The Academy/Development squads watch thread 2024/25

[CountryRoyal]

Billy Collings (19yr old GK) has joined Brighton. Can't say I've ever heard of him. Is he any good?

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/ ... um=twitter

One of the most highly rated youngsters in the world and he was always destined to join a massive club. I heard Brighton beat off competition from Real Madrid and Barcelona as the young lad was quoted in saying "yeah those Spanish teams are good and all, but when you get the opportunity to sign for a club of Brighton's stature, that's a once in a life time opportunity, you've got to take it".

[NewCorkSeth]

Billy Collings (19yr old GK) has joined Brighton. Can't say I've ever heard of him. Is he any good?

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/ ... um=twitter

One of the most highly rated youngsters in the world and he was always destined to join a massive club. I heard Brighton beat off competition from Real Madrid and Barcelona as the young lad was quoted in saying "yeah those Spanish teams are good and all, but when you get the opportunity to sign for a club of Brighton's stature, that's a once in a life time opportunity, you've got to take it".

He would have had big money offers from China if they didnt have that GK rule

[Saaaaaaaammmmmm]

Billy Collings (19yr old GK) has joined Brighton. Can't say I've ever heard of him. Is he any good?

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/news/article/ ... um=twitter

He was on the bench for the preseason game at Swindon and then went on loan to Hendon in the Isthmian Premier (3rd Tier of Non-League)

Signed his first pro deal this summer but is of the same age group of Southwood and Tupper and never got as much game time as them

I posted about the Academy GKs a few weeks ago as after Al-Habsi, Jaakkola and Bond we have under professional contract:
Stuart Moore
Lewis Ward
George Legg
Luke Southwood
Joe Tupper
(Billy Collings)

So once you factor in the U18 keepers then there's really no point having them all contracted. This transfer reminds me a bit of when Jon Henly joined Ipswich and it looked a mistake letting him go, but he's now at Hemel Hempstead on loan from Margate. Even if he does get the odd game or bench appearance for Brighton it's not like with our options we'll ever regret letting him leave and push forward in his own career

[Sutekh]

We've had some really great promising young keepers down the years. Remember Sean Allaway being sold to Leeds for some ridiculous sum for a teenager not even part of our first team squad (think it was about £500k) and a year or two later he was on the books of Slough. Wonder if sime thing similar will happen to Colluns as the Brighton site says the deal is just to the summer

[SCIAG]

He's probably quite a good goalkeeper or we wouldn't have offered him a deal. I've never seen him play and I'm not concerned about losing him. I thought letting Henly and Lincoln go was a bit weird because they were better goalkeepers than Moore at the time, but we've got so many options that it's unlikely we'll regret this.

Could see George Legg leaving very soon too. Keeping him this long was very weird. With Bond, Moore, Ward, Southwood, and Driscoll around and Al-Habsi looking so good, it's practically impossible to see him ever playing for us.

[RG30]

Niall Keown playing a trial game for Partick Thistle today - presumable a 6 month loan move on the cards?

[Sutekh]

Brighton are at it again. Harry Cardwell has joined them for the rest of the season although it's a loan not permanent.

Defensive midfielder Harrison Bennett has joined Margate for a month ( for those in the South Essex area Margate are at East Thurrock today so you might get a glimpse if he mskes their bench )

[RustyRoyal]

That's a weird one. Why would they loan a player for their U23 squad?

[3points]

That's a weird one. Why would they loan a player for their U23 squad?

Perhaps we are going to release cardwell in the summer and his agent has got him what is, in effect, an extended trial?

[marcjwallace]

Niall Keown playing a trial game for Partick Thistle today - presumable a 6 month loan move on the cards?

Partick Thistle fan here, just wondering what you guys think of him as a player - what his strengths and weaknesses are etc.

We're like trying to get blood from a stone regarding player movements so came here wondering if there's any news at your end.


Cheers guys.

[Ian Royal]

Niall Keown playing a trial game for Partick Thistle today - presumable a 6 month loan move on the cards?

Partick Thistle fan here, just wondering what you guys think of him as a player - what his strengths and weaknesses are etc.

We're like trying to get blood from a stone regarding player movements so came here wondering if there's any news at your end.


Cheers guys.

He's not really played for us, so most won't be able to help much. I've seen a bit of our youth sides over the years, but not much of him. I believe he can play right back or centreback. We've got some great defensive prospects and he's not quite up there with the best as I understand it

[SCIAG]

Very good performance to win 4-1 against Birmingham yesterday, goals from Frost, Smith, and two from Novakovich.

Niall Keown playing a trial game for Partick Thistle today - presumable a 6 month loan move on the cards?

Partick Thistle fan here, just wondering what you guys think of him as a player - what his strengths and weaknesses are etc.

We're like trying to get blood from a stone regarding player movements so came here wondering if there's any news at your end.


Cheers guys.

He's a very good defender who should do well in the SPL. I think if he hadn't had such terrible luck with injuries then he would have played a significant role for us.

A few years ago he did really well in pre-season when three of the four defenders ahead of him were injured. Unfortunately he got injured himself shortly afterwards.

Strengths at centre back: reading the game, concentration, playing out from the back
Weaknesses at centre back: physicality - he's "only" six foot and of similarly ordinary pace. But he's a good threat at set pieces.

Strengths at right back: defending, height, crossing
Weaknesses at right back: overlapping

Didn't play for the U23s yesterday so there's every chance a loan could be on the horizon.

[Sutekh]

It's about time he got a loan deal out domewhere and hopefully it would be for the rest of the season.

Hoping he'll be as good as his father but, as has been mentioned, he's suffered with a string of injuries which have made it difficult for him to get any momentum and consequently he's probably a little behind where he should be in his career. Scored for us at a corner in the Checkacrowd trophy earlier this season so certainly a set piece threat.

[Royals and Racers]

Despite losing at home on Saturday to southern section leaders Chelsea the u18`s have had another great season, and with 3 matches to go in the regular season are all but assured of a top 4 place to reach the elite section play-off which they also reached last season(4 matches against the top 4 in the northern section and 3 against the south). Augur`s well for the future !!

[Saaaaaaaammmmmm]

The U18s League has a new added incentive of European qualification on offer, so the fact we're in contention of making the final group should probably be getting more attention

The UEFA Youth League has usually just run in parallel with the Champions League and their sides but now it includes the domestic youth champions of each country, which means a spot is up for grabs for the U18 Champions (we were runners-up a few years ago, 7th I think last season)

The difficulty will be trying to overcome Chelsea and Man City who are clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in youth football at the moment, see our FA Youth Cup loss to City as an example. Chelsea are currently top of our southern section by eight points

The Final Top 8 stage sees the Top 4 from North & South (with three games to go we are pretty much there in 2nd) play each other once, with 1st place being crowned Premier League Champions and qualifying for the UEFA Youth League. The Youth League is a pretty big deal, BT Sport have been showing all the British clubs games (including City being knocked out by Salzburg last night), it'll be a tall order but given we're currently 2nd in the Southern Premier League there's plenty of reason to think over seven games it's possible

[Sutekh]

On the subject of MC snd Chavski, I know both have reasonably talented "proper" home grown youngsters but how much of their u18 squads are filled with "improper" home grown talent ie. talent that they've just signed up from outside England & Wales?

In my opinion the signing of anyone u18 by a club not in the same country should be outlawed.

Perhaps I'd even go as far to say that clubs can only take u18s living within about 100 miles of their location

[SCIAG]

On the subject of MC snd Chavski, I know both have reasonably talented "proper" home grown youngsters but how much of their u18 squads are filled with "improper" home grown talent ie. talent that they've just signed up from outside England & Wales?

In my opinion the signing of anyone u18 by a club not in the same country should be outlawed.

Perhaps I'd even go as far to say that clubs can only take u18s living within about 100 miles of their location

Very little of their squad is from abroad. U23 level more so, but their U18 teams are generally heavily domestic. People complain because they have foreign-sounding names like Ikpeazu and Tshibola but that's just London/Manchester for you.

It's already illegal to sign U18s from outside the country, which we get around by signing EEA nationals. If we leave the EEA then say goodbye to all those Icelandic and Irish players we've had in the youth team, as well as Novakovich and Bozanic. The other Aussies would be fine as I think they all had British citizenship/ancestry, certainly Rollinson does.

Relevant regulations are here: http://www.espnfc.co.uk/blog/fifa/243/p ... article-19

The hard-and-fast 100 mile rule sounds good but in practice is silly, we've already tried the two-hour rule but abolished it for the best academies. There's no sense telling a kid from Truro who [i]could[/b] be the next Rooney that he's got to play for Exeter/Plymouth/Torquay. Even Exeter is more than 100 miles from Southampton. Much better to let the best players join the best academies (or the academy of their choice).

[Platypuss]

U-23s vs Sheffield UnIted at Adams Park today.

We are 2-0 down inside 10 minutes.

[maffff]

Trying to catch up on the yoof's that have left since the end of last season

Looks like Josh Chatee went out to the Swedish second division, on deadline day Anil Capkin left us on a free for the German 4th tier.

Eric Matzelevich was mentioned early 2016 as having joined us but by September was at DC United? What happened there?

Some players I saw mentioned before don't appear to exist (Josh Friend? Eddie Eastwood? Sam Oliver?)

And I can't see any updates can't see anything on Liam Carrick-O'Dowda or Gabriel Rosario

SCIAG?

Also, don't suppose you know the positions of some of them
- Andre Burley, Ethan Coleman, Jack Buchanan, Jazz Wallace, Jordan Greenridge, Kosta Sparta, Leon Okuboyejo

Oh, and some kid called Nolan just popped up on the bench for the u18's?

[SCIAG]

Trying to catch up on the yoof's that have left since the end of last season

Looks like Josh Chatee went out to the Swedish second division, on deadline day Anil Capkin left us on a free for the German 4th tier.

Eric Matzelevich was mentioned early 2016 as having joined us but by September was at DC United? What happened there?

Noor Husin is the success story, he's made the bench for Crystal Palace a few times and just scored on debut on loan at Accrington Stanley.

Think Matzelevich fell through when he went home for the summer. We either decided we didn't want him back or he decided to stay in America.

Some players I saw mentioned before don't appear to exist (Josh Friend? Eddie Eastwood? Sam Oliver?)

And I can't see any updates can't see anything on Liam Carrick-O'Dowda or Gabriel Rosario

SCIAG?

Never heard of Friend or Eastwood and Oliver only rings a bell. I don't know about Carrick-O'Dowda either. Think Rosario is still at the club but behind James Hilson in the pecking order.

Also, don't suppose you know the positions of some of them
- Andre Burley, Ethan Coleman, Jack Buchanan, Jazz Wallace, Jordan Greenridge, Kosta Sparta, Leon Okuboyejo

Burley is a centre back. Coleman is a central midfielder in the Kuhl/Kelly mould (and a former England U15? international). Wallace is a right back. Jordan Greenidge is a striker but has signed for Stoke. Think Okuboyejo and Buchanan are wide players. Sparta is a new-ish signing iirc, couldn't tell you where he plays.

Oh, and some kid called Nolan just popped up on the bench for the u18's?

Jack Nolan, striker/winger, U16s but getting lots of game time for the U18s which is promising.