Up and coming English talent

KNiVES said:
They don't sound very English to me. I couldn't find a way to say this without sounding racist but there you go :p
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Neither does Mesut Ozil sound German but i'm sure they're happy to have him, if the guys got a UK passport and some skills then it's all good.

Apparently Afobe was born in Dagenham, so that'll do.
 
Its a shame that Michael Kightly looks to be pretty prone to injury, otherwise I would have hoped that he would have been looked upon as a star of the future. He has been pretty much injured for the last year and a bit!

That said, he is 24 now. Hopefully he will be fit for the new season so he can give the premiership a go!
 
Nickg said:
what happened to the phrase, 'if your good enough, age doesnt matter?'
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That's basically what I'm saying, it was just a twist on the "if you're good enough, you're old enough" phrase that gets rolled out when people are clamouring for some youngster to get a call up :)

Anyway going back to the topic at hand the question I would ask is how many genuine world beater youngsters do we have waiting in the wings? It's not like we've got a huge queue of Michael Owens, Wayne Rooneys, Ryan Giggs', Robbie Fowlers etc, you know, teenagers who have been doing the business at the top level beating the door down. The vast majority of them are:

-Promising youngsters at big clubs who play bit-part roles and have looked decent for for England Under-xx.
-Young players who've been getting good reviews for 6 months at lesser clubs
-Players in their 20s who are doing OK at the likes of Spurs, you look at them and think, hmmm, is he going to improve much in the next 5 years, is he going to strike fear into the hearts of Spain, Holland, Germany etc?
 
dont foget that a few of the German world cup team got games (and were well worthy of them) because Ballack wasnt available, the No 1 goalie committed suicide (I seem to recall anyway) etc etc

They definitely had the talent and were worthy of their place - but its also about being in the right place, and having the coach believe in you. I wonder how much time they would have got had Ballack been fit etc ......

Lennon was unlucky as he had little playing time between his injury come back and the WC, obviously Beckham being out (he definitely isnt the future but was the sub in quali)

Remember Lennon is quite high profile now - majority of players we are talking about hardly get games at the moment at club level , its impossible for Capello to choose any of them if they arent playing regularly in proper matches (not U18 / Reserves etc, but live EPL /Cup games)
 
Lennon was just over rated when he was out injured and people expected too much, how he played in SA was about his level (besides his few months of form with Spurs), nothing terrible but nothing special

The wings are a real problem for England and either Lennon or Walcott need to step up or the formation needs changing as right now there's nothing good coming from out wide and the current formation relies on good wing play
 
jakeke said:
Lennon was just over rated when he was out injured and people expected too much, how he played in SA was about his level (besides his few months of form with Spurs), nothing terrible but nothing special

The wings are a real problem for England and either Lennon or Walcott need to step up or the formation needs changing as right now there's nothing good coming from out wide and the current formation relies on good wing play
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That's where Adam Johnson comes in.
 
Loving the Adam Johnson praise! (Man City fan ;))
I agree that we need to start using youngsters but not necessarily dump the older ones...
I reckon
gk:Hart/Green/??
LB:A Cole/Baines
CB:Shawcross/Cahill/Dawson (On form) and Terry or Upson
RB:Richards (If on form),G Johnson

Midfield:
Barry,Huddlestone,A Johnson,Lennon,Walcott,Young,Milner,Rodwell

Strikers:
Agbonlahor,Crouch,Rooney,Sturridge,Bent
Thats our team i think should go 2012 Euro's if they are on form and injury free
 
Only players who have really made me take notice are Hart, Hutchinson (chel) milner, Gibbs, Adam Johnson and wilshire. Very few others look truequality. Though saying that a batch of 4-5 world class players can be a good core to build a team around.

Edit: somehow forgot Rodwell on the list. He's probably the best if the bunch
 
Not many of those are what you would call world class though, take Milner for example, 8 seasons in the Premiership and has only just established himself in the England setup and has never set foot in the Champions League, surely if he was that good (remember we are talking "world class" here not just international quality) he would have been banging the door down England/top clubs years ago. Gibbs, decent player but Clichy is only 24, so he certainly shouldn't be a regular for Arsenal until after Euro2016.
 
Hopefully this season David Moyes will figure out what to do with Rodwell. He only played as many games last season due to injuries but in 90% of the games he played he looked awesome. Has looked good in pre-season against some (admitedly poor) aussie teams too.

Knowing our luck though he'll have an amazing season, get an England call up and then Man U will put in an offer that the chairman can't refuse :(
 
FishFluff said:
Hopefully this season David Moyes will figure out what to do with Rodwell. He only played as many games last season due to injuries but in 90% of the games he played he looked awesome. Has looked good in pre-season against some (admitedly poor) aussie teams too.

Knowing our luck though he'll have an amazing season, get an England call up and then Man U will put in an offer that the chairman can't refuse :(
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I'd be amazed if Rodwell wasn't already on our hit list, I agree though he needs a full season played in one position so we know just what the he'll he actually is

If Moyes plays him week in week out in centre midfield I reckon he be a certain started in that position for England
 
A bold claim, typically you only play 2 central midfielders meaning that to be a 'certain starter' he'd have to be pretty much the best there is, holding off both older and younger players. At a club like Everton he's probably more likely to get overlooked as well compared to e.g. Lampard, Gerrard, and even Barry. Obviously if looking longer term for him to get played week-in, week-out then he might be competing with the likes of Wilshere and god know what other world beaters are rising through the youth ranks across England.

Good prospect but don't forget he's only just signed a new 5 year contract so I don't think he is desperate to leave Everton just yet.

Edit: personally I'm a big Michael Johnson fan, but Man City don't need to develop youth players when they can just buy the finished article, he really should look for a move to another Premiership club (If I was MON I'd be angling to get a part exchange for Milner).
 
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If Rodwell starts playing week in week out for Everton then I think he'll easily displace Barry from the England team (who at the moment seems to be the only choice to play alongside Lampard)

Thing is will Moyes play him ahead of Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar and even Phil Neville in the Everton midfield?
 
Out of interest, how many times have you actually seen Rodwell play? He certainly looks a prospect but he's hardly played enough for anybody to be certain that he'll walk into the England squad let alone side if he played more for Everton.

edit: And isn't the talk that his longterm position will be as a CB?
HangTime said:
personally I'm a big Michael Johnson fan, but Man City don't need to develop youth players when they can just buy the finished article, he really should look for a move to another Premiership club (If I was MON I'd be angling to get a part exchange for Milner).
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For a small fee he'd certainly be worth a gamble. When he broke onto the scene in ~'07 he looked the real deal but he's barely played a game in 2 years now.

We had all but agreed a deal to sign (swap for Crouch at the time) him in January '08 but it fell through when he got injured.
 
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