Ball Sup Blog... SUFC Academy U21 v Norwich City (h)

[LBA_Blade]

3-1 red card too

 

[Greystones Blade]

FT Lost 3-1

 

[TJ blade]

Lost 3-1, nobody in that team to trouble the first team sadly!

 

[bertieblade]

Wilder froze him out with not much route back unless there was injuries.

I do think publicly saying that many players needed to go and the squad is too big, is why we hit that the rocks form wise.

Forcing an unfit Arblaster into the squad seemed somewhat daft.

Yes he never dangles the carrot in front of players who are out of the first eleven, just throws them to one side and only generally uses them if we get an injury.
His man management leaves a lot to be desired as football has gone beyond, thumping the badge and drinking Peroni .
Of the players playing tonight
Colechin, our no. 3 , Aston and Beattie have a future. Matos needs encouragement and will be a decent player ( never thought I would say that ).

 

[LBA_Blade]

Lost 3-1, nobody in that team to trouble the first team sadly!

Not yet a few individual decent performances it’s whether they can step-up in preseason. Eadie and Aston along with Matos all looked promising but probably need to loan them out to get some men’s minutes. Faxon is still flapping and is worse than Davies for getting down for shots

 

[Dnblade]

Yes they aren't as good as recent U21's teams,but i suppose the likes of One,Marsh,Hampson,Blacker out on loan would have made a difference.
Mclinchey at LB first half,and Colechin at RB 2nd half looked promising...Sasknauskas fist half maybe.

 

[Bladesman]

Yes he never dangles the carrot in front of players who are out of the first eleven, just throws them to one side and only generally uses them if we get an injury.
His man management leaves a lot to be desired as football has gone beyond, thumping the badge and drinking Peroni .
Of the players playing tonight
Colechin, our no. 3 , Aston and Beattie have a future. Matos needs encouragement and will be a decent player ( never thought I would say that ).

Chelsea sign a lot of players but they don't always sign dross. They sign and hoard decent or half decent players to move on for a profit.

Bit hasty of Wilder to freeze him out so early assuming someone would take him on loan in January.

 

[Wards]

Thought Colechin was very good when he came on. Can see why he's rated highly.

 

[bertieblade]

Thought Colechin was very good when he came on. Can see why he's rated highly.

And only 17. Pace, strength, football brain; competing at a level three years ahead and not looking out of place

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

Phil, do you know how these play offs work. According to the Norwich website their u21 team have had a poor season and have finished near the bottom of their league, so it seems strange that they have made the end of season play offs.

Hi mate. I see LardSardine has answered your question.

 

[UddersBlade]

And only 17. Pace, strength, football brain; competing at a level three years ahead and not looking out of place

Yeah - he is the one who looks a real prospect. We need to do everything we can to develop him gradually over the next 2-3 years.

 

[EddieColquhoun]

And only 17. Pace, strength, football brain; competing at a level three years ahead and not looking out of place

He'll be 19 in September according to Transfermkt.

 

[Beans]

He'll be 19 in September according to Transfermkt.

Not that it really matters, and not to get all "he's 28 until he's 29" about this, but you've sent me down a small rabbit hole here and I think he may still be 17, unless this May 2023 tweet was a typo:

Which means he would've been just 16 when he came on against Cardiff in the FA Cup in January 2025 - which in turn made me wonder how close he was to being our youngest ever player to make a first team appearance? Louis Reed was 16 and 257 days, although AFAIK that's the record for league appearances so not sure if we've had a younger cup debutant at some point in our history.

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

If you've come on one of my threads for definitive information you're out of your mind.

But, for what it's worth in the forthcoming Carrier Bag Firm book

Sheffield United in the Professional Development League, A Statistical Record

in the style of Andrew Kirkham, we'll be listing Sam Colechin as born in September 2007, and hence currently 18. And we have triangulated sources for that.

Unlikely to be available at "all good booksellers".

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

Your regular reminder that Sam has a younger Brother, Ollie, in the Shirecliffe Academy.

 

[Beans]

If you've come on one of my threads for definitive information you're out of your mind.

But, for what it's worth in the forthcoming Carrier Bag Firm book

Sheffield United in the Professional Development League, A Statistical Record

in the style of Andrew Kirkham, we'll be listing Sam Colechin as born in September 2007, and hence currently 18. And we have triangulated sources for that.

Unlikely to be available at "all good booksellers".

Blades Development twitter admin in the mud then.

Just looking at the rest of that XI from three years ago - more than a few still here, Charlie Staniland at Hallam, Callum Yam at Hull, Tavio Ciccarelli is in the Canadian Premier League, Ben Drake now at Millwall, while Brandon Ly currently playing in Vietnam!

Is Billy Blacker the only one of that squad to make an EFL appearance to date?

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

Yes they aren't as good as recent U21's teams,but i suppose the likes of One,Marsh,Hampson,Blacker out on loan would have made a difference.
Mclinchey at LB first half,and Colechin at RB 2nd half looked promising...Sasknauskas fist half maybe.

I'm not singling you out Dnblade
But I am going to say - Jamal Baptiste routinely gets overlooked in the lists of development players out on loan.

See also Sam Curtis

 

[Balham]

Not that it really matters, and not to get all "he's 28 until he's 29" about this, but you've sent me down a small rabbit hole here and I think he may still be 17, unless this May 2023 tweet was a typo:

Which means he would've been just 16 when he came on against Cardiff in the FA Cup in January 2025 - which in turn made me wonder how close he was to being our youngest ever player to make a first team appearance? Louis Reed was 16 and 257 days, although AFAIK that's the record for league appearances so not sure if we've had a younger cup debutant at some point in our history.

Colechin was definitely 16 when he came on against Cardiff as a bit was made of it on the commentary. As far as I can tell he has a September birthday so he'd have been younger than Reed was and therefore in with a good chance of being our youngest ever first team player.

 

[Greystones Blade]

Report here

https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2026/april/27/under21s-1-3-norwich-report/

 

[EddieColquhoun]

Colechin was definitely 16 when he came on against Cardiff as a bit was made of it on the commentary. As far as I can tell he has a September birthday so he'd have been younger than Reed was and therefore in with a good chance of being our youngest ever first team player.

He became a first year scholar in 2024. If he has a September birthday he couldn't have been 16 the following January.

 

[bertieblade]

Does it really matter exactly how old he is
He is playing in an age group which is at least two years old then him and portrays, pace, skill and an understanding of the game way beyond his age. He will be. V good first team player in the next 2 / 3 years if not inside that and will allow us to sell Seriki and generate funds for other teams of the team.

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

We just looked his date of birth up in the stats section of one of last year's programmes. But. You know. Knock yourselves out...

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

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[Dnblade]

I'm not singling you out Dnblade
But I am going to say - Jamal Baptiste routinely gets overlooked in the lists of development players out on loan.

See also Sam Curtis

Yes and i suppose Louis Marsh at Falkirk still qualifies...seems to be injured again.
My Millers mate's not that impressed with Baptiste,but then again he wasn't impressed with Seriki,and he's come back and done well.

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

Yes and i suppose Louis Marsh at Falkirk still qualifies...seems to be injured again.
My Millers mate's not that impressed with Baptiste,but then again he wasn't impressed with Seriki,and he's come back and done well.

You're throwing me now. You already included Marsh (Louie with an e not Louis with an s) in your earlier post.

 

[EddieColquhoun]

Does it really matter exactly how old he is

If it was claimed he was our youngest ever player it might help

 

[bertieblade]

If it was claimed he was our youngest ever player it might help

Not in the context of what I have said

 

[Chezzy Blades]

Colechin was definitely 16 when he came on against Cardiff as a bit was made of it on the commentary. As far as I can tell he has a September birthday so he'd have been younger than Reed was and therefore in with a good chance of being our youngest ever first team player.

Football Manager (once to be scoffed at I know but now is statistically extremely accurate) has his date of birth as 8th September 2008, which would mean he's currently 17. Ignore 29 in the screenshot that's because I'm in 2038.

 

[Ball_Sup (Phil)]

If Sam Colechin was born in 2008. Then Sheffield United FC have been in breach of a number of FA, Premier League and EFL regulations. Including...

Signing Sam to a Scholarship when he was too young.
Playing him in the U21s when he was still in the U15 cohort.
Listing his date of birth incorrectly in match day programmes (forget "Football Manager" just have a look at a match day programme from last season).

Of course, none of those regulations were infringed, because Sam was born in 2007.

 

[radio]

I guess I'm more thinking - will an EFL Club (York City) want us to play U21 home games on their ground. We stopped using Chesterfield once they got promoted to the EFL.

That game v Brentford U21 at Doncaster was very much a one off. It was a play off semi final, that "had to be played" that weekend, at shortish notice, on the day Bramall Lane was being used for our Championship play off v Bristol City.

York, of course, is effectively a "Council Pitch" available for rent. So maybe the York Taxpayers will still want us there.

The issue with using Bramall Lane for more than the regulation minimum of U21 games is that we also have a Women's Team. We effectively have two teams, Men's first & Women's first, who need to play the whole of their seasons at Bramall Lane. That doesn't really leave much room for U21 games - hence why York has been used recently.

It wouldn't surprise me if we hunkered down to the regulation minimum at Bramall Lane and the rest at Shirecliffe.

That also makes financial sense as we obviously have to pay to use other grounds , if we were looking for somewhere else maybe Scunthorpe might be an option , I seem to recall last year there were rumours that we had played a pre season friendly at Sheffield FC as part of a deal to use their ground , ,, but obviously didn't materialise