[baggiebof]

2-1 win tonight and much deserved. Varela looked good, a classy player. O'Neil did well holding the midfield in a 4-1-4-1. We har a lad on out hands with some real ability in Leko but he definitely needs some work in the gym and needs to mature on the ball, both will come in time. Roofe was lively but don't think he will be our level, can see him doing a Mantom. Our stand out player was Nabi who played deeper than I thought he would in the centre midfield. Technically sound, confident, fit, was pleased with him.

Garmston was in the crowd sitting next to Nathan Redmond.

[Adder]

Nabi certainly seems to know where the net is.

[Baggies]

Our stand out player was Nabi who played deeper than I thought he would in the centre midfield. Technically sound, confident, fit, was pleased with him.

Nabi certainly seems to know where the net is.

I think he has always played in a deeper role baggiebof. When I have seen him before he is often playing in a second striker/advanced playmaker sort of role. I remember against Telford last pre season he played the same with Alex Jones in front of him. Before he picked up his season ending injury, he was behind every good move we made in that game pulling all of the strings.

I hope that 12 months out has not had too much of an impact on his development as he always an interesting player and it would be good for us to bring through another player who might be able to get into our first team.

[alb1on]

According to the England site Leko was only born April 1999, making him just under 15 and a half. At that age you do not want him doing too much in the gym. The risk of tendon injuries when growing makes weights work especially dangerous. Let him develop in his own time and up the gym work in 1-2 years when he has finished growing. In the meantime, what a prospect to be playing regular U21 at 15, and be in the England U17 team.

[graka]

ive been quite impressed with the lad who plays centre half howkins is it?

[wbasoprano]

 

http://www.westlondonsport.com/features-comment/football-wls-blues-linked-with-west-brom-youngster-along-with-liverpool-man-city-and-tottenham

"Jonathan Leko of West Bromwich Albion is the latest teenager to be linked with Chelsea.

The Independent on Sunday say the 15-year-old striker is attracting interest from the Blues, Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool.

West Brom, who lost Isaiah Brown to Chelsea a year ago, are said to be determined to hang onto Leko.

The player was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has represented England at Under-16 level and is already a regular in Albion’s Under-21 side.

Chelsea have also recently been linked with West Ham’s Reece Oxford, 15, and Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhury, 16."

[Adder]

What a rubbish, depressing system this is. If the FA want evidence that a player can emerge and benefit through being handled well by a 'small' well run club, they can take a look at Saido.

[Adder]

...and Southampton's products for that matter.

[sing on our own]

This system is ridiculous, what is the point in any club trying to bring talent through? The FA really need to sort this if we are ever to have a successful national team, I can't see the point in losing our best players to be lost in Chelsea's stockpiling system. And people wonder why clubs go for the cheap proven foreign option.

[wbako]

http://www.westlondonsport.com/features-comment/football-wls-blues-linked-with-west-brom-youngster-along-with-liverpool-man-city-and-tottenham

"Jonathan Leko of West Bromwich Albion is the latest teenager to be linked with Chelsea.

The Independent on Sunday say the 15-year-old striker is attracting interest from the Blues, Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool.

West Brom, who lost Isaiah Brown to Chelsea a year ago, are said to be determined to hang onto Leko.

The player was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has represented England at Under-16 level and is already a regular in Albion’s Under-21 side.

Chelsea have also recently been linked with West Ham’s Reece Oxford, 15, and Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhury, 16."

Not surprised sadly. He looked quality in the reserve game I saw.

[Adder]

This system is ridiculous, what is the point in any club trying to bring talent through? The FA really need to sort this if we are ever to have a successful national team, I can't see the point in losing our best players to be lost in Chelsea's stockpiling system. And people wonder why clubs go for the cheap proven foreign option.

and with the FA putting a limit on non-EU signings, pushing the EU prices up, it's giving the big clubs with the money yet more advantage.

[Dan]

With the price of stealing youth players now, little over 200k, there really is no risk of just signing up the best for clubs like Chelsea. Had it came in a few years earlier we probably wouldn't have kept Berahino either.

Only the FA could be so incompetent that their plan to improve academy football is single handedly destroying it. Eventually it'll get to the stage where clubs are closing down their academies because they're not beneficial anymore. At least the system before we'd get hefty compensation for players. 200k probably barely covers the investment in a player who's been in the academy for a number of years. Chelsea have 40 players in their youth team squad which says it all, 40 players for 11 spots. If you can't even make match day squads at under 18 level, what chance do these players have of developing?

Izzy Brown could have been starting for us now had he stayed here. Instead he'll be lucky to play again in the premier league before he's 20. Lukaku couldn't even get a look in there despite them having a dearth of strikers which says it all about their youth development.

[B_H_Baggie]

It tells you all you need to know about the potential of a youngster if they are regulars in the reserve/under 21 side at just 15-years-old like Leko. Not seen him play but to be ahead of others in his age group is very encouraging, need to do all we possibly can to keep hold of such players and continue to develop them.

Its just a shame the system in place allows for top clubs to pick off promising youngsters for next to no compensation where they are likely to get lost in the system and be lucky to achieve much in the game despite looking like they have the world at their feet at a smaller club. I thought the whole idea of categorising the academy system was so that the coaching standards were consistent, there should be little or no benefit for a youngster to move from one category 1 club to another so it should be in the rules that they can't poach from each other. Why should you spend £3m or so a year to keep up to category 1 standard if you are going to lose players for peanuts? We shouldn't have to spend like that to produce players for bigger clubs unless we largely dictate the fee of a potential transfer to make it worth our while.

Its difficult to blame young players like Izzy Brown, Yan Dhanda and Jerome Sinclair for joining big clubs. They, or sometimes their family/advisors will get their head turned by money and encourage them to move when the chance comes. However there is also the honour of playing for a real top club and the dream that they will develop and break into the side at some point, it rarely happens that way and sometimes they don't realise it could be better for their development to remain at smaller clubs and have a much better chance of breaking through. 

[tommcneill]

Its quite simple to me how the system should work.

The club that the player plays for through the academy gets first option on that player no matter what. Secondly no club can poach players.

Its not a hard rule to implement either.

Quite simply the FA is setup to pander to what it calls the 'Top Clubs'...

If clubs continue to poach then clubs like us will simply close the academies and then the first people to moan will be the FA when we decide to go foreign to replace the players we WOULD have brought through the academies.

Its so obvious how the system is setup to benefit the rich so called big clubs that its not even funny. Its ruining football and ruining the national team. Something needs to be done about it and done instantly or all the hard work clubs have put in to youth systems will be lost forever with no going back and thats when the English game dies a death

[tommcneill]

Since I was child my Dad has always said that football is like a house of cards, take away the bottom and the top falls in

The worst thing they did in English football was when they stopped gate receipts from all league games being split 50-50, the 'BIG CLUBS' decided they wanted to keep all the gate receipts from home games to themselves, this ensured that clubs like us, Bolton, Burnley, Wolves, Preston would never win a league again and those clubs with bigger stadiums and fanbases only got bigger and better.

Before that every club had a steady stream of income each week from every game.

The FA screwed our game up and now they punish clubs for going into Admin because they cant afford to support themselves with an income only received every other week on average.

They are doing another damaging thing to our game allowing clubs to stockpile youngsters and allowing them to take players from good clubs to rot in the youth systems of clubs such as Chelsea.

Perhaps they should have a squad limit on youngsters allowed to be registered at each age group.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Eventually it'll get to the stage where clubs are closing down their academies because they're not beneficial anymore.

They already are.

Wycombe, Yeovil & Crawley Town and I'm sure there are a couple of others I have forgotten who have closed down their academies since the implementation of the EPPP.

[gerry m]

you have hit the nail on the head there tom. The sponsers want Big teams, Big names. The FA will simply sit back and wait for their cut. The smaller clubs will struggle but they moneymen dont care about them

[LiamTheBaggie]

Steve Madeley @smadeley_star  ·  2m 2 minutes ago

In the process of checking out the interest in Albion's latest teenage star, Jonathan Leko, I've had it confirmed they've agreed (1/2)

 Steve Madeley @smadeley_star  ·  2m 2 minutes ago

a fee with Chelsea for Izzy Brown after more than a year of haggling. The figure is undisclosed but it's avoided a tribunal. #wba

Steve Madeley ‏@smadeley_star 27s27 seconds ago

As for Leko: no bids but Albion are aware the 15-year-old striker is being watched by many clubs. They're very hopeful of keeping him. #wba

[KnaveofAlbion]

I guess the important part is selling the kid on the idea that at Albion he has a far better chance of actually playing by his teens. The family are also important, if his family are refugees then i dare say they're not that well off, so Chelsea or whoever offering a few hundred thousand may swing it.

Saido coming through for us is of a double bonus as he's living proof the plan can work. Izzy brown not playing 1st team football is a reflection in the opposite. I would love to know how much we finally agreed. It must have been decent to avoid the tribunal?

The youth player rules need changing. If our promising kids keep being stolen there's no point keeping the academy.

[cornishbaggie]

let's just hope Jonathan Leko has the sense to look at the respective careers of Saido and Izzy Brown and see how they have developed over the last 2 years. He should see some sense.

But yes the current system is wrong.

[Morany]

Brown was around the first team 18 months ago and got a brief appearance. If he had stayed on I'm sure he would have been sniffing around the first team. I think and hope Leko would have tried to do the same rather than chasing cash.

[Dexy]

To be honest its about time something like a junior contract came into play , something like until 18 years old you stay with the club that picked you up and trained you since the age of 7 or whatever then the club have first option . If i was JP I'd be very tempted to shut the academy down if this keeps happening , knowing him he won't keep tipping 3M into it and getting players pinched for pennies . What 13/ 14 / 15 year old really needs to be under that strain regarding money , sponsorship and big clubs ? No wonder our National side struggles when all the players get poached to the big clubs and put in huge groups.

[johnny Cash]

let's just hope Jonathan Leko has the sense to look at the respective careers of Saido and Izzy Brown and see how they have developed over the last 2 years. He should see some sense.

But yes the current system is wrong.

I'm not sure Izzy is quite the example of making bad choices just yet. He played with the Chelsea first team during pre season and has had Mouriniho waxing lyrical about him. Berahino also didn't make his debut for us until he was 20 and Izzy is still 17.

If Chelsea want him enough, I doubt there is much we can do to stop him. The FA need to make the compensation figures more of a risk to the purchaser and benefit to the academy.

As for an academy getting first refusal. It can't happen I wouldn't have thought due to certain laws and human rights.

[Dexy]

Brown was around the first team 18 months ago and got a brief appearance. If he had stayed on I'm sure he would have been sniffing around the first team. I think and hope Leko would have tried to do the same rather than chasing cash.

To be honest Brown looked way out of his depth that day against Wigan , IMO that was done in hope he would stay. What really annoys me is we are hoping Leko and the likes will stay after finding them , putting them on the route to Pro football and coaching them over a number of years ....it's almost like we give them everything then at the end we are begging them to stay .This junior Champions League the big clubs playing in just makes things worse , as i posted above JP won't have much more of this.

[TheJacko2000]

Playing Vile at The Shrine at the minute. No seniors involved. 3 - 1 up goals from Adil Nabi (2) and Kemar Roofe all this after Vile went in front.