The state of us at the minute.
Miscellaneous Reserve/Youth News
- Thread starter Cevno
- Start date
It's bollocks. He's retiring. If he's disillusioned why would he wait till the end of the season. United are actively seeking a replacement now.
Everything I've heard suggests it's just a run-of-the-mill retirement. But even if it was 'disillusionment', I wouldn't particularly see it as a bad thing. If the situation gets so bad that it causes a decision like this, then the decision itself will force the club to tackle the problem.
But as far as I can see we're still producing and acquiring talented youngsters, so any issues are clearly not as catastrophic as some are so keen to suggest.
But as far as I can see we're still producing and acquiring talented youngsters, so any issues are clearly not as catastrophic as some are so keen to suggest.
Yeah he's also involved in a few other things such as public speaking and coaching schools so it would be no surprise to see him retiring from what is a relatively stressful role which he's already been doing for 16 years
Liam grimshaw sold to Preston
Preston is the new Hull for this batch of youth players.. 
Preston is the new Hull for this batch of youth players..
James Weir was originally from them so you know who's next
They should have bought Reece James too.
Manchester United hope to land Feyenoord starlet Tahith Chong but look set to lose out to Chelsea in race for Ajax youngster Juan Familia Castillo
Manchester United believe they have lost out to Chelsea over Ajax youngster Juan Familia Castillo but hope to be more successful in their pursuit of Feyenoord's Tahith Chong.
Talented 16-year-old Chong has been pursued by United and Chelsea over recent months.
He initially impressed United scouts while playing for Feyenoord at the Premier Cup tournament which was held at United’s Carrington training complex in August.
Chelsea made a play for him too but he is understood to be favouring a move to Old Trafford.
Chong can play as a striker, left winger or in midfield.
He has represented his country at Under 16 level and is tipped to be one of the next big stars to emerge from Feyenoord’s highly-productive youth academy.
United are also taking a closer look at Lech Poznan’s 15-year-old goalkeeper Bartosz Mrozek, who has been given permission by his club to travel to spend a few days training at Carrington.
Mrozek has been monitored by United for over a year and will return to Poland on Sunday.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ace-Ajax-youngster-Juan-Familia-Castillo.html
Manchester United believe they have lost out to Chelsea over Ajax youngster Juan Familia Castillo but hope to be more successful in their pursuit of Feyenoord's Tahith Chong.
Talented 16-year-old Chong has been pursued by United and Chelsea over recent months.
He initially impressed United scouts while playing for Feyenoord at the Premier Cup tournament which was held at United’s Carrington training complex in August.
Chelsea made a play for him too but he is understood to be favouring a move to Old Trafford.
Chong can play as a striker, left winger or in midfield.
He has represented his country at Under 16 level and is tipped to be one of the next big stars to emerge from Feyenoord’s highly-productive youth academy.
United are also taking a closer look at Lech Poznan’s 15-year-old goalkeeper Bartosz Mrozek, who has been given permission by his club to travel to spend a few days training at Carrington.
Mrozek has been monitored by United for over a year and will return to Poland on Sunday.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ace-Ajax-youngster-Juan-Familia-Castillo.html
contd..
- Clearly lack confidence after losing 10 straight U/18 games so hardly great preparation
- Very young squad with minimal backup
- Chelsea (and city) invested in Academy heavily 5-8 years ago and now reaping rewards. Therefore we are going even further backwards
- Our greatest success at first team level co-incided with great results at youth level...is there too much focus on 'only development'?
- Lack of leadership is a massive white elephant and LvG hasn't shown much interest
- No Academy Director for nearly 12 months is baffling
- Big question marks over our scouting and maybe coaching...why haven't we got the best of the best?
- No clear strategy in place
- Why not play game at OT? Better experience and bigger crowd...
- We play games all over the place...time for our own regular pitch...like Ajax and many others
- Shows how good Warren Joyce is...
Gomes played for the U16s today in their 6-1 win vs. Burnley.Goals Butterworth x 4,Venancio,Barrett.
12 losses in a row is pretty remarkable. Easily the worst sequence of results I've ever heard from a football team in any division at any level.
Looks like the U16s are doing OK though.
I have a feeling that Tahith Chong and Marouane Fellaini will get along splendidly.
Found this on Independent though:
"Meanwhile, Feyenoord’s 16-year-old talent Tahith Chong has spoken out to claim that he’s aware of United’s interest in him, but says he will not consider leaving the Dutch side at this time as he wants to focus on his development.
The 16-year-old talent has been linked with a move to both United and Chelsea, although the clubs has to wait until his 16th birthday before any approach could be made given Fifa’s international transfer regulations.
However, speaking to Dutch news outlet FR12, Chong ruled out any transfer this month and confirmed that it is his intention to sign a professional contract with Feyenoord in the coming weeks."
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According to the Mirror, United want Michael Appleton to be the new academy chief.
They were saying last week that the role he was offered was with the u21s. They can't even keep things straight. I've heard the head of the academy has already been agreed but wont be made public for a while
I am not sure what to make of it. Is this just routine talks that go on with some coming off and some not.
Either way there is a narrative going on of a club floundering with regards to its youth and first team affairs. I admire our usual keeping mum on everything (excluding the briefings by Woodward) but something needs to be done with regards to the narrative. I don't know what and how you go about it.
Hope that's true.
I think the media knows morale among the fans is probably at an all time low.. Any seemingly negative story out there about us is going to get fans angry and riled up against the club.
It's at a point now where its almost impossible to make out between the made up crap and stories that may possibly be true. It's unfortunate but I don't see things changing till either Van Gaal leaves or the 1st team starts performing. I think we'll see the former happen first
It's at a point now where its almost impossible to make out between the made up crap and stories that may possibly be true. It's unfortunate but I don't see things changing till either Van Gaal leaves or the 1st team starts performing. I think we'll see the former happen first
So much for Glazers cutting investment in the youth system. I think we might see more concrete info on the staffing and other changes only in the summer.
Hooefully we're already taking steps in the background to get the academy moving in the right direction
Heard who it is jb?
No just heard its agreed and he's already having some input
Worth to mention that O'Connor and Chong, along with Ercolani have been on trialed with us for more than just a few occasions so all the talk about lack of planning is really a bit far-fetched.We were just so bad at completing youth deals (or lack of financial backing from the top to make them happen, especially with some of our competitors paying crazy money for the kid's families and agents).
Investment in the youth system is the whole package including investing on recruitment,coaching,facilities,sport sciences,financial supports for elite talents,etc,... so hard to say just because we are signing some foreign kids means we're investing more into the youth system.However if I'm not wrong all of these figures should be quite transparent on the club's quarterly financial report so let's just wait and see.
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I don't think the glazers are stupid enough to choose this time to cut spending at the club, every action, even imaginary ones are under the media microscope. Last thing you'd want to do is to antagonize the fans even more.
You would imagine it's impossible for them to do that, if they want a successful football team. Seemingly, if they want a successful football club they need to have a relatively successful football team too which involves every facet of the club including the academy.
We've agreed a deal to sign Ireland u16 captain Lee O'Connor from Villa FC in Waterford. He played for Ireland u17's in the European Championship Qualifiers a few months ago shortly after turning 15 and is very highly rated from what I've heard about him. Can play rb,cb,cm and rm and is very quick and good technically. He's the number 2 in this video. The lad we had on trial a couple of weeks ago is in goals for Poland in the video as well.
I was just about to post your tweets in here (and tag/credit you of course!). How does he compare to some of the best in his age group across the continent and with the Dutch lad Chong?
EDIT: Ability wise of course. They play different positions obviously.
It's good to be able to go to an under-age Irish match again with something in particular to look for. Hopefully he'll come good down the line, as it's always nice to have an Irish player in the first team squad given how associated and important Irish players have always been with United.
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I've only ever seen O'Connor play live once and have only seen videos of Chong so wouldn't be much point comparing them. The game I saw him live in he played as a rb against the Netherlands and was up against Juan Familia Castillo who we were linked with and did well against him and Ireland won 1-0. Along with being very quick he seems to have a really good understanding of the game and very comfortable on the ball which probably goes some way to explaining why he can play so many positions. There's actually quite a bit of talent in that Ireland u16 team, the lad who scored against the Netherlands, Aaron Connolly was on trial with United a couple of months ago and Glenn McCauley is already signed up by Liverpool. There's 5/6 of the under 15 team that have been on trial with the likes of United,Arsenal and Chelsea as well so hopefully some of them come through
Yep, nice to see an Irish lad in the setup especially as we haven't had one in a few years other than O'Connell that I can think of. Hope he turns out well, if not for United's sake at least for Ireland as we sure as hell could use a few lads.
Cheers, good to here the young lads are showing some promise. I saw a couple of the u17 matches at the Euros last summer I think it was and Scully, O'Keefe, and Ronan stood out to me, hopefully they keep it up.
Is that Aaron Connolly lad from Mervue United by any chance?
Yeah he is
Sounds promising, for no quantifiable reason I like the idea of Irish lads coming up through our academy. Something very ... "United" about it (don't let Devilish see that)
On a secondary note, thank you for taking Lockhurst to the cleaners today, twitter time line has been hilarious.
Cheers for the heads up, I enjoyed that.Haha cheers. He's a bit touchy isn't he? seems to think any mention of the press is a direct attack on him personally
That was brilliant.