The Academy/Development squads watch thread 2024/25

[tidus_mi2]

https://twitter.com/RashawnScott11/status/1653489084550074380?t=01YeJGSoGa7Hp4ooBG68Kw&s=19

Cryptic tweet from Rashawn Scott -

Lets see what the future holds

I recall him having previous for cryptic tweets that ended up meaning nothing.

[Royals and Racers]

Sorry no Royal`s team line-up- Reading were interested enough to link the live you tube but not interested enough to post the line-up

Better late than never- from the RFC website report
Reading: Collins, Abrefa, Maragh (Paul 77), Senga, Holzman, Abbey, Akande, Abdel-Salam, Nyarko (Okine-Peters 77), Scott, Craig (Carson HT).
Unused subs: Purcell, Rowley.

As you have seen quite a lot of these games and players who now stands out in your opinion as real prospects?
From what I have seen of Abrefa I'm not yet convinced and Abbey and Craig have had so little first team action it is impossible for us to make any assessment.

IIRC there was one that impressed you who had come down from a Northern club, was it Carson?

Yes Matty Carson is a decent player who I rate. I have always thought Louie Holzman is a decent prospect as well.
Scott would be no loss as far as i’m concerned. Hopefully we will see more of Basil Tuma next season. Michael Craig also has something about him. Maybe in Div 1 we will see more of these youngsters given a chance.

[Sutekh]

Better late than never- from the RFC website report
Reading: Collins, Abrefa, Maragh (Paul 77), Senga, Holzman, Abbey, Akande, Abdel-Salam, Nyarko (Okine-Peters 77), Scott, Craig (Carson HT).
Unused subs: Purcell, Rowley.

As you have seen quite a lot of these games and players who now stands out in your opinion as real prospects?
From what I have seen of Abrefa I'm not yet convinced and Abbey and Craig have had so little first team action it is impossible for us to make any assessment.

IIRC there was one that impressed you who had come down from a Northern club, was it Carson?

Yes Matty Carson is a decent player who I rate. I have always thought Louie Holzman is a decent prospect as well.
Scott would be no loss as far as i’m concerned. Hopefully we will see more of Basil Tuma next season. Michael Craig also has something about him. Maybe in Div 1 we will see more of these youngsters given a chance.

Anyone have an opinion on how Basil Tuma has done this season, I know he started brightly and had that cameo in the league cup at the start of the season and that he is supposedly ****** fast, might he be with u21s next season rather than the u18s (he is 18 currently isn’t he?).

[Royals and Racers]

As you have seen quite a lot of these games and players who now stands out in your opinion as real prospects?
From what I have seen of Abrefa I'm not yet convinced and Abbey and Craig have had so little first team action it is impossible for us to make any assessment.

IIRC there was one that impressed you who had come down from a Northern club, was it Carson?

Yes Matty Carson is a decent player who I rate. I have always thought Louie Holzman is a decent prospect as well.
Scott would be no loss as far as i’m concerned. Hopefully we will see more of Basil Tuma next season. Michael Craig also has something about him. Maybe in Div 1 we will see more of these youngsters given a chance.

Anyone have an opinion on how Basil Tuma has done this season, I know he started brightly and had that cameo in the league cup at the start of the season and that he is supposedly ****** fast, might he be with u21s next season rather than the u18s (he is 18 currently isn’t he?).

Not sure he has played for months- college exams i think is the reason.

[Royals and Racers]

When does the u21 season finish R&R?

Last match is this Friday at Bearwood against Barnsley KO 2pm - Royals 4th. I am going and other season ticket holders can attend for £5 by ringing the ticket office by Thursday afternoon i would imagine.

Changed to 1pm KO

[Wycombe Royal]

Looks like we will be losing Luca Fletcher from the academy this summer. Just won academy player of the year, has played regularly for England U16's scoring a number of goals. Can play anywhere across the front. Looks likely to join Man City.

My son goes to school with him, and he is in a different class to all the other academy players at Forest (not surprisingly the Forest Yr11 team have reached the Elite National Schools Cup Final). Some of the academy players believe he could feature in our first team squad next season if he stays.

You have to wonder with these young kids if making the move to a big club at young age is right for their development. Some it works for (Jude Bellingham) but for many they just end up on endless loans before settling back into a Championship or lower league team.

[Norfolk Royal]

Looks like we will be losing Luca Fletcher from the academy this summer. Just won academy player of the year, has played regularly for England U16's scoring a number of goals. Can play anywhere across the front. Looks likely to join Man City.

My son goes to school with him, and he is in a different class to all the other academy players at Forest (not surprisingly the Forest Yr11 team have reached the Elite National Schools Cup Final). Some of the academy players believe he could feature in our first team squad next season if he stays.

You have to wonder with these young kids if making the move to a big club at young age is right for their development. Some it works for (Jude Bellingham) but for many they just end up on endless loans before settling back into a Championship or lower league team.

Bellingham turned down Man City and opted to stay at Birmingham to get first team football in fact, and that worked for him.

[Hound]

That’d be a shame but can’t blame the kid for that really. Have to be mad to turn down the chance to work with Pep and co

[Sutekh]

Does anyone know when the Academy status decision is due to be announced, early/mid or late May (and will the club tell anyone as it is news related to the Academy after all)?

[RG30]

Does anyone know when the Academy status decision is due to be announced, early/mid or late May (and will the club tell anyone as it is news related to the Academy after all)?

Bowen sounded hopeful in his speech at the end of season awards last night but didn’t specify a date.

On a related note was watching a Q & A session with the QPR CEO Lee Hoos on the club YouTube channel and he was of the opinion the number of Cat 1 clubs would dwindle as a result of pressure from the elite clubs as they don’t like the fact so many have aspirations to get Cat 1 status.

[Sutekh]

Does anyone know when the Academy status decision is due to be announced, early/mid or late May (and will the club tell anyone as it is news related to the Academy after all)?

Bowen sounded hopeful in his speech at the end of season awards last night but didn’t specify a date.

On a related note was watching a Q & A session with the QPR CEO Lee Hoos on the club YouTube channel and he was of the opinion the number of Cat 1 clubs would dwindle as a result of pressure from the elite clubs as they don’t like the fact so many have aspirations to get Cat 1 status.

And then they can't nick players as easily! Somebody really needs to have the bottle to stand up to the elite clubs and tell them where to go and have the power to make their lives as miserable as the rest of us if they don't play nicely.

[SCIAG]

Looks like we will be losing Luca Fletcher from the academy this summer. Just won academy player of the year, has played regularly for England U16's scoring a number of goals. Can play anywhere across the front. Looks likely to join Man City.

My son goes to school with him, and he is in a different class to all the other academy players at Forest (not surprisingly the Forest Yr11 team have reached the Elite National Schools Cup Final). Some of the academy players believe he could feature in our first team squad next season if he stays.

You have to wonder with these young kids if making the move to a big club at young age is right for their development. Some it works for (Jude Bellingham) but for many they just end up on endless loans before settling back into a Championship or lower league team.

Honestly it's probably a better decision than we as lower-league fans would like to think.

"Endless loans before ending up in the Championship" isn't a bad outcome! A lot of the most talented young players at Reading don't achieve that.

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens left us for Man City and now plays for Dortmund. Jordi Osei-Tutu left us for Arsenal and now plays for Bochum.

Contrastingly Aaron Kuhl turned down City to stay with us and now plays for Dorking. Admittedly that's mostly because of a couple of bad injuries. Oliver Pendlebury turned down Chelsea to stay with us and now plays for Aldershot.

Difficult to disentangle cause and effect of course but generally you have better career prospects if you are in Man United, Chelsea, and latterly Man City's U18s than in Reading's. And if you really want to make it at the top of the game, you need to be better than everyone else anyway. May as well start out by trying to displace Haaland and Alvarez. Hasn't done Iheanacho any harm.

[Orion1871]

Looks like we will be losing Luca Fletcher from the academy this summer. Just won academy player of the year, has played regularly for England U16's scoring a number of goals. Can play anywhere across the front. Looks likely to join Man City.

My son goes to school with him, and he is in a different class to all the other academy players at Forest (not surprisingly the Forest Yr11 team have reached the Elite National Schools Cup Final). Some of the academy players believe he could feature in our first team squad next season if he stays.

You have to wonder with these young kids if making the move to a big club at young age is right for their development. Some it works for (Jude Bellingham) but for many they just end up on endless loans before settling back into a Championship or lower league team.

At least EPPP will see us compensated handsomely...

[Royals and Racers]

U 21’s match v Barnsley has a new start time of 2.30pm because of coach problems for Barnsley. I’m told coach broke down and now they are held up in traffic- i would have thought for that distance they would have come down yesterday !!!

[Royals and Racers]

Collins
Abrefa
Holzman
Abbey
Carson
Abdel-Salam
Senga
Camara
Scott
Akande
Trialist- Jack Connor 19 year old Northampton town ??
SUBS
Purcell
Norcott(G)
Maragh
Giscombe
Paul

[South Coast Royal]

U 21’s match v Barnsley has a new start time of 2.30pm because of coach problems for Barnsley. I’m told coach broke down and now they are held up in traffic- i would have thought for that distance they would have come down yesterday !!!

Overnight stays for League 1 U21 players?
The reality will hit for us next season.

[Royals and Racers]

Barnsley missed pen 34 mins- good save by Collins.
Reading 0 Barnsley 1 41 mins Collins error
!!!
0-2 on the stroke of half time.

[Orion1871]

oxf*rd hell. These are the lads who are supposed to help us get promoted.

[Royals and Racers]

oxf*rd hell. These are the lads who are supposed to help us get promoted.

RFC academy twitter are trying to help- they say it’s 1-0 !!! Must have gone for a pi$$ and missed the 1st goal
They also missed Purcell coming on at HT

[Wycombe Royal]

Academy player of the year Luca Fletcher starting for Forest School this afternoon (along with some other u16 academy players) in the National Elite Schools Cup Final at the Bet365 stadium.

Live on Youtube if anyone fancies watching it. Just kicked off.