U21 & U18 Half -Term Reports

For those who don't visit the official website......


Bircham's verdict on the Under-21s season so far ...

MARC Bircham believes the Under-21s success this season can be measured by the ever-increasing number of young R’s currently shining in the Football League.

No fewer than seven members of Bircham’s Elite Development Squad have earned moves elsewhere this term as the loan Rangers strive to make a name for themselves at Loftus Road.

Bircham insists his main focus remains the loan market, with Tom Hitchcock – top scorer with nine this season – the latest young starlet to earn a move to a League One outfit.

“There’s not many teams in the Championship that can say they’ve got six or seven lads playing out at League One level,” Bircham told www.qpr.co.uk.

“Our priority has always been to get the lads out on loan and gain some Football League experience.

“It’s not just about playing out on loan but playing at the level they are in; it’s only one stage from where we’re at.”

Hitchcock (Crewe Alexandra) and Michael Petrasso (Oldham Athletic) – both on the scoresheet for their respective clubs in recent weeks – are the latest to impress in the third tier of English football.

Meanwhile, Michael Harriman (Gillingham), Bruno Andrade, Michael Doughty (both Stevenage) and Max Ehmer (Carlisle United) have all held down regular spots.

Frankie Sutherland – one of four EDS members part of Harry Redknapp’s pre-season tour – continued his development at Leyton Orient before a cruel knee ligament injury cut short his stay.

“It’s credit to the lads,” Bircham added. “We watch them every week and they’ve done really well. It’s really good for the club.

“They’re not just out on loan, but playing regularly and doing really well.”

Bircham also paid tribute to those youngsters still at his disposal, including a number from Steve Gallen's Under-18s setup who have risen to the challenge in recent weeks.

Reece Grego-Cox found the net in the R’s final game of 2013 – scoring his first at Under-21s level – as Bircham’s current crop signed off the year with an impressive draw at Swansea City.

“The lads that we’ve still got here, the likes of Mo Shariff and Jamie Sendles-White are doing well," he said.

“We’ve also got the Under-18s coming up who have fitted in well when they’ve been called upon.

“As a department we’re probably doing better than we expected. It’s been a really good first half of the season so far.”

Read more at http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/311213-u21s-half-term-report-1264582.aspx#ceMsRudTZZiFb3Fm.99



Gallen's verdict on the season so far ...

STEVE Gallen says he wouldn't have altered anything about QPR Under-18s' season so far.

Rangers head into 2014 ideally placed to regain their league title, top of the Professional Development League (South) after ending the calendar year in irresistible form.

Despite bowing out of the FA Youth Cup to Fulham in December, Gallen insists defeat – just the R’s third of the season – doesn’t detract from an ‘excellent’ first half to the campaign, telling www.qpr.co.uk: “I wouldn’t have changed it at all.

“The FA Youth Cup game was probably just a step too far in all honesty. We’ve had a lot of tough games and we’ve come through all of them unscathed.

“It was a bad night for us but I can’t take anything away from the lads because they’ve been excellent. We move on and we prepare for the league when we come back.

“I want them to hit the ground running when they come back and get a positive result early on. Hopefully that will set us up for the rest of the season.”

Gallen’s side strengthened their place at the summit with a slender 1-0 win over fellow title rivals Millwall in their last league outing of 2013.

Victory was the R’s seventh in succession and Gallen is confident a similar showing in the New Year should see Rangers set to challenge for silverware once again come May.

“It was a great way to end the year in the league,” he added. “We’re over halfway and we’ve put ourselves in a great position. We’re moving in the right direction and it keeps improving every week.”

“If we can manage to do the same again we’ll be in a fantastic position come the end of the season.”

Read more at http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/311213-u18s-half-term-report-1266486.aspx#Fi1hmsixB6JeMkyE.99

 

Sounds good, and I probably talk up my own performance at work too, but the only metric that matters is the number of our current or recent ex youth/EDS set up holding down regular first team places. Current total zero.

Have we had to build this from scratch since Tango and Cash left?

 

I think we have had the most promising youth players for a long time now.
The problem is youngsters are very rarely getting the opportunities to appear in first teams in the EPL and higher reaches of the Championship.
With all our investment in new training facilities for our youth training and development we need to produce home grown talent (interesting to hear that Man U have had a home grown player in over 3,600 games). We should be developing our own player or two or three as well as selling on players that we don't feel will make it in our squad (as Arsenal have done so well in the past) to generate income.
Sounds like we may actually have a couple of players coming through. So some hope that things are changing.

 

To do that we'd need a manager who is interested in furthering the development of the youth players rather than one who sees them as a tool for trying to persuade the owner to give him more cash.

I do believe pretty much so, but others would know better than me.

 

Having seen Carroll play i can't see what all the fuss is about tbh. I would rather see our own youth team players in that berth. Same goes for the Kane rumours, i cant see that Hitchcock is a lesser talent?