Youth version of the Champions League...

We're in it next year - this should be a good tournament and one it would be very prestigious to win:


From Arsenal.com:


Arsenal have been drawn against Athletic Bilbao, Marseille and Anderlecht in Group Four of next season's NextGen Series.

The elite European youth tournament competition - which is based on the Champions League format - is an exciting competition which features the next generation of world-class players who have been trained and nurtured by 24 of the greatest clubs in Europe.

It is an Under-19s competition, with three squad members able to be over this age limit. It gives players and their clubs the chance to take part in a challenging six-month international tournament, culminating in a one-off final in March 2013 to win the NextGen Series trophy.

The Gunners, who announced their involvement in April, are one of nine new clubs to sign up for the tournament after it proved a major success in its inaugural season.

The six Groups for the NextGen Series 2012/13 are:

Group One - FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Vfl Wolfsburg.

Group Two - Manchester City, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Fenerbahce.

Group Three - Chelsea, AFC Ajax, CSKA Moscow, Molde FK.

Group Four - Arsenal, Athletic Bilbao, Olympique de Marseille, RSC Anderlecht.

Group Five - Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Rosenborg BK.

Group Six - Sporting Clube de Portugal, Celtic, Aston Villa, PSV Eindhoven


Interesting that there is no UTD - perhaps they are not confident about their youth set up?

Also, 3 players over 19 are allowed to play in this tournament - this could be good for 3 of our over 19yrs old fringe first team squad to participate in and maybe even some of our first squad under 19's (it would be their Champions League). Perhaps Ramsey, Jenkinson, and Campbell? Or maybe Miyaichi

 

I think it's an excellent idea. We should be able to compete with all the teams there and hopefully it will aid the development of a lot of our players. As for Utd, strange that they haven't entered a team in there....

I think the favourites will be Barca, Arsenal, Ajax, Borussia, PSG. The Spanish and German teams should fair well and I can only see us doing well out of all the English teams.

 

This sounds like an atrocious waste of money, flying our teenagers all over Europe for no reason.

 

Gives them tournament football experience, can only be a good thing.

 

We have youth competitions here to do that. What do we gain from this?

 

. Are you serious Murray? This would be great experience - I dont think air fares are our main expense!

 

Agreed. The youngsters get to play against new opposition and some of our squad fringe players could also play whilst the top players are playing CL football.

 

English football and European football are not similar, the pace and technical ability is different. Like I said, it can only be a good thing. Learning to play against teams who play possession football is vital, it may teach the players how to be patient when they have possession themselves.

 

we might as well call off our summer tours as well , taking our highly paid first team / reserve all other the world for a jolly up when we could get the same level of competition at barnet or stevenage

 

I know an ex England schoolboy very well, they played Russia at Wembley and he said the technical ability of the Russian players was like nothing he had seen before.

 

The England first team would say that about Russian school boys too!

[video=youtube;L857KaOKoD4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L857KaOKoD4[/video]

 

why have spurs entered the comp ? surely it will just be the same team that will play in the europa league ? and the amount of games a team has to win to do well in that you would think harry would want to rest them

 

Sounds like a very good idea. Does anyone know what youth players from our set up would take part? Would it include the likes of Gnabry, Eisfeld, etc?

 

Well we got to the semi-finals this year, without playing anybody from our Europa league squad as far as I can remember, but we played a youngster who wasn't properly registered in the match against Liverpool so withdrew. http://www.nextgenseries.com/News/C...Tottenham-Withdraw-from-the-Tournament?page=2

I think it looks a very good competition - good luck

 

Yep. Gnabry is probably the most talented player we have in the youth group, so it will be a good test for him.

 

Might get Toral there too...

Will be a really interesting tournament - starts in October I think.

 

Forgot about the ex-Barcelona boys. Toral and Hector Bellerin will also be involved, no doubt.

 

Jon Toral looks like a great prospet, I think it will be really good for him (and the others) to be involved in a proper competition like this

 

It's a great tournament.

My team (Liverpool) were in it last year and got to the semi-final stage before being outclassed by Ajax. Helps the younger lads as they play against different styles and teams. For example, we played Sporting Lisbon who were outstanding and played some lovely football (Bit like yourselves) and then we played Molde who were a bit more physical in their play.

A few more teams have entered this year like yourselves and Dortmund so the quality of the tournament would have improved.

All in all, a good tournament to follow!

 

Nope its just that we have our youth sides playing all over the world already against the top sides so dont need or see any benefit in this just now.

Our youth teams are doing fine aswell, including being reserve PL champions, Manchester senior cup champions, 2011 FA Youth Cup winners and more.

Before you say, our reserves are essentially a youth team for United.