Saints Academy Thread

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Ronnie Hotdog (MLsfc) said:
A lot of talking about Alejandro Gomes and how much of a big talent he is recently. Just seen that he has signed with a new agent: Tier 1 agency.

Hope they don't convincr him a big money move is the best step for him.
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Same agency as Maitland-Niles, who they managed to get a 4 year deal at Lyon. They must be very persuasive.

Unfortunately their Instagram page seems to include a lot of young players being transferred to Prem sides from lower league clubs.
 
Che’s Godlike Thighs said:
Same agency as Maitland-Niles, who they managed to get a 4 year deal at Lyon. They must be very persuasive.

Unfortunately their Instagram page seems to include a lot of young players being transferred to Prem sides from lower league clubs.
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Hard to know where the cause/effect is, given that is a pretty well-worn path with or without an agent's help. Good news there is that most bookmakers have us at better than 50/50 to be a Prem side by the time he is likely to make that decision.

If he's the player he appears to be, it's going to be a real struggle. Most of the PL and half of Europe will be kicking the tires on him, and the only thing we can really offer is opportunity. Use the Evan Ferguson game plan with Brighton: trust him early and often such that the prospect of getting buried in the reserves for Man City or whatever loses its lustre. Set him achievable targets with senior playing time as the dangled carrot, and if he performs in the next few PL2 matches, look to get him into a senior squad in late Feb/March.
 
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I do think it’s quite likely that he’ll be ‘poached’ before signing a pro contract here and agree that if we’ve any chance of keeping hold of him, we probably have to get him involved and probably on the pitch too for the first team maybe even this season. He might not live up to his early hype, but it’s low risk for clubs at this age so all the vultures will be out with lots of lucrative sounding offers for him and his family.
 
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He looks an incredible talent, I think we’ve got to hope we can work a Bellingham situation and make sure we actually are compensated for him when inevitably some of Europe’s best teams make moves.

As @Schad noted, this is about integrating him into the first team (if ready) as soon as we can. Bellingham would often travel with Birmingham first team as a 19th man, and was playing for them as soon as he was 16.
 
Gomes didn’t look out of place against the older players in the Spurs team and already has a man’s physique. At 15 he could still shoot up a few inches and become quite a formidable player, if he maintains his football progress. He also played the entire game on debut for the U21s so is clearly fit enough. I don’t know his background or what his affiliation is to us but as is sometimes the case it might be his parents who are courted by the big clubs in an attempt to lure him away.
 
San Tejón said:
Gomes didn’t look out of place against the older players in the Spurs team and already has a man’s physique. At 15 he could still shoot up a few inches and become quite a formidable player, if he maintains his football progress. He also played the entire game on debut for the U21s so is clearly fit enough. I don’t know his background or what his affiliation is to us but as is sometimes the case it might be his parents who are courted by the big clubs in an attempt to lure him away.
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I think he was only playing sunday league kids football until we picked him up a couple of years ago and he has just kept stepping up and excelling at every level.
 
I think it would be a pretty huge failing for SR to have Gomes poached before he is 17.
Our first team squad is short of players in his position and the stage is very much set for him to be fast tracked if he is the generational talent he is being hyped to be.
We’re a wealthy club and there is nothing our richer rivals from the PL can realistically offer that we can’t, especially if I’m right in thinking the maximum contract for a 17 year old is 2 years and if he is that good then the club should definitely consider paying him more than some of the first team are on if we’re still in the championship as he’ll make that back and then some.
 
SAINTOSPREY said:
Tuesday 16 th January 2024
Exeter v Southampton U21

The U21s lose 3 - 2 in today’s friendly vs Exeter 1st team, a tough test against league 1 opposition. Goals from Tyler Dibling and Nick Oyekunle.
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Seems a bit weird for Exeter if it actually was their first team. They played on Saturday and play again this Saturday so why would you add an extra midweek game in there?
 
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