Seen him a few times and been impressed. Closer to the first team than I thought. SUNDERLAND Academy manager Ged McNamee insists the club can produce another Jordan Henderson in the near future â and has cited Mikaël Mandron and Jordan Pickford as proof that there is still a route to the first-team for promising youngsters. Striker Mandron and England youth international goalkeeper Pickford have both been fast-tracked into first-team training this season, with the former understood to be one of the small number of Academy undergraduates who have been offered professional terms next year. A French striker with English and Scottish ancestry, Mandron is on the radar of both the English and Scottish FA. Recently Martin OâNeill opted to leave a substituteâs role unfilled at Bolton, resisting the temptation to name one of his Academy youngsters on the bench because he did not want to give them the impression they had âmade itâ when there is still plenty of work to do. McNamee knows that life has never been harder for young players trying to break into the first-team but says that there is still huge potential in reserve. âWithin this Academy there are boys with the potential to go right the way through. âSome of them â Jordan Pickford, the goalkeeper (for example) â he trains regularly with the first team,â he said. âThereâs another we have brought in, Mikaël Mandron, who has been training with the first-team. If the boys are showing that potential and that desire, they will train with the first-team. âBut weâre under no illusion that itâs a hard ask to continue to keep putting players into that system. If you get one or two a year at PL level youâre happy with that. Thatâs the state of PL football at the moment. âFrom a Premier League perspective with regards to youth football, thatâs the big push of the Elite Player Performance Plan â to obviously increase the level of boys breaking into first team football. And if theyâre not breaking into our team, they will be playing at Championship level. âSometimes with Academies they have to go to a lesser club to come back. Look at the boy at Blackpool who is generating a lot of interest, Tom Ince. âHe had to do that and sometimes they need to step back. He wasnât figuring in Liverpoolâs first-team because it was an international squad.â Although goalkeeper Pickford, who has represented England, is quite well known to Sunderland fans, the name of Mandron is probably less high-profile. He is one of only a handful of Sunderlandâs Academy youngsters who have been brought in from overseas. He is 6ft 3ins and signed for the Black Cats after playing for Boulogne in France. He has scored freely for the reserves and now trains regularly with the first XI. He said: âHeâs done well. He was identified at a small club in Paris, he came in and his English was very good because his father is English. âHeâs settled very well and he was someone that, again, we looked at the matrix and thought we needed a striker so we brought him in. Again, heâs a nice lad, heâs well-mannered and he just fits the profile, so we brought him in. Some years we have very few (academy players) coming in from a distance.â McNamee also encourages Sunderlandâs younger players to use the loan market to propel themselves into the managerâs thinking. âItâs hard for them. As long as thereâs a pathway and the boys feel thereâs a pathway thatâs the main thing,â he said. âAs long as the senior staff have been exposed to them and can make a judgement on them (itâs fair). Sometimes itâs a case of them going away to come back â Jordan Henderson and Jack Colback have utilised the loan system, used the experience and come back and (then) broke into the first team. âBut it is a small percentage who will join the system at eight years old and go straight into the first XI. Itâs quite remarkable that weâve had so many lads whoâve done that.â Need to get this Mandron lad tied down to a pro deal or he will be snapped up else where. Read more: Journal Live http://www.journallive.co.uk/safc/s...-mika-l-mandron-61634-32828140/#ixzz2LEqyd5M4
Always been sceptical about the overall worth of the Academy in terms of cost, development and then final production of first teamers that benefit us. As far as I can remember only Henderson has been a relative success by making it to the national team.
What about the lesser players produced at the acadamy? Waghorn, Colback, M'vovto etc. Add them all together and there is a few quid into the club for these players.
I think Gabby Agbonlahor may disagree with you mate? As a product of their youth academy he was given his chance by Martin at Villa and took it? There were others that didnt. Youth should only be given a chance if they are actually good enough not just becasue they are young enough.
Kind of get what your saying, but by quite a lot of peoples opinions (ok, none of them are footy managers) we have had youth who many have shouted should be given a chance...Wickham more lately, but before him Noble, (yep you championed him for quite some time) yet neither hardly given a sniff.
I have championed both Noble and Wickham mate but then I'm just a fan not the manager or someone who sees these 2 lads week in week out day in day out? Whereas you and I may want to see them given a chance, the manager has to make a decision based on what he atually sees and he obviously sees nothing in either of these 2 right now,to warrant a 1st team place for either. There were many shouting for Gordon t be given a new contract and actually installed as our first team keeper back in the summer and much gnashing of the teeth when he was simply released. However, as we have seen, the manager saw he was finished and may never even play again let alone be offered a new contract. We have to trust in a man like O'Neill to know what he is doing, or else why employ him to start with?
