The U18s continued their 100% start to the season with a 4-0 win away at Stoke. A hat-trick for Emanuel Sonupe and Nathan Oduwa got the other.
Further good news coming out of that team, is a call up to the England under 18 squad for our midfielder Will Miller.
Anyone to watch from that level, SC? I know that you mentioned Oduwa a while ago. Good news for Miller.
The CF Daniel Akindayini is a right handful and Shayon Harrison, also a forward, is one to look out for. He is a year younger, but scored two on his debut and also hit the woodwork twice. If he can fully recover from his long term injury, then Harry Winks will be one of he stand out members of this side. He oozes talent. .
Any CM playmakers in the U18s capable of stepping up into the U21s ?? We look a bit threadbare there now IMHO with the last bout of loans and transfers.
City's bad day continued, as they lost 4-1 in a clash between our U18s sides, despite taking the lead. After going 1-0 up after a few minutes they quickly blew the lead and then went behind to two penalties. Another goal in the first half gave the team a bit of breathing space before they killed it off in the 2nd. Goals from Sonupe (pen), Oduwa (pen), Winks and Akindayini.
This does beg the question about where the level of the Academy is. Specifically at the U21 level. Chelsky claimed they were fielding very few in the 19-21 age. I think Citeh were making similar gestures. Yet both were demolished by U21 lineups quite far from the best lineup Spurs could field. And we see similar for the U18s proper. Is the Academy looking like it will produce more than the odd competent senior over the coming 2-3 years every season ??
Having seen quite a few games at this under 18 levell, it is my view that this years standard is not so high. I wish the Next Gen competition was still going as this would provide a far better test for this bunch of players than the current under 18 competition. Having said that, I understand there were several well known and respected football people at our game last week at Stoke, who all told our coaching staff that our performance in the 4-0 win, was one of the most complete they had seen from a side at this level.
"Having seen quite a few games at this under 18 levell, it is my view that this years standard is not so high. I wish the Next Gen competition was still going as this would provide a far better test for this bunch of players than the current under 18 competition." Playing for the U21s would be a good test for some of them I guess, in the absence of the Nextgen.
Not exactly an U21 game, but a reserve XI drew 2-2 against a fairly strong looking QPR line-up today, with Dawkins and McEvoy scoring our goals. Looks like it was mainly a run-out for their new signing Javier Chevanton, who scored the opener and won a penalty for their other goal. Can't seem to find out who else played for us, unfortunately. Maybe later.
Vigoroux, A McQueen, Stewart, Gallifuocco, Veljkovic, McEneff, McEvoy, Bentaleb, Landaster, Dawkins, D McQueen
Cheers, SC. Archer and Kane in the squad for Thursday then, I assume. I feel I've missed someone else, too. Thought Stewart and Dawkins might've had a sniff of getting on the bench, but then I'm probably thinking of a weaker side than Villas-Boas for that game, unfortunately.
Obika? Or has he left? Coulthirst coule be there too. He was on the bench for one of our Europa League games, wasn't he?
Coulthirst was the player I missed, but couldn't think of. Obika's not been involved for us for a while, has he? He was linked with Brighton and Charlton, but nothing seems to have been completed.
As THFC6061 mentioned elsewhere, the U18s continued their 100% start to the season with another win, this time a 4-2 over Norwich. That makes it 7 wins from 7 games and they made a quick start, too. The first goal went in after only 2 minutes and it was largely over by the 35th, as they took a 3-0 lead. A bit of a wait for the fourth, as it took til the 64th minute, before Norwich nicked a couple towards the end. Christian Maghoma got the first, Anthony Georgiou got the second and 16-year-old Nathan Oduwa, who I believe SC has spoken highly of, got the other two. P: 7, W: 7, D: 0, L: 0, GS: 25, GA: 7, GD: +18, Pts: 21. Five points clear of Chelsea and Fulham in the South Group.
Good result for the U18s. I assume the Norwich U18s have the same work ethic their U21s showed in the first half at WHL, so they wouldn't have made it easy to get the space in MF to go 3-0 up in the first half.
A win by 3 goals would be handy in case the Goons don't win tomorrow. And I hope the boys aren't going to concede only to London clubs (especially the Spanners) .
