Miscellaneous Reserve/Youth News

Any standouts in that group?
From what I've seen Levitt and Laird are probably the standout u16s but a lot of them are quite small and will probably stand out a bit more as they get stronger and there are quite a few stand out u15s in the group like Greenwood, Mambuene and Elanga
 
16 year old Brazilian defender/midfielder Matheus Marcosi is training with United this week. He's 1 of the lads from Desportivo Brasil that we have an option on and he's been over on trial multiple times already
 
Have we ever signed anyone actually from Desportivo ?

Who is the best talent they have produced ?
 
16 year old Brazilian defender/midfielder Matheus Marcosi is training with United this week. He's 1 of the lads from Desportivo Brasil that we have an option on and he's been over on trial multiple times already
The problem is we can't sign him for 2 years and so much can happen in that time. He might not develop, other clubs become interested, he can move to another Brazillian club etc. We've trialed so many very promising youngsters from Desportivo Brasil over the years but nothing ever comes of it.
 
The problem is we can't sign him for 2 years and so much can happen in that time. He might not develop, other clubs become interested, he can move to another Brazillian club etc. We've trialed so many very promising youngsters from Desportivo Brasil over the years but nothing ever comes of it.

Wasn't Adryan (now playing for Leeds I think) one of those youngsters at that club we were very interested at one point? Pretty sure Gladstony ended up at Twente?
 
Wasn't Adryan (now playing for Leeds I think) one of those youngsters at that club we were very interested at one point? Pretty sure Gladstony ended up at Twente?
Adryan is now back at Flamengo and was always with them. He was linked with us though when he was touted as a wonderkid.

From what I can gather about Gladestony, he is from Desportivo and spent a bit of time at our academy, not sure how long. He then spent some time at Twente's academy but not for long, returning to Brazil. Then was shipped around on some loans, spent time in Portugal and Spain while barely ever playing a game. Is now at Catania, a 3rd division Italian team.
 
The problem is we can't sign him for 2 years and so much can happen in that time. He might not develop, other clubs become interested, he can move to another Brazillian club etc. We've trialed so many very promising youngsters from Desportivo Brasil over the years but nothing ever comes of it.
Going by the rules now we can sign him at 16 if he has a E.U. passport
 
No surprise that we haven't offfially signed any lad from them so far. If you're signed at 18 from Brazil you should be around Rafael/Fabio level back then to worth bring them through, otherwise why should we since there are a lot of other talents in South America that we could sign instead. Our affiliation with their club should not be the reason, it allow us to have first options on them, not forcing our hands. From their former batch only Evangelista and Bruno Gomes were anywhere near that level, and we actually did consider signing them at some stage I believe but we passed it on. I'm hoping we will sign Leo Carvalho though he sounds promising and we don't really have host of natural left back in the academy at the moment.
 
No surprise that we haven't offfially signed any lad from them so far. If you're signed at 18 from Brazil yo should be around Rafael/Fabio level back then to worth bring them through, otherwise why should we since there are a lot of other talents in South America that we could sign instead. Our affiliation with their club should not be the reason, it allow us to have first options on them, not forcing our hands. From their former batch only Evangelista and Bruno Gomes were anywhere near that level, and we actually did consider signing them at some stage I believe but we passed it on. I'm hoping we will sign Leo Carvalho though he sounds promising and we don't really have host of natural left back in the academy at the moment.
Carvalho isnt a natural left back either. He normally plays in midfield
 
The U15s start in the Floodlit cup today, they are in a group with Rochdale, Blackburn Rovers and City.
 
@limerickcitykid so what you're saying is that this link up isn't really worth much to us? Any idea if we're paying for this privilege?
Honestly don't know much about the partnership or if we're paying them. JB or Khoazany might have more info on it. It wouldn't seem to be worth much though, partnered with them for 8 years and we've yet to sign a player from them nor has there really been a player to come from Desportivo that looks like we should have signed. I guess if it isn't costing us anything though then there is no harm in having the partnership.

Their claim to fame (according to a BBC article) seems to be:
Keirrison - Player they owned for 1 year at the age of 20-21, spending it on loan at Palmeiras. He joined Palmeiras from Coritiba in January of 2009 for 650k then went to Desportivo on a free in April, and right back to Palmeiras on loan. Then sold to Barca for 14m euros where he never played a game, did pretty much nothing for the rest of his career and now at a 2nd division Brazil club.
Muriqui - Signed him at about 22 and loaned him for 2 years to Brazilian clubs. Sold him to GZ Evergrande in China for 2.4m. Has played in China, Qatar, Japan since.
Cleiton Xavier - Signed him at 26.
Bruno Gomes - Actually from their academy.

So they really haven't produced much and their claim to fame seems to be more acting like a third party investor.

Article says:
"We have a contract with Manchester United," he added. "We share the development of some young kids together and every 15 days United's Brazilian-based coach comes here, and twice a year they go to Manchester to spend time there.

"If the player is good enough then United, for a certain time, has the first option to buy that player. Not of every player here, but certain players; the ones we developed together, not more than three or four boys. Bruno Gomes is one."
 
Honestly don't know much about the partnership or if we're paying them. JB or Khoazany might have more info on it. It wouldn't seem to be worth much though, partnered with them for 8 years and we've yet to sign a player from them nor has there really been a player to come from Desportivo that looks like we should have signed. I guess if it isn't costing us anything though then there is no harm in having the partnership.

Their claim to fame (according to a BBC article) seems to be:
Keirrison - Player they owned for 1 year at the age of 20-21, spending it on loan at Palmeiras. He joined Palmeiras from Coritiba in January of 2009 for 650k then went to Desportivo on a free in April, and right back to Palmeiras on loan. Then sold to Barca for 14m euros where he never played a game, did pretty much nothing for the rest of his career and now at a 2nd division Brazil club.
Muriqui - Signed him at about 22 and loaned him for 2 years to Brazilian clubs. Sold him to GZ Evergrande in China for 2.4m. Has played in China, Qatar, Japan since.
Cleiton Xavier - Signed him at 26.
Bruno Gomes - Actually from their academy.

So they really haven't produced much and their claim to fame seems to be more acting like a third party investor.

Article says:
"We have a contract with Manchester United," he added. "We share the development of some young kids together and every 15 days United's Brazilian-based coach comes here, and twice a year they go to Manchester to spend time there.

"If the player is good enough then United, for a certain time, has the first option to buy that player. Not of every player here, but certain players; the ones we developed together, not more than three or four boys. Bruno Gomes is one."
I believe we have contributed a fair bit of money to their facilities and staff. As you said though, we've got sweet feck all in return for that 8 year investment.
 
I believe we have contributed a fair bit of money to their facilities and staff. As you said though, we've got sweet feck all in return for that 8 year investment.

They were hardly poor, they were founded and run by the Traffic group, who hold several television contracts in the region. Also think it was only case of us paying if we actually signed a player, rather than much else. Like has already been said, we didn't bring that many in permanently and the ones we did bring in temporarily, were let go, so arguably not as huge an investment as made out.
 
They were hardly poor, they were founded and run by the Traffic group, who hold several television contracts in the region. Also think it was only case of us paying if we actually signed a player, rather than much else. Like has already been said, we didn't bring that many in permanently and the ones we did bring in temporarily, were let go, so arguably not as huge an investment as made out.
Rich or poor you can still waste money. We seem to be very good at exactly that in recent times.
 
Rich or poor you can still waste money. We seem to be very good at exactly that in recent times.

The potential benefits definitely outweighed any negative there could've been. Especially seeing as there's now a free for all in terms of South Americans or anyone for that matter with an EU passport being able to join clubs at 16. If you can get to these players first and brings them in, why not do it? By the time some of those players are 17/18 the price may have increased ten fold and other teams interested. Don't think it was a waste of money, maybe wasn't used properly, but the idea was right, especially considering this partnership had been running for years, it's not recent.
 
Rich or poor you can still waste money. We seem to be very good at exactly that in recent times.
As far as I know we helped them set up their training and our scouts recommended some players to them and if they signed them we paid for their accommodation and wages but if we decided not to sign them we still got a percentage of future transfer fee so we probably made most if not all of the money back when Evangelista moved to Udinese for 4 million
 
As far as I know we helped them set up their training and our scouts recommended some players to them and if they signed them we paid for their accommodation and wages but if we decided not to sign them we still got a percentage of future transfer fee so we probably made most if not all of the money back when Evangelista moved to Udinese for 4 million

Pretty decent setup it sounds from that
 
Basically they are acting as a local talent scouting and monitoring spot for us in Brazil (from a very young age), although it would take times before it could attract top talents to come there. If Evangelista, Gomes or others become good players in Europe I can see them getting more pulling power. If I'm not wrong Carvalho and Evagelista are the only two players from them who were called up by Brazil at youth level.

This Marcosi lad must be at least decent since he got a call from us again. His last trial was two years ago. The standard required seems to be higher compared to when we got Gladstony Leao etc over since that was the start of the programme and we probably just wanted to show them the benefit of being a part of it.
 
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Basically they are acting as a local talent scouting and monitoring spot for us in Brazil (from a very young age), although it would take times before it could attract top talents to come there. If Evangelista, Gomes or others become good players in Europe I can see them getting more pulling power. If I'm not wrong Carvalho and Evagelista are the only two players from them who were called up by Brazil at youth level.

This Marcosi lad must be at least decent since he got a call from us again. His last trial was two years ago. The standard required seems to be higher compared to when we got Gladstony Leao etc over since that was the start of the programme and we probably just wanted to show them the benefit of being a part of it.
They have a couple of other lads who have played for Brazils under age sides like Mauro Junior who played in the u17 World Cup. Marcosi was over at least twice last season and did the preseason training camp with the u16s last summer along with some other South and North Americans
 
This Marcosi lad must be at least decent since he got a call from us again. His last trial was two years ago.
I don't know, we did take Josh Doughty on trials and even ended up signing him. :lol:

I really want to know the story there. Did he just somehow play unbelievably out of his skin during the trials or something? Because from almost the first minute he has been here he hasn't been rated by the club. I just don't know how he weaseled his way into getting a contract.
 
Tuanzebe and Williams trained with the senior team today. Willock also involved.
 
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All 3 deserved. Would love to see Harrop involved but Willock seems to be ahead of him considering he's on the team sheet in one of our pre-season game.
 
All 3 deserved. Would love to see Harrop involved but Willock seems to be ahead of him considering he's on the team sheet in one of our pre-season game.

Does Wilock have any caps for England?

England U20 are playing at Boundary Park and Spotland in the coming weeks. I think I will go along as Tuanzebe should be playing.
 
Does Wilock have any caps for England?

England U20 are playing at Boundary Park and Spotland in the coming weeks. I think I will go along as Tuanzebe should be playing.

No. He was never a standout at United before last season so easy to understand. His other two brothers have all played for England though.