To win this with the number of injuries at times and then players getting drafted into the first team. Well done.
U21s: Spurs vs Manchester United
- Thread starter RedMachine03
- Start date
It's really brilliant. Pleased for the lads.
They were generalizing it as a systemic problem with the academy that has seen it in decline for a while now.. It all started after the U14's had a big defeat to City if I remember right, and they just kept picking on it after that, especially focusing on the U18's as they were on a bit of losing streak
That was fantastic to watch. They look fecking chuffed, so they should be!
Rafa is so sweet...
Once a red,always a red.
Top man..
Still, Rashford and Fosu-Mensah both came from the U18s, though they've both played with the U21s too.
Articles talking about our poor youth setup were mostly based on the under 18s. Most of our under 18 grade were playing under 21 (youngest team ever to win the under 21 title) while most of our 'normal' under 21s were excelling with the first team.
Journalism is dead these days.
Journalism is dead these days.
They all made me laugh really. How can our youth system be ages behind City's and all that when we win the u21's pretty often, and have more youth players play for the first team and in the premier league then anyone else? Was just another stick used to beat us with even though it was a load of bollocks.
Even the 9-0 loss for the u14s that kick started the smear campaign against our youth was 1) wrong to be publicized for such a young age group and 2) lacking context as a lot of the squad were away with the u15s at a tournament so we had to play mainly u13 lads so it's hardly an indicator of failure on our part. Oh well forget the press anyway.
Varela 3:2
Is it though? Are the press not talking about general set up and where most younger kids seem to have been going in the past 5 or 6 years? So we haven't seen the results yet, may take another 5 to 10 years.
Pereira hits the post
What is really sad is that he's out for another month with broken thumbs after sending that.
That would have been some goal
2:2
Thing is, the thing that they bang on about as far as former United players sending their kids to City, it's silly considering that you have to be invited to United's academy for trials, and one or two have been trialled and not signed although the press obviously won't mention that. I think Savage is the only one that actually has a kid at the club and from what I've seen his son looks to have very good ability so I wouldn't look too much into that. Also the fact that City have apparently been buying houses and offering jobs to parents to incentivise them to send their kids there will ultimately come back to bite them so it's not as though they've all of a sudden become more attractive based on footballing prospects.
The other thing the press always mentioned was the facilities which is also silly as ours is still pretty good, it's just that City's is newer so they claim we're lagging behind which isn't the case. As we've seen steps have already been taken to improve on certain things and that seemed to be a result of McClair's departure and some impending coaching retirements rather than really major issues so I wouldn't be worried at all really.
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Well done once again lads!
For a second no.3 picked up that plastic box with such intensity and I thought he was gonna WWE Joyce with it.
That's brilliant.
Last minute winner
Ultimately isn't it about the end game though? We consistently dominate the most senior level of youth football and produce more first team players from our youth system than the others, you just need to look at the quality we've had come through recently. Januzaj, TFM, Pereira, Wilson, Rashford, CBJ and Varela amongst others have all played first team football and have a realistic chance of making it here along with other youngsters like Tuanzebe and RoShaun who look like great prospects.
Congrats to the U21's! This is a really promising crop of young players, hopefully a few make it as regulars in the first team squad.
This is a really promising crop of young players, hopefully a few make it as regulars in the first team squad.From the line-up tonight hopefully CBJ,Riley,Varela,Pereira,Williams,Tuanzebe will have bigger roles for the first team next season, or have a good loan.
Our U21s are disjointed and sometimes full of fill in players and players out of position all the time, but they always show fight when down or in trouble in a SAF team sort of way to grind a win anyhow.
Something our first team could use a lot.
Something our first team could use a lot.
All down to coaching IMO. Warren Joyce is a terrific coach, all of our debutants in the first team this season have a better mentality than most of our senior players. We're very lucky that he's still with us, more than good enough to manage the championship teams IMO. He has already managed Hull and did a fine job with them.
I'm fairly certain that W is actually an upside down M. What a shambles our underage system is.