Young Team

[Tony Currie]

Credit to Wilder (and Hecky) for bringing the age of the team down and looking to the future. No more reliance on old legs with this core of a team!

​

William Osula(20)
Andre Brooks(20)
Femi Serki(21)
James McAtee(21)
Cameron Archer(22)
Rhian Brewster (23)
Rhys Norrington-Davies(24)
Vinícius Souza (24)
Anel Ahmedhodžić (24)

 

[Gin&Juice]

There’s a great foundation to build on if we want to.

 

[Reus]

Credit to Wilder (and Hecky) for bringing the age of the team down and looking to the future. No more reliance on old legs with this core of a team!

​

William Osula(20)
Andre Brooks(20)
Femi Serki(21)
James McAtee(21)
Cameron Archer(22)
Rhian Brewster (23)
Rhys Norrington-Davies(24)
Vinícius Souza (24)
Anel Ahmedhodžić (24)

Brereton Diaz (24)

 

[JPBrods]

Credit to Wilder (and Hecky)

Could swap these around tbh

 

[Chezzy Blades]

Brereton Diaz (24)

It’s crazy he’s the same age as RND. He burst onto the scene at Forest young but it feels like he’s been around forever.

 

[dexter101]

Didn't realise anel and souza were quite so young.

I would argue we can't really count mcatee as he will go back at end of the season and chances of us getting him permanently are slim to none. Likewise, archer will go back if we get relegated and brewster has had so many injuries he probably has the body of a 45 year old!

But I agree with the point as a whole and think we now have a stronger platform to build from!

 

[Kev Gee]

I think CW will be pretty much forced into looking at the academy for next season. Not that that's a bad thing.

That's why players like DJ would be best served by staying here. Next season they will be pretty much in or around the first 11.

 

[coaxingstar71]

A great foundation of a mid table Championship team at best.

McAtee isn't our player.
I don't see Osula ever being better than League 1 standard.
Brewster is constantly injured and has done virtually nothing since signing nearly 4 seasons ago.
Seriki, despite being 21, has still only played a handful of games.
Archer may or may not end up being our player.

Out of those, I think Brooks, RND, Souza and Anel would be regular first team players, and only if they don't leave or get any serious injuries.

 

[Tony Currie]

Credit to Wilder (and Hecky) for bringing the age of the team down and looking to the future. No more reliance on old legs with this core of a team!

​

William Osula(20)
Andre Brooks(20)
Femi Serki(21)
James McAtee(21)
Cameron Archer(22)
Rhian Brewster (23)
Rhys Norrington-Davies(24)
Vinícius Souza (24)
Anel Ahmedhodžić (24)

Sorry forgot Luke Thomas(22)

 

[8lade]

Master Arblaster 19

 

[Broomhall Blade]

A great foundation of a mid table Championship team at best.

McAtee isn't our player.
I don't see Osula ever being better than League 1 standard.
Brewster is constantly injured and has done virtually nothing since signing nearly 4 seasons ago.
Seriki, despite being 21, has still only played a handful of games.
Archer may or may not end up being our player.

Out of those, I think Brooks, RND, Souza and Anel would be regular first team players, and only if they don't leave or get any serious injuries.

Osula will have a career in football at a higher level than Brooks.

 

[SouthportBlade]

My view…Players who are likely to be here and good enough to be in the starting 11 next year

RND 24
Trusty 25
Arblaster 19
Souza 24
Brewster 23
Bogle 23

Squad players we’ve Brooks and Osula, maybe Jebbison. Not convinced any should be starting but squad players - happy to be proved wrong. Seriki isn’t going to be good enough for our level. Also throw Boyes into the mix, who’s been holding his own in League 1 but pathway blocked by RND so suspect he’ll leave

Archer will return to Villa
Anel will leave
Mcatee will go back to City

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Most those players won't make it at a level we want to be at imo.

 

[Snowflake]

A great foundation of a mid table Championship team at best.

McAtee isn't our player.
I don't see Osula ever being better than League 1 standard.
Brewster is constantly injured and has done virtually nothing since signing nearly 4 seasons ago.
Seriki, despite being 21, has still only played a handful of games.
Archer may or may not end up being our player.

Out of those, I think Brooks, RND, Souza and Anel would be regular first team players, and only if they don't leave or get any serious injuries.

Osula to me looks at least Championship level already and could well go higher. He certainly looks better at this stage than DCL did.
Given that this is a foundation then whether we are top Championship depends on what older experienced players we add.
There are also other young players pushing for a place.
It all looks realistically positive to me.

 

[coaxingstar71]

To be fair I never knew what Everton saw in DCL as he had no impact at League 1 level for us, so I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong. However I don't think Osula has enough quality/technique even for Champ level. He couldn't even get in the Derby first team in L1 less than a year ago.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Osula will have a career in football at a higher level than Brooks.

All about opinions isn't it.
I don't see it myself as Brooks seems technically a much better player to me.

 

[derbysufc]

I went to the torquay v derby f.a. cup game and osula played and scored.
He looked raw but you could see future talent.
It was the blades who recalled him back , derby rated him .
I agree about DCL though .

 

[andy m]

To be fair I never knew what Everton saw in DCL as he had no impact at League 1 level for us, so I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong. However I don't think Osula has enough quality/technique even for Champ level. He couldn't even get in the Derby first team in L1 less than a year ago.

Are you Paul Mitchell?

 

[coaxingstar71]

Are you Paul Mitchell?

More like Phil Mitchell.

 

[Nick Jansky]

To be fair I never knew what Everton saw in DCL as he had no impact at League 1 level for us, so I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong. However I don't think Osula has enough quality/technique even for Champ level. He couldn't even get in the Derby first team in L1 less than a year ago.

I think all this tells us is that you’re clueless at critiquing young strikers.

 

[Gin&Juice]

I think there’s some harsh criticism here. They need to play a consistent amount of game, get the experience etc. McAtee was hooked on one of his first appearances, but he adapted. Brooks will undoubtably improve, think he’s been fine the first few games, I don’t think you can judge how his careers going to pan out. Same with Osula, be the same with Arblaster,

Even Iliman, Hecky shoved him back in the U23s because he’d fizzled out. He came back and looked twice the player, consistently improved.

That’s what we need to look for.

There’s a good FOUNDATION. Good players and prospects, We need to seem them organically improve.

It’s exciting. We have a very good crop of youngsters, if we didn’t, they would’ve been binned off already.

 

[georgebernardshaw]

I think there’s some harsh criticism here. They need to play a consistent amount of game, get the experience etc. McAtee was hooked on one of his first appearances, but he adapted. Brooks will undoubtably improve, think he’s been fine the first few games, I don’t think you can judge how his careers going to pan out. Same with Osula, be the same with Arblaster,

Even Iliman, Hecky shoved him back in the U23s because he’d fizzled out. He came back and looked twice the player, consistently improved.

That’s what we need to look for.

There’s a good FOUNDATION. Good players and prospects, We need to seem them organically improve.

It’s exciting. We have a very good crop of youngsters, if we didn’t, they would’ve been binned off already.

It’s a forum tradition, someone posts a positive, the rest pile in and trash it…

 

[Gin&Juice]

It’s a forum tradition, someone posts a positive, the rest pile in and trash it…

We have been spoilt admittedly with youngsters coming through and looking the part. We all know who they are.

Some need more time, others will take a season or half to really kick on and look the part. Sick of the DCL comparisons. For one, he was an attacking midfielder, not a striker. Everton coached him really well, it’s nothing to do with him being shit for us, he played in a team where notouriously the team and fans hated each other.

Brooks looks a fucking good player, not a rabbit in headlights. He’d look better in the championship or league 1, we’d be raving about him, same with Osula and Jebbison. Maguire was one who benefited from that. As it is, we’re in the most demanding, hardest league in the world. And they haven’t looked that bad.

 

[s20Blade]

That's all good and well but in 10 years they are all going to be 30+.

 

[Snowflake]

To be fair I never knew what Everton saw in DCL as he had no impact at League 1 level for us, so I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong. However I don't think Osula has enough quality/technique even for Champ level. He couldn't even get in the Derby first team in L1 less than a year ago.

Maybe what Everton saw in DCL several of us see in Osula.
The learning curve for youngsters is quite steep: how good did Ndiaye look a year before he began to play regularly ?
For a striker to succeed in modern football he needs athleticism,pace,strength,awareness of what is happening around him,technique and a decent shot. In my view Osula has all of those.
He is not yet quite good enough at PL level, but certainly will score goals at Championship level and who knows beyond that ?

 

[derbysufc]

I've always been a big beliver that if your good enough , you're old enough regardless of age. The young darts lad luke the nuke is 16 and playing against the giant of the World and competing well.
My regret is the blades never seem to build a team around the quality youngsters .
We are like a production line of talent.
When you think , jags, monty, David Brooks, ramsdale, DCL, maguire , walker, naughton, illy, even Che Adams we nutured from Ilkeston, the list is endless .
You never see a Wendy player representing England.
We havd a fantastic crop of young players , some are ready some are in progress . The old saying you never win anything playing youngsters was proven wrong bg fergusson when he bled the youth as one .
Beckham , giggs, butt, Scholes, Gillespie, etc etc , they only became better players by game time .

 

[Broomhall Blade]

We have been spoilt admittedly with youngsters coming through and looking the part. We all know who they are.

Some need more time, others will take a season or half to really kick on and look the part. Sick of the DCL comparisons. For one, he was an attacking midfielder, not a striker. Everton coached him really well, it’s nothing to do with him being shit for us, he played in a team where notouriously the team and fans hated each other.

Brooks looks a fucking good player, not a rabbit in headlights. He’d look better in the championship or league 1, we’d be raving about him, same with Osula and Jebbison. Maguire was one who benefited from that. As it is, we’re in the most demanding, hardest league in the world. And they haven’t looked that bad.

I really don't get this Brooks looks a fucking good player, he's shown glimpses of potentially being a good player but he's equally been shocking like in the Luton game when he rightly got hooked at half time.
What type of midfielder is he ?
He doesn't break play up, he doesn’t create chances, he tends too go missing in games or fade in games.
Now i get he's only young and he could get better and stronger but at the moment he is not good enough for the Premiership and if we do go down I wouldn't want us building our midfield around him in the Championship..
He is only a year younger than McAtee a player you can see is going to have a good career at Premiership level.
I do wonder if he had cost 4 million from some European side rather than coming through our Academy would some of our fans have the same opinion of him.

 

[coaxingstar71]

I think all this tells us is that you’re clueless at critiquing young strikers.

You're right of course, probably as qualified as every other poster on here.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Maybe what Everton saw in DCL several of us see in Osula.
The learning curve for youngsters is quite steep: how good did Ndiaye look a year before he began to play regularly ?
For a striker to succeed in modern football he needs athleticism,pace,strength,awareness of what is happening around him,technique and a decent shot. In my view Osula has all of those.
He is not yet quite good enough at PL level, but certainly will score goals at Championship level and who knows beyond that ?

His technique is quite poor. He looks clumsy to me, still what do I know, he may go on to become the next Brian Deane - let's hope so.

I seem to be getting grief because I've dared to suggest that Osula is L1 standard at best, I assume because he scored twice against mighty Gillingham so he must be destined for greatness.

I sincerely hope so, but I'm yet to be convinced - in my opinion that is, if that's ok?

 

[Gin&Juice]

I really don't get this Brooks looks a fucking good player, he's shown glimpses of potentially being a good player but he's equally been shocking like in the Luton game when he rightly got hooked at half time.
What type of midfielder is he ?
He doesn't break play up, he doesn’t create chances, he tends too go missing in games or fade in games.
Now i get he's only young and he could get better and stronger but at the moment he is not good enough for the Premiership and if we do go down I wouldn't want us building our midfield around him in the Championship..
He is only a year younger than McAtee a player you can see is going to have a good career at Premiership level.
I do wonder if he had cost 4 million from some European side rather than coming through our Academy would some of our fans have the same opinion of him.

It’s context. It’s not fair to write him off. He hasn’t been a game changer, but he’s looked equally fine to say he’s only played consistently for BPA and is now playing CM in the hardest league in the world.