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[Albion] Who was the last player to break through from the youth team/development squad?







N

NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
GT49er said:
Molumbey looked good in the cup team before he got injured. White has had rave reviews out on loan, and Cochrane looks very close. Plus Gyokeres, Sanders and Connolly already mentioned.
Not sure how keen CH is to give the youngsters a go though - we do know he is somewhat risk-averse. Would like to see a few making the bench next season - fingers crossed, but not holding my breath.
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Josh and Jacob Murphy were given their chance by CH straight from the Under 18 Youth Team into the first team at Norwich
 


casbom

casbom

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2007
2,581
I guess a youngster will have to not only prove themselves in the Championship but also stand out from other players (like Reece James has at Wigan) to then be considered good enough for the Prem. So that means some of our players will have to be loaned out to that level.
 


Birdie Boy

Birdie Boy

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2011
4,108
Christ almighty. People moan how shit we have been playing this year and still expect a u23 player to come in and replace one of the senior experienced players. If Dunk or Duffy had got injured and we didn't have Burn, like some are suggesting, would you have been happy with an u23 player thrown in against, say, Liverpool? :ffsparr:
 


W

Wardy's twin

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2014
8,444
Perkino said:
The biggest crime to me is us signing players like Steele & Burn last summer. Both were clearly not going to get a run in the first team and would only be squad players, why didn't we leave the space for Sanchez and White to gain some matchday experience?
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But Burn did look very accomplished in the games he played....
 






Couldn't Be Hyypia

Couldn't Be Hyypia

We've come a long long way together
NSC Patron
Nov 12, 2006
15,918
Near Dorchester, Dorset
When I look at the U23s I see quite a few players who I suspect would have walked into our side back when we were in League One/Two. These are the sort of players that Prem sides would lend to us back then and we'd say "if only we produced a few of these".

We didn't have that before. So we've made a start. We are finding and developing players who are capable of playing week in, week out in professional football. It's not reasonable yet to be expecting these guys to come through and slot straight into a Prem side.

Now to start developing them to either hone their craft and develop into Prem players, or to attract an even higher standard of youth players. Unless we get very lucky, this will take a few seasons more.

Lastly, it's worth recognising that all sides with a youth development programme are playing a numbers game. Very few, if any, come through to the senior level. Many leave football, play non-league or scrabble about at the bottom end of the professional leagues.
 


Kalimantan Gull

Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
12,924
Central Borneo / the Lizard
Also, Bissouma was 21 when he made his debut, Bernardo is 23, it's not like Hughton won't play young players. I think the phrase is, if you're good enough, you're old enough.

We've only had a top flight academy for two years so give em a chance!
 






dejavuatbtn

dejavuatbtn

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
7,205
Henfield
In the old days of apprenticeships you were lucky if you got one decent player every couple of years worthy of being a first team regular. I think the same probably applies today with academies where maybe one will make the premier league first team every couple of years. The difference with academies like ours is that we should at least be producing players worthy of being professional footballers, albeit at a level lower than premier league - the club can still make a lot of money out of them.
 


whitelion

whitelion

New member
Dec 16, 2003
12,828
Southwick
Couldn't Be Hyypia said:
When I look at the U23s I see quite a few players who I suspect would have walked into our side back when we were in League One/Two. These are the sort of players that Prem sides would lend to us back then and we'd say "if only we produced a few of these".

We didn't have that before. So we've made a start. We are finding and developing players who are capable of playing week in, week out in professional football. It's not reasonable yet to be expecting these guys to come through and slot straight into a Prem side.

Now to start developing them to either hone their craft and develop into Prem players, or to attract an even higher standard of youth players. Unless we get very lucky, this will take a few seasons more.

Lastly, it's worth recognising that all sides with a youth development programme are playing a numbers game. Very few, if any, come through to the senior level. Many leave football, play non-league or scrabble about at the bottom end of the professional leagues.
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I just had visions of players playing scrabble until I reread your post.
 








Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
65,503
Beside the seaside, beside the sea
dejavuatbtn said:
In the old days of apprenticeships you were lucky if you got one decent player every couple of years worthy of being a first team regular. I think the same probably applies today with academies where maybe one will make the premier league first team every couple of years. The difference with academies like ours is that we should at least be producing players worthy of being professional footballers, albeit at a level lower than premier league - the club can still make a lot of money out of them.
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I agree. People are keen to point out that the youngsters aren't getting into the first team but our youngsters are getting into lower leagues, when released or sold by us.
It is a business after all.
 






BNthree

BNthree

Plastic JCL
Sep 14, 2016
10,908
WeHo
AZ Gull said:
Nonsense. The Academy was granted Category One Status in July 2014 - ALBION ACHIEVE CATEGORY ONE STATUS
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Just reading through that article and this caught my eye:

"The new status also gives us a better scope for recruitment opportunities as well as in developing the players we already have. We now feel with a Category one academy, a commitment from Sami and his staff to give the young players a pathway, along with the qualified development staff who provide bespoke training plans for our young players, there is a recipe success here at Albion.”


Which is exactly what isn't happening and hence the moans on this thread!

Still it is quite early days for the academy as a Cat 1 and with the Lancing training grounds. Kids can officially sign for a Cat1 academy at U9 level so those first recruited in 2014 won't even be in the U16 team yet. It is all about playing the long game.
 


Surf's Up

Surf's Up

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2011
10,169
Here
jcdenton08 said:
I’d guess March or Dunk.

When are these prospects going to come good? And how much is it costing the club to keep players like O’Hora and Sanchez who are never going to be up to PL or perhaps even league football?

To clarify I’ve seen the two examples I mentioned on dozens of occasions. Ahannach hasn’t developed as I’d hoped. Really looking to next season who will break through?

Percy Tau?

Dan Burn seems solid from the games I watched on telly though.

And yes, Connolly has loads of potential and looks very good for his level. But it’s not Chris McPhee or Scott Ramsey breaking into a dire League 2 team.

Please, enlighten me - what’s the point in our u-23s?
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Maybe at the worst its a Chelski style facility fattening players for market and at its best a pipeline (D Ashworth) to the first team. It doesn't really seem to be either atm but I guess these things take some time to get rolling.
 


edna krabappel

edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,221
Surf's Up said:
Maybe at the worst its a Chelski style facility fattening players for market and at its best a pipeline (D Ashworth) to the first team. It doesn't really seem to be either atm but I guess these things take some time to get rolling.
Click to expand...


Chelsea are perhaps not the best comparison as they and one or two others are paying vast sums of money to acquire and keep the best young players from around the country. Some of their U18s are on £30k/wk plus for their first professional contract at seventeen.

It would be more useful to see how we compared to other clubs in and around our position. Watford don't seem to use Academy players. Huddersfield abandoned their academy two years ago. I can't think of a Bournemouth youngster in the first team apart from that keeper Eddie Howe played in their meaningless last home game and a defender whose name escapes me but who their fans mostly think is crap. Burnley have played Dwight McNeil this season, very much the exception to the rule. Cardiff? No recent academy graduates there. Palace used to bang on about their academy but after Zaha, nobody even had a sniff of a first team place until Wan-Bissaka came along, and he (bizarrely now) was only played out of desperation, and wasn't even one of the higher rated players in their system. Fair play to him for making the most of his chance. Saints haven't had so many hits in recent seasons following a glut of talented youngsters previously. Newcastle have hardly been filling their squad with eager Geordie lads in recent years.

Fulham have produced Ryan Sessegnon and his brother, and also played a sixteen year old in their last game, so seem to be making progress. Wolves occasionally give Morgan Gibbs-White a go. But generally, clubs in the Premier League can't afford to take too many chances on playing young footballers because the cost of failure is so high.
 




schmunk

schmunk

"Members"
Jan 19, 2018
9,511
Mid mid mid Sussex
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