This thread is about the reserves.
What’s going on with our reserves?
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
Agreed. The fact they played almost an entire season with no striker in the squad shows how much respect the club has for it.
Joyce is part of the City family now. If he stays at Melbourne for a bit he could easily return as part of the City set up.
Could be so far wide of the mark here it's scary, but honestly think United as a club(who know one or two things about Youth development) have decided that the powers that be(the FA and PL) have messed about with Youth/Reserve team football(is it u16, u18, u17, u19, u21, u23 ?) so much over the last five/six years, constantly sexing up the various age groups for the National teams benefit(nothing wrong with that if the clubs benefit as well, they don't !!), that we're just going through the motion above the u18 age group at the moment and are hoping, as we've tried previously with Royal Antwerp(en) that we can sort out a 'finishing School' somewhere on the Continent for our best scholars.
The Premier League 2 serves no purpose whatsoever.
The Premier League 2 serves no purpose whatsoever.
Don't really understand why you need a very good reserve team on top of its league. Would much rather have a mediocre reserve team that's mid-table but with one or two outstanding players that are sure to make the cut to the first team.
Joyce is part of the City family now. If he stays at Melbourne for a bit he could easily return as part of the City set up.[/QUOTE]
I tend to share the thoughts of others on here and would rather see the 18’s fast tracked into the U23 league (or loaned). Been saying it for a while but we seem to take too long to develop our talent and don’t seem to push them on enough.
I know it seems a bit daft but I was really disappointed with the above news. Can’t blame him I suppose but that is so like City to reel Joyce in.
I tend to share the thoughts of others on here and would rather see the 18’s fast tracked into the U23 league (or loaned). Been saying it for a while but we seem to take too long to develop our talent and don’t seem to push them on enough.
I know it seems a bit daft but I was really disappointed with the above news. Can’t blame him I suppose but that is so like City to reel Joyce in.
Funnily enough I searched for him on Wiki the other week. There's so many of our former youth players that haven't made it to a decent standard.
Fair enough. I just find our academy situtaion disheartening on the basis that we no longer produce the best.
I don't understand your point. The age cut off is making no difference. The age of our squad and the age of others squads are still the same as they were a few years ago when it was called the u21s. Nothing has changed at all.
I agree we don't progress our players quick enough and we haven't been for a while. Its one of the biggest criticisms I have. Look at other clubs u23s and it is packed with their top 17/18 year olds why we constantly leave them in the u18s where they are easily above the level. The best players in Gomes and O'Connor's age group are playing u23s but for some reason they stay and play u18s which is too easy for them.
That's what I'm getting at, though. Even though we've been miles off the pace in the FA Youth Cup for a while now, our academy has continued to churn out players capable of playing PL football (including getting into the first team of our club) at a rate that far exceeds any of our rivals. There's no point producing a strong Youth Cup team if none of the players involved ever amount to anything. You certainly can't claim to be "producing the best", that's for damn sure. It's possible that they're passing us out, right now, but I'd wait to see some evidence of that in terms of their graduate careers before we admit we're second best. People have been raving about the kids at other clubs academies for years and years but none of them have come anywhere near to us in terms of producing top-flight senior footballers. Which is the only true marker of the quality of an academy IMO.
Tammy Abraham, Andreas Christensen, Nathaniel Chalobah, Bertrand Traore, Nathan Ake
No problem
100%. We've produced more PL players than any academy over the last few years and it's not even close. There are stats to prove it. We're miles ahead in terms of PL minutes. Somehow over the same period it's become almost accepted that our academy is miles behind the likes of City and Chelsea. It's strange.
As you say perhaps we'll see some differences over the next few years. City revamped things in the last 3-4 years? The lads who would have been 12-13 then should start to pop up in the next year or two. Sancho and Foden are perhaps examples.
The U23s team this season is weird. Our results improved since we play the midfield pivot of Sang and Scott, which results on better talents like Boonen, Buffonge, Gribbin, Whelan etc being left on the bench, and that is without us trying to promote Gomes. Kehinde ended up being pushed wide as always. In paper the squad is MUCH better than last year, with many players whl were part of the U18s squad
"Where is the coffee, where is the coffee, where is the coffee"
The days when Macheda was an exciting talent...What happened to him anyway?
He is currently playing for Novara Calcio in Serie B. He has 2 goals in 9 starts and 6 sub appearances for the mid-table side this season. He joined them in December, having left Cardiff the previous August. Last season he managed 7 goals in 16 starts. His contract is up in the summer.
While at United he had largely unsuccessful loans at Sampdoria, QPR, Stuttgart and Doncaster. Birmingham was much better, scoring 10 goals in 10 starts. For a while he seemed to be an average Championship striker but I believe he picked up a back injury at some stage in 2015 at Cardiff and struggled to recover from it.
His lack of pace was problematic at United, despite decent technical ability. Add in a collapse in confidence and then what appears to have been a serious injury, and you end up with him playing in front of crowds only 1000 more than those at United U23 games.
In 2013 there was a salary cap introduced in Serie B. 150K euros is max basic, with max bonuses the same amount. Can't find any more recent info but with Novara Calcio's crowd size, it is hard to see how Macheda could even get close to that basic wage.
Last edited:
Thank you.
Shame it didn't work out for him. Seemed to have a bright future when he debuted here. Decent technical talent. I still remember the look in his eyes when he was ready to come on against Aston Villa, he looked very confident and determined to do something special.
For me everythings too negative with the 23's. A midfield 3 of sang,scott and hamilton is as uninspiring as it gets with only hamilton of the 3 with any chance whatsoever of making it here.
Kehindes playing well but he's not a winger,he's got the makings of a good all round central midfielder and should play there,instead of sang or scott, with boonen or buffonge out wide. But that seems too attacking for ricky. Hopfuly gribben will start when he's 100% but i wouldnt count on it.
Yeah results have picked up slightly since he has started the midfield 3 but thats not what the reserves should be about. We should be giving the best talents playing time,unfortunately,it looks to me, that putting a shift in, is more important than talent.
Kehindes playing well but he's not a winger,he's got the makings of a good all round central midfielder and should play there,instead of sang or scott, with boonen or buffonge out wide. But that seems too attacking for ricky. Hopfuly gribben will start when he's 100% but i wouldnt count on it.
Yeah results have picked up slightly since he has started the midfield 3 but thats not what the reserves should be about. We should be giving the best talents playing time,unfortunately,it looks to me, that putting a shift in, is more important than talent.