England through to the Final (U17's)

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20140518/england-through-to-final_2281670_3839754?

England are through to the final of the UEFA European Under-17 Championships.

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Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman kept his second clean sheet in three games during the tournament in Malta as the Young Lions beat Portugal 2-0 on Sunday evening.
He was relieved to see the Portuguese hit the woodwork on no less than three occasions during the first half but his defence were solid in the second period as Chelsea's Dominic Solanke and Fulham's Patrick Roberts got the goals.

Adam Armstrong, who has netted twice so far in the competition, also started but came off injured after 35 minutes.
England will now face either Holland or Scotland in the final.
Magpies defender Kyle Cameron is likely to start for Scotland in their semi tonight.

 

England v Scotland final would be tasty. Good to see our young lads doing well and England's youth in general. Armstrong and Solanke appear to have been a real handful throughout the tournament. Will it be televised on BT or Eurosport?

 

Just realised the Dutch smashed the Scots 5-0 in the other semi final

 

England won the cup!

From NUFC.com

Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman played a key role in England's European U17 Championship final victory in Malta on Wednesday, saving a spot kick as the Three Lions won a penalty shootout 4-1 to claim the trophy.

80 minutes of play at the national stadium in Ta'Qali left England and Holland tied at 1-1 and with no extra time played in this tournament, the final went to penalties.

Woodman started the match but there was no place for club colleague Adam Armstrong, who suffered an ankle injury in the semi-final win over Portugal and was an unused substitute in the final.

It's ten years since Freddie's fellow Magpie Hatem Ben Arfa was part of the French side who won this event in 2004, while with Lyon.

And among those looking on as Woodman and Armstrong collected the trophy and their medals from Michel Platini was England coach and NUFC old boy, Simon Smith.

 

Well done Freddie and Adam. Lets hope your progression upwards continues.

 

Didn't England win an U16 world cup or world championships very recently as well?!

If it wasn't absolutely certain that any talent these lads have would be coached out of them to ensure they fit the "lump-it-up" style of the premier league, I'd say we could have a decent National team in a few years.

 

Evening sir.

 

Good Evening! We really must petition my friends, the supermods, for a more gentlemanly greeting emoticon... For now, I use the symbol of good and truth, the mighty

 

We should have a tipping of the top hat emoticon.
I love that one.

 

We should! It's a crime we have this and no gentleman-like-top-hat-porn. I use that emoticon like 4 times a year at most... mostly inappropriately...

 

If Pardew doesn't get hold of them.

 

From NUFC.com

Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman played a key role in England's European U17 Championship final victory in Malta on Wednesday, saving a spot kick as the Three Lions won a penalty shootout 4-1 to claim the trophy.

80 minutes of play at the national stadium in Ta'Qali left England and Holland tied at 1-1 and with no extra time played in this tournament, the final went to penalties.

Woodman started the match but there was no place for club colleague Adam Armstrong, who suffered an ankle injury in the semi-final win over Portugal and was an unused substitute in the final.

It's ten years since Freddie's fellow Magpie Hatem Ben Arfa was part of the French side who won this event in 2004, while with Lyon.

And among those looking on as Woodman and Armstrong collected the trophy and their medals from Michel Platini was England coach and NUFC old boy, Simon Smith.

Good to see more of our youngsters doing well for themselves.

 

We won the U17 in 2010 too. Here's a where are they now ripped from BBC.

Jack Butland (Stoke) - age 21, position goalkeeper: Has been on an unconventional journey in the last four years, spending two spells on loan at Cheltenham. He then moved from Birmingham to Stoke, went back to Birmingham on loan and last season spent time with Barnsley and Leeds. Amid all this, he was selected as England's third-choice keeper at Euro 2012, first choice for GB at the London Olympics and made his senior international bow against Italy in August 2012. He was named in the Under-21s squad for Monday's encounter with Wales.

Bruno Pilatos - 21, defender: His career has drifted badly since 2010, when he signed his first professional contract with Middlesbrough. Born in Angola, Pilatos was released by Boro in January 2013. He signed for Darlington in the Northern Premier League at the start of this season and latterly agreed to have a trial with Blackburn.

Luke Garbutt (Everton) - 20, defender: He has signed a new contract at Everton that will keep him at Goodison Park until 2015. He was loaned to Colchester last September, recalled by Roberto Martinez in January, but made just one appearance for the Toffeemen, as a last-minute substitute at Southampton. He is another member of the present England Under-21s squad.

Conor Coady (Liverpool) - 21, defender: Liverpool's Under-21s captain, has appeared for the Reds in both the Premier League and Europa League. He spent all of this season on loan at Sheffield United, where he was a regular starter and played in the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Hull.

Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea) - 19, midfielder: He has still to make a first-team appearance for his parent club, although he signed a contract that will keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2018. He had spells on loan with Watford and Nottingham Forest before joining Middlesbrough in January, where he scored one goal in 19 appearances.

Andre Wisdom (Liverpool) - 21, defender: He is rated highly by Liverpool, for whom he has played on 22 occasions and has signed a long-term contract. He was loaned to Derby this season and is set to feature in Saturday's Championship play-off against QPR at Wembley .

Will Keane (Manchester United) - 21, forward: He is out of contract this summer and is facing an uncertain future. His progress was hampered by a serious knee injury sustained on England Under-19s duty in May 2012. He spent time on loan at Wigan this season and also at QPR, although he has made just one substitute appearance for Harry Redknapp's men since March.

Benik Afobe (Arsenal) - 21, forward: He was handed a long-term contract by Arsenal in 2011 but his latest loan spell, at Sheffield Wednesday, was his fifth club in an injury-plagued career. He made five starts and eight substitute appearances after joining the Owls in February.

Josh McEachran (Chelsea) - 21, midfielder: He is another of the group who struggled to make it at their parent club. The last of his 22 appearances for Chelsea came in January 2012. Since then he has had spells at Middlesbrough, Watford and Wigan.

Ross Barkley (Everton) - 20, midfielder: He is one of only two players from that Under-17s team to have appeared for the senior England side and the only one to make the World Cup squad. He had loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds before bursting onto the scene at Everton this season.

Connor Wickham (Sunderland) - 21, forward: He cost Sunderland £8.1m when he left Ipswich in 2011 but had spells on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds this season as he struggled to make an impact. All that changed in the final month of the campaign when he scored against Manchester City, Chelsea and Cardiff to guide the Black Cats to safety.

So much work to be done if they are going to realise their potential. Most are watching on from afar or at least struggling to be given an opportunity at their parent club. Only really Barkley has gone on. Hope is not lost for Coady, Wickham, Buckland, Wisdom, Chabolah, Garbutt but only Wickham is getting a chance to prove himself. These lads are much better off at an Everton, Palace or Southampton. At least they get a chance.

 

I must say I regard their progress to date as encouraging.

2 are full internationals. 4 play regularly in the Premiership. The rest are playing regularly in the Championship, except for one who seems to have lost the plot and two who have had injury problems. Given that they are all 21 or under that's perfectly good progress. if the majority weren't Prem regulars in another 4 years and a handful weren't in the senior squad that might be cause for concern but to me it looks like most are coming along nicely.

 

4 play regualrly in the PL? Barkley does. Wickham is starting to get a chance, though his problems were his own making by supposedly turning all billy big bollocks. None of the rest do.

Hope is not lost but their progress in the main has stalled somewhat. The majority of those players will be 25 in 4 years time. I think they'd hope to be first team regulars a bit sooner than that! Over a third of their senior footballing career (18-35) would be gone!

 

Barkly, Butland, Whickham all get regular Prem games. I also included Coady in that but you're right that the term "regularly" really doesn't apply.

While teen wonders do occur, most player's careers are about 20 - 30. All of these players are at the very beginning of their senior careers. At 19-20, being on the books of a Prem team and getting Championship experience is to be expected. By age 22- 23 you should be able to hold down a Prem place if you're going to have a Prem career but at 19 it's not that common.

Any group of 17 year old wonderkids is going to have a fair percentage of false promises. The Vukic phenomena, the Ranger phenomena, injuries, etc. If 2/3's have a career at Premiereship level that's a good haul. Pilatos, Afobe, Keane and Mceachern all look like they've dropped by the wayside for one reason or another but the rest have every reason to be optimistic about a top flight career.

 

Butland does't get regular games. Indeed he has only made three senior appearances for Stoke. He has a very good keeper in front of him in Begovic. Butland would be the one I'd worry least about, keepers tend to take time. As I say Barkley and Wickham are it really. I'm not writing anyone off and as you say, there will always be a percentage who don't go on. That percentage needs to go down for sure though. At the moment, our junior teams have a pretty poor ratio. Hopefully a clutch of those who played in 2010 can start to eat into those poor ratios of the past. The next 2 years will be very telling.

I agree not everyone can be a 16-19 yr old wonderkid. At 21 or 22 though, you really need to be starting to making regular top level appearances. The lads in the article above are largely about 21 now.

If you look at a recent England team, the likes of James, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand, Beckham, Scholes, Lampard, Johnson, Nevilles, S Campbell, Owen, Fowler, Hargreaves, Cole had all started to make regular top level appearances by the time they were 22. Even their understudys like King, Bridge, Robinson, Dyer, Heskey, J Cole, Carragher, Butt.

Maybe these guys will. Maybe they won't. Certainly there is not a great history of us developing players at junior levels for England to be full internationals. Of that generation of players mentioned above I bet there is not a mass of junior level England caps amongst them. So there was clearly a disconnect between the top level clubs and the England junior ranks. Hopefully this is starting to be changed.

I do think though you are a hell of lot less likely to get a chance at top level now than you were in the past. Personally I think it is seen as a bigger risk now to blood youngsters, mainly due to the financial pressures. It is a lot easier to rely on a 26 yr old foreign lad is more of a finished article than it is to throw a 21 or 22 lad in and develop him. Maybe Southampton, Everton, Liverpool are showing the football community in this country that while there are issues with blooding young players, they bring a lot of benefits too.

 

the current England squad has Sterling 19, Shaw 18, Ox 20, Barkley 20 and, if you count the reserves, Flanagan 20 and Stone 19.

20% of the 30 man squad and 18% of the 23 man squad are under 21. can't be arsed to do all the archaeology but I doubt you'll find many England squads had a higher percentage of youth than the current one. the squads I did google showed:

96: 0 players under 21
98: 2, Ferdinand and Owen
00: 2, Owen and Barry
02: 1, Joe Cole

it's not as if there isn't young English talent developing, it's just that most of it wasn't in the England set up at under 17 level.

 

Cheers DMW

Got to say though, looking at that list of players, I can see why we win youth tournaments. At youth levels, before physical maturity evens out, we have a lot of strong, tall, athletic types, which I'd imagine would dominate amongst young'uns. The technical attributes needed to actually make it as a footballer, though, are found out as they get older. Am I just pessimistic, or do these recent youth victories just further illustrate that the development strategies in this country are really poor?

 

I'll tell you in 2 years time when this batch hit the 21's! I suspect there is something in that. Then again we have not been good until recently so we have to hope we are just producing better young players.