It seems we have another crop that the online types want to make into Messi. Please start raving about the following for fear of being accused of not being their biggest fans before they were famous (or simply call them the next pacheco) Mateusz Musialowski. 17 year old nominally left winger signed last August from lodge in Poland. Clearly the youtube videos are there for all to see. James Balagizi. 17 year old, nominally an attacking midfielder/10. Signed as under 10 from man city Billy Koumetio. 18 year old, centre back, signed from Orleans in January 2019. Already our 8th best cb apparently. Left footed so clearly vvd needs to watch out Melkamu Frauendorf. 17 year old attacking cm signed from hoffenheim in August 2020. Marcelo Pitaluga. 18 year old, goalkeeper signed in September 2020 from fluminese. Reportedly recommended by alisson. Kaide Gordan. 16, right winger signed from Derby in Feb 2021. Already being drooled over as a preseason wonder. Jarell Quansah. 18 year old centre back, been at lfc since age 5 I won't bother mention Elliott as he has facial hair and is too well known. Other unsexy players with English names like Clarkson, beck, cain and Bradley never seem to get a mention.
1 and 6 stand the best chance of making it, provided injuries don't occur. I can remember Wayne Harrison signed as 17 yr old in 1985 for £250k, unheard of amount at the time. His career was blighted by injury, including a near fatal accident with a greenhouse, before a knee injury finished his career without him ever playing for the first team. He died aged 36 of pancreatic cancer.
Yeah I remember him, 10 years.later.and he would have got the right operation. Unluckiest young man ever. (Relatively speaking) I wonder if anyone will remember to look back at this list in 5 years and laugh at where they all ended up.
plenty of those type articles around looking at wonder kids from Football/Champ manager from years ago. People like Cherno Samba who was player of the year non stop but never appeared anywhere in real life.
I reckon most PL clubs could list half a dozen ‘ones for the future’. Reality is that one or two might make it in the PL and maybe one in 10 at a top four club.
oh yeah, i'm sure 10 years ago the man utd one or cheslea one or arsenal's won was a vertiable whos who. edit. qucik google man utd 2010/11 fa youth cup winners. sam johnston micheal keane paul Pogba ravel morrison jessi lingard TBF thats a reasonable hit list. Two bang average, two egos and one perennial wunderkind flop. the only two arsenal names were landbury and frimpong chelsea won far youth cup in 2010. bruma, mcachran. thats it.
every now and then, you get a group of kids come through. West Ham and maybe Southampton had it and were raided. Utd had it and they nearly all stayed and they dominated the league for a decade. It’s the holy grail for club owners I guess.
yeah but in reality theres 92 pro clubs and 100os of european clubs to pick out of so seeing even a few players come through from a good academy to play pro football is tough
I don't think it's a coincidence that you tend to have groups come through together that are exceptional. Someone with exceptional potential in a squad with a bunch of mediocre kids is never going to reach his best. / I've no idea if this next group is the real deal or not. If I were good enough to tell that, I'd be working as a scout instead of a web developer. Or at the very least, I wouldn't be cheating when I play Football Manager.