderminster so were unavailable for selection for this game. Also missing was first choice reserves goalkeeper Jack Rose.

We went head through man of the match Joe Ward, striking a long range effort. Ward is a small, dynamic central midfielder who was at the heart of everything we did. He seemed to be the main man doing all of the talking and organising the team, always urging them to move the ball quickly. Clearly the players felt comfortable moving the ball through him throughout the game.

Tividale scored direct from a free kick to equalise around half an hour in. The goalkeeping by Ethan Ross wasn't great if i'm honest, but I was disappointed by how many free kicks the defence gave away for having their arms all over the much smaller strikers. Fitzwater, Ezewele, Cleet, Donnelan and Howkins were the back 4/5 and although they cut off space and defender well, their distribution was awful, especially Cleet who had a bad night where nothing came off for him.

After a few changes in the second half, we eventually got the winner through Samir Nabi, thanks again to a great ball from Joe Ward.

As for my opinions on the players, Kyle Edwards on the wing was carrying a knock all game but seemed to be our biggest danger other than Ward, trying to beat the full back. Samir Nabi played almost as a deep lying midfielder and although he never gives the ball away, everything he did seemed too "safe" until the final 15 minutes where he finally started running at players. He seemed too happy to spread the ball and then admire his pass rather than getting into better positions that might harm defenders. Chay Scrivens looked good when he came on but he is very small and although we shouldn't judge a player on that, he will need to bulk up. Elbouzedi and Pierce both struggled to cause any problems up front which was disappointing.

Through the the second round, and hopefully next time we will have more of a full strength side out when facing a better level of opposition.

[SmethDan]

Nice one Baggies, many thank’s for that.

What did you think of Ezwele and Donnelan in general play when they weren’t fondling  the small opposition forwards?

I've been hearing good things about both, but never had the opportunity to see them beyond the odd video clip.

And no, they weren't fondling dwarves in said clips.
 .

[kie the baggie]

Strong u21 team tonight gamboa gnabry and berahino against west ham

[caravanc58]

anyone know where the latest scores can be found.

[leeiswba]

Finished 2-1 to West Ham so unbeaten run over, Saido scored our goal. By his Twitter it looks like he may have asked to played to get 90 minutes in. Fairplay to him.

[caravanc58]

Finished 2-1 to West Ham so unbeaten run over, Saido scored our goal. By his Twitter it looks like he may have asked to played to get 90 minutes in. Fairplay to him.

thanks for that.

[OldburyWBA]

Tonights game at Rushall in the Birmingham Senior Cup has been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch

http://www.wba.co.uk/news/article/birmingham-senior-cup-tie-at-rushall-postponed-2864541.aspx

[Hunnington Baggie]

we have given a trial period to a 20 year old non league player and freestyler called Yasin Ben El-Mhanni. He will be placed in the U21's.

very little information as he's non-league, but he is predominantly a left midfielder who can play across the field in an attacking role and, naturally, he knows a trick or two.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3388662/Non-league-Riyad-Mahrez-Yasin-Ben-El-Mhanni-given-trial-West-Brom.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Obligatory "Freestyle Tekkers" video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfvDLRUZj1k

[Standaman]

we have given a trial period to a 20 year old non league player and freestyler called Yasin Ben El-Mhanni. He will be placed in the U21's.

very little information as he's non-league, but he is predominantly a left midfielder who can play across the field in an attacking role and, naturally, he knows a trick or two.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3388662/Non-league-Riyad-Mahrez-Yasin-Ben-El-Mhanni-given-trial-West-Brom.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Obligatory "Freestyle Tekkers" video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfvDLRUZj1k

Nice tricks son but can you track back and work aaarrrrrrrrddddddd!!!!???

All joking aside unopposed freestyle skills are a hundred miles away from doing anything at any level of professional football.

[overseas baggie]

Nice tricks son but can you track back and work aaarrrrrrrrddddddd!!!!???

All joking aside unopposed freestyle skills are a hundred miles away from doing anything at any level of professional football.

Doesn't quite seem like a Pulis type of player.....

[skyclad99]

Doesn't quite seem like a Pulis type of player.....

We have a few players in our team who do the occasional unintended 'freestyle' kick with the ball, so he might fit in well!

[Hull Baggie]

We have a few players in our team who do the occasional unintended 'freestyle' kick with the ball, so he might fit in well!

Indeed, Lamberts backheels against Bournemouth and Stoke were particularly good!

[sammyg]

  love that!!

Indeed, Lamberts backheels against Bournemouth and Stoke were particularly good!

[HampshireBaggie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/swansea-city/12091793/Oxford-United-3-Swansea-City-2-match-report-Swans-dumped-out-of-FA-Cup-after-Kemar-Roofe-scores-twice.html

According to this premier league scouts are keeping an eye on Roofe at Oxford. Good to see a product of our academy doing well. But for me this is proof that we don't give our prospects a chance.

Roofe has claimed as much...

http://readwestbrom.com/2016/01/10/ex-albion-attacker-says-never-got-chance/?

Nabi is in a similar situation right now. We got to throw these kids in and see if they sink or swim. They do great for the u21's which is a lesser standard yes but you never truly know if they are going to make it until they are on a premier league pitch. Players raise their game.

[HampshireBaggie]

For me, with the likes of Vardy and Smalling doing well. And also Dawson to an extent. Delle Alli coming from league one. It goes to show that these players are being disregarded when in fact they do have something about them.

They might fail Test X and Test Y, or might not have the 'physique' or whatever tests the clubs use to assess these players, but these tests are failing and it means the above players, and possibly Roofe, and maybe soon to be Nabi slip through the net.

[caravanc58]

For me, with the likes of Vardy and Smalling doing well. And also Dawson to an extent. Delle Alli coming from league one. It goes to show that these players are being disregarded when in fact they do have something about them.

They might fail Test X and Test Y, or might not have the 'physique' or whatever tests the clubs use to assess these players, but these tests are failing and it means the above players, and possibly Roofe, and maybe soon to be Nabi slip through the net.

would they offer anything less than what we've seen from lambert, what's the point of the academy if we have no intention of using what it produces or is just to benefit others.

[WBArgo]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/swansea-city/12091793/Oxford-United-3-Swansea-City-2-match-report-Swans-dumped-out-of-FA-Cup-after-Kemar-Roofe-scores-twice.html

According to this premier league scouts are keeping an eye on Roofe at Oxford. Good to see a product of our academy doing well. But for me this is proof that we don't give our prospects a chance.

Roofe has claimed as much...

http://readwestbrom.com/2016/01/10/ex-albion-attacker-says-never-got-chance/?

Nabi is in a similar situation right now. We got to throw these kids in and see if they sink or swim. They do great for the u21's which is a lesser standard yes but you never truly know if they are going to make it until they are on a premier league pitch. Players raise their game.

I get your sentiment but it's also incredibly hard for most teams in the top flight to break kids through in a successful manner. People have mentioned Jamie Vardy lately who we looked at and declined whilst he was at Fleetwood. The issue is that it took him a good 4 years to get to this level with Leicester, 2 of which were in the championship; and the first year especially he was quite poor and the Leicester fans admittedly didn't rate him.

It's fine to come up like this as a player but in our position, we don't have the time or gamble to predict he will fulfill his potential and make a good premiership player.

For instance, I was saddened when we sold Chris Wood a few years ago as he looked good. But he wasn't good enough, and the sale was ultimately justified as he's clearly a solid championship player but little more. In short, it's hindsight speaking; sometimes kids just slip through the net and go on to be amazing, but most of the time they don't and they're exclusions are justified.

Whilst Roofe may well go on to be great (and I really hope he does), there's a million James Hursts out there for every Berahino. Hurst played once in the premiership aged 18 too and sunk, so I think it's a very hindsight-based argument for keeping kids with a bit of potential.

[MarkW]

It's a sad fact that a) the gulf between U21 and the Premier League is too big, and b) Young players need game time to fully blossom.

Because of 'a', when many players get a shot at the first team, they aren't good enough, and so eventually get let go. It's only when they get a couple of full seasons that you see their full potential. But the Premier League is a cut throat business and you can't afford to give players a run in the team if they aren't yet good enough, or you risk having to carry a player in the team.

Now we seem to be getting better at loaning out our youngsters, even on 1 month youth loans, so hopefully we might see the likes of Leko, Campbell and Roberts scoring lower down the leagues, but I wouldn't be surprised if Adil Nabi is no longer with us at the beginning of next season (He'll be 22 so would take a squad place).

[Droitwich Baggie]

A total waste of our money if the club isn't using them.
Perhaps we are just a feeder club for the big 4. 

[B_H_Baggie]

A total waste of our money if the club isn't using them.
Perhaps we are just a feeder club for the big 4. 

You can blame the poor rules when it comes to poaching for us losing our most promising youngsters to top clubs for peanuts. How many clubs have more than one or two every couple of seasons break through their youth ranks and into the first team at Premier League level?