A strong U21 side was put to the sword by league leaders Reading on Monday night, losing 4-1 at the training ground. That's two poor, identical results on the trot and I expect Ehiogu will be very disappointed with the side's form. Lineups: Spurs U21s: Glover; Walker-Peters, Carter-Vickers (c), Maghoma, Lesniak; Amos, Veljkovic (Edwards 78); Sonupe, Goddard (Walkes 57), Georgiou (McEvoy 63); Harrison. Substitute (not used): Voss (GK). Reading U21s: Moore; Long, Hyam, Sweeney (c), Griffin; Fridjonsson, Kelly; Semedo (Husin 71), Novakovich, Fosu; Liburd (Rinomhota 78). Substitutes (not used): Jules, Owusu, Ward (GK). Match reports: Spurs: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u21-reading-home-report-140915/ Reading: http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/art...u21-premier-league-broadhall-way-2689340.aspx
Although a strong side, it's also very young one, I don't think anyone in the squad there is even 20, are they? I think most of them would still be eligible for the u-18's so while it's a disappointing result it'll hopefully be a learning curve for them. Also noticed Reading are top of the division so I'm presuming they have a good squad amongst them there.
Carter-Vickers makes the USBDSM U23 squad for their Olympic qualifiers: http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...u23mnt-mens-olympic-qualifying-roster-release
Leicester's U21s seem to have taken lessons from their first team, as today's game saw then level from 2-0 and 4-2 down before our U21s ran out 7-4 winners Whiteman, Walker-Peters, Amos, Lesniak, Carter-Vickers (c), Maghoma, McEvoy (Sonupe 70), Walkes, Sterling (Veljkovic 67), Harrison, Georgiou (Goddard 80) Substitute (not used): McDermott (GK).
Not a good week for the U18s, who I assume are pretty heavily weakened as most of them are in the U21s. Lost on the weekend to Reading and then today against the Goons, 4-1 and 5-3 respectively. Kaziah Stirling and Marcus Edwards got the goals, with a brace for the latter. They're both 16, so they're playing a bit above their age level. Stirling made his debut for the U21s against Leicester and scored, though. The side lead 3-2 at half-time and then collapsed a bit in the second half. U21s 7-4 victory highlights for Spurs members: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spu...ue/barclays-u21-pl--spurs-7-4-leicester-city/ You have to wonder why we've got a U20 World Cup winning centre-half, who played in a very stingy defence sitting on the bench when we're conceding 4 sloppy goals, mainly from set-pieces. Seems like a bit of a strange decision, especially as he's clearly considered good enough to play in at least the Championship.
There's some disagreement about Veljkovic's status: on the one hand the retain/release list said he had extended his contract, yet on the other hand there's talk online that he was offered a new contract but hasn't signed it as he wants first team football, so he's in limbo as a result - however, the latter version of events doesn't explain the proposed loans to Leeds and Gijon.
"on the one hand the retain/release list said he had extended his contract" Actually, it was the club who said he extended his contract.
One where he got 78 minutes against Reading U21s, and came on as a sub for the last 23 against Leicester U21s. You know, the "limbo" part I referred to when talking about the online theories that are mainly based on guesswork.
Kenny McEvoy has followed the lead of Connor Ogilvie and joined Stevenage on loan for a month. Ogilvie's loan was recently extended until January by Teddy Sheringham. Time for Baby Bale to grow up?
Mixed results for the youth sides this week, as the U21s faced Derby in a friendly on Friday, while the U18s played Chelsea the following day in the league. Cameron Carter-Vickers was missing from both fixtures, as he played for the USA Olympic qualifying team against Cuba. They won 6-1 and he opened the scoring for them with a rather easy header: The U21s had to push til the end, coming from behind to win 4-2 after leveling late on. Onomah opened the scoring, but the visitors were in the lead by half-time. Offrande Zanzala got their first and won a penalty for their second. Callum Guy put them ahead from the spot. Shayon Harrison put things back on level terms before Anthony Geogiou and Anton Walkes put the game to bed in the dying seconds. Team: McDermott, Walker-Peters (Muscatt), Amos, Lesniak, Veljkovic, Walkes, Goddard, Winks (Hayford), Harrison, Onomah (Bennetts), Georgiou. Winks and Onomah were taken off after featuring in the midweek squad the previous day. Match report: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u21-derby-report-021015/ The U18s went down 4-3 to Chelsea, despite a late comeback. Ryan Loft scored twice, with one coming from the spot and Charlie Owens got the other from a free-kick. Team: Whiteman, Paul, Tsaroulla (Muscatt 78), Owens, Tanganga, Maghoma, Edwards (Bennetts 64), Stylianides, Loft, Duncan, Sterling. Substitutes (not used): Marsh, Oteh, McDermott (GK). Report: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u18-chelsea-home-report-031015/
A depleted U18 side won 3-0 away at Norwich, with Ryan Loft continuing his scoring spree at that level by netting a hat-trick. Sounds like there were plenty of opportunities for both sides, but only one team took them. Seems like we've got plenty of competition for our forward places at youth level, too. Spurs U18s: Austin, Muscatt, Tsaroulla, Marsh (Oteh 74), Maghoma, Dinzeyi, Bennetts (Daly 65), Stylianides, Loft, Duncan, Shashoua (Oakley-Boothe 65). Substitute (not used): Freeman (GK). Match report: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u18-norwich-away-report-101015/?
Our under 21 game tonight against Norwich is being shown live on BT Sport. Lesniak has just put us ahead after 7 minutes. Decent looking crowd at Carrow Road for this one.
Tonight's lineup asks a few questions, mainly whether Lesniak is still on a month-to-month contract, and then there's the whole thing about Vejlkovic having the captaincy - given the rumour mongers were saying that, because he hadn't agreed terms on a new contract (even though the retain/release list submitted to the Premier League says he had) he'd been stripped of the U21 captaincy and was dropped from the team. There's times where I wonder who has less transparency: Spurs or North Korea.
Lesniak looks a good player on that showing. Always seemed to make time for himself in midfield. He's played a few positions for the youth teams hasn't he?
Last night's game finished 3-2 to our youngsters with 6,684 in attendance at Carrow Road. Both sides fielded fairly young sides too, so it will have been a big experience for many of the players. Spurs U21s: Glover, Walker-Peters, Maghoma, Veljkovic (c), Amos, Lesniak, Walkes, Bennetts (Goddard 84), Harrison, Georgiou (Duncan 81), Loft (Stylianides 68). Substitutes (not used): Brown, Voss (GK). Norwich City U21s: Killip (c), Efete, Ramsay, Grant, Coker, Norman, Eaton-Collins, McIntosh (Hall-Johnson 60), Ashley-Seal (Couzens, 88), Cantwell, Middleton (Lewis, 84). Substitutes (not used): Crowe, Oxborough (GK). I'll let the highlights do the talking: Match report: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u21-norwich-away-report-151015/ Norwich's one: http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/article/report-city-u21s-2-3-tottenham-2745637.aspx Ugo Ehiogu's post-match comments: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/u21-norwich-away-ugo-verdict-161015/? Norwich seem to be one of the sides that are approaching the U21 league in the right spirit. I feel that players that succeed for them at that level are in with a shot at the first team, which has to be a good thing. They're embracing the opportunity and it seems that the fans are on board with it too, judging by that attendance figure.
