A thought came to mind today after hearing the sports news. Tottenham threw the kids into the game last night and they came up good. A mention of Rashford above reminds me that man u did the same with him. Jude Bellingham kicked on from the age of 17 so I got to wondering how many are good enough but don't get the chance, Do we have any gems in the unders teams? Never mind loaning them out to league 2 or non league just let them have a go.
If we had players of that calibre aged 17 we would put them in the team. But we haven’t as they end up at the bigger clubs by then.
Apparently we do have a special talent (do they call them 'A's' or something?), but think he's only 16 or so. Bit too early for him yet. Sorry, not helpful that I can't remember the name I was told!! Might also begin with A (but might not! #oldage). I can check later.
No loan can be recalled outside of a transfer window and he's effectively gone permanently anyway, as he's signing for them in the summer.
You often get special dispensation and can sign a keeper outside the window if can be proven it's needed due to injuries but not sure exactly how it works
City's academy still isn't great. I don't really rate Conor Sellars as a coach as he's fostered a pally culture of favouritism with certain players. The club are also not as ruthless and pragmatic when it comes to deciding who gets a new contract compared to other clubs. Harry Wood and Callum Jones are two examples of players who weren't initially offered new extensions but then kicked up a fuss and the club relented and gave in to them. The way we handle loaning out our academy players for experience isn't great either. There's a lot of room for improvement and a long way to go before we get Category 1 status.
It paints the picture that the recent u18 cohort was 12 big but only 4 were local. 1 from Liverpool, 1 Spurs, 1 West Ham, 1 Sunderland, 1 Charlton, 1 QPR, 1 Man U, 1 Southampton
