Charlie McNeill | on loan to Stevenage

Whilst I accept that the club don’t often play players up an age group, with the abundance of strikers/forwards we have now, it might be a good time for the club to take another look at that policy.

Rightly or wrongly (probably wrongly given the relative success with youth players we’ve had), I’ve always felt we should push some of our talent along a bit quicker. A bit more of a sink or swim scenario to accelerate their development if you like.

In this instance, it would be an interesting carrot to be able to say to the forwards “show me what you’ve got in the 18s and if you’re the best of the bunch, I’ll be dipping you in and out of the 23s. There’s enough of them now to be able to have a bit of mini competition amongst one another...at least one is bound to rise to the challenge surely!
 
Maagge said:
With all the sightly-too-young-for-U23s strikers we have will it not be a case of them all sharing matches in that age group depending on who's in form, what the opponent's like, what the coaches think development-wise?
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Sounds like we'll have more active U17s fixtures this season so the 1st years can play, as well as the best 16s
 
Love how Mcneils suggesting it's about pathways when he has spent all summer trying to get more money. Facts are Jamie Gittins got offered twice as much money so he wanted the same. That's the sole reason he left. To suggest otherwise is a PR stunt by his agent. There may well be a better pathway here but at 12 he left for the money and he has done the same at 16.
 
Bigsid said:
Love how Mcneils suggesting it's about pathways when he has spent all summer trying to get more money. Facts are Jamie Gittins got offered twice as much money so he wanted the same. That's the sole reason he left. To suggest otherwise is a PR stunt by his agent. There may well be a better pathway here but at 12 he left for the money and he has done the same at 16.
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1. He left at 10 and 10 year olds don’t get paid wages.
2. Rangers offered more than us as did Juve.
 
K Stand Knut said:
whilst point 1 is factually correct in terms of the words used, they definitely get ‘paid’
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Yes but I would take a little offence to calling a 10 year old a merc which seemed to be the implication of the post. Even as a united fan I won’t blame parents That leap at the chance to send their kid to a prestigious paid for school.
 
Bigsid said:
Love how Mcneils suggesting it's about pathways when he has spent all summer trying to get more money. Facts are Jamie Gittins got offered twice as much money so he wanted the same. That's the sole reason he left. To suggest otherwise is a PR stunt by his agent. There may well be a better pathway here but at 12 he left for the money and he has done the same at 16.
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You claimed earlier that he has signed for Leipzig, didn't you? Reading blue moon, it seems his father said that Germany was never on. I'm not sure your source about McNeil is as strong as you think.
 
KM said:
You claimed earlier that he has signed for Leipzig, didn't you? Reading blue moonThe, it seems his father said that Germany was never on. I'm not sure your source about McNeil is as strong as you think.
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It seems his source would be someone who works for city given the slant of the post.
 
He's been training with the team in the last week and i'm hoping we get a chance to see him in action soon.

110 goals and 38 assists in 72 games for City u15s which is a phenomenal record. A player who is a fantastic finisher and also a creator of goals. It'll be fascinating to see how he develops and I for one am really excited about his future progression at the club.
 
Adnan said:
He's been training with the team in the last week and i'm hoping we get a chance to see him in action soon.

110 goals and 38 assists in 72 games for City u15s which is a phenomenal record. A player who is a fantastic finisher and also a creator of goals. It'll be fascinating to see how he develops and I for one am really excited about his future progression at the club.
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Yeah I really like the way he plays. It’s nice seeing central strikers That are creators for their team mates even with his excellent goal record.
 
It’s a friendly so you don’t know the strengths of the teams fielded but West Brom are usually very strong at academy level, so it’s a good result.
 
M.E.N and Luckhurst are fecking shit and they don't know anything. Please stop quoting them. My head hurts.
 
Looks like he will spend the season with the u18's as Hugill has been playing with the u23's regularly.
 
Bigsid said:
Remember Hugill is slightly younger! Looks a great prospect.
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Greenwood, hugill, mcneill
Diallo, shortire, hanibal

Honestly cant think of a time we have had so many talented attacking players coming through at once (hoogenwarf, elanga, Forson, pellestri, and others as well)

Not all will make it but we could conceivably have 4 or 5 first team players there for more than a decade... and perhaps some decent money on the ones that can't break through with us
 
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sun_tzu said:
Greenwood, hugill, mcneill
Diallo, shortire, hanibal

Honestly cantbthinl of a time we have had so many talented attacking players coming through at once (hoogenwarf, elanga, Forson, pellestri, and others as well)

Not all will make it but we could conceivably have 4 or 5 first team players there for more than a decade... and perhaps some decent money on the ones that can't break through with us
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Agreed. Really exciting times for the academy. Honestly can't remember the last time there was this much talent coming through together.

That last point is something we really need to work on. Hate to say it but Chelsea and Liverpool do an amazing job of getting substantial fees for their unwanted youth players.

That's the main criticism I'd have of our academy at the moment, it's simply not making enough money out of transfers. We seem to hold on to players until they run their contracts down rather than selling them at the right time.

Brewster is an example where Liverpool have decided to sell at the right time imo whereas we'd probably hold on to someone like him for a few years.
 
Much improved performances from McNeil lately - has work-rate has improved dramatically. Today there were several times when he worked really hard to win the ball back, that wouldn't have happened 3-4 months ago.
 
A real buzz at the club now with the academy flying again. One of McNeil and Hugill simply has to become a first team striker eventually.

Seems like yesterday the academy was in dire straights, with Jose having no interest in kids, and waving half a million a week to washed up grandads like Alexis Sanchez.
 
Champagne Football said:
A real buzz at the club now with the academy flying again. One of McNeil and Hugill simply has to become a first team striker eventually.

Seems like yesterday the academy was in dire straights, with Jose having no interest in kids, and waving half a million a week to washed up grandads like Alexis Sanchez.
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To be fair the academy restructuring was well under way by the time Mourinho joined, it started under LvG, although he had no input apparently.
 
AltiUn said:
To be fair the academy restructuring was well under way by the time Mourinho joined, it started under LvG, although he had no input apparently.
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What use is an academy if your best kids have no hope of getting game time?

Jose was no fan of Rashfords and would happily have sold him if he had the choice. Not a hope in hell Greenwood would have got any game time if Jose had stayed longer.

The emphasis on signing highly talented kids for the academy really moved up a level when Ole arrived - Hugill, McNeil, Mejbri, Kambwala, Garnacho, Jurado, Alvaro Fernandez...... Diallo, Pellistri etc
 
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