Harry Forster is clocking up the minutes at Bromley. Decent enough at that level. Awful challenge though yesterday against Yeovil. One minute twenty three seconds in after rather poor control. Oddly Bromley should have won the match so Forster was not missed. Deserved red card. Cassidy is barely garnering minutes at Stanley. A brief cameo off the bench again. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54839988
Some poor finishing there then a very good strike for the winner! He started the season but didn’t score so has been benched I guess.
The U18s drew 0-0 with Crewe yesterday. It seems the game has been largely ignored by both clubs so far as there are zero details available right now. On a flimsy statistical note, that's only the second time this season both Watford & Crewe have failed to score in a game. It's also Watford's first clean sheet since the opening fixture against QPR. The U23 & U18 sides seem to be settling down now the 1st team is seeing the established players come back and results are beginning to reflect this in the main. One interesting thing (to me) is the position of left-back for the U18s as 15-yr old Tomas Galvez appears to be holding his own there. Galvez is of Finnish descent and has represented them at U15 level. He is still of small stature and rarely goes to ground when tackling, preferring to win the ball and use it. He has fairly good anticipation and in the games I've seen him in he cuts out a good number of balls aimed towards the winger on his side of the pitch. He's pretty quick and isn't beaten too often when the ball is played in behind him. While not the smoothest running with the ball at feet his passing both long and short generally has purpose behind it. The one thing I really like about him is the way he's able to side-step the player in front of him when receiving the ball. A little dip of the shoulder sees him creating time & space for himself to move inside and then look for a simple short pass or a little dink with curl into the channel between the oppositions right-back and right central defender for a teammate to receive. Like the majority of defensive players in the academy he plays with his head up and isn't afraid to have the ball at his feet in tight situations. He's still working out when to push on or stay back without the ball and right now probably errs on the side of caution by staying too deep. Overall, for someone playing against bigger and stronger boys he's not looked out of place at all, while his calmness receiving the ball to feet makes him stand out technically from a lot of the defenders at U18 level. At this moment in time I'd say Tomas Galvez looks a promising young player with plenty of time to grow, literally, and develop. Tomas Galvez
Thanks reids. I wondered after what was a promising start what had happened to him. Hopefully he will back in the starting line up and getting those minutes back.
With a name like that I wonder if his parentage is South American in some way from Argentina, Uruguay or Chile. Looking this up the Chilean ambassador to Finland is a Galvez of long standing. Tomas is being schooled locally at The Verulam so well settled. Three caps already for Finland. Nice to have some international representation in the youth ranks. The more we have the better for the future so long as they are not pinched. GT was always proud to have his youth players along with Tom Walley capped. It was a feather in the cap pardon the expression for the club.
It hadn't registered with me he'd have possible South American heritage. Good spot! I've had his name for over a season now and I just presumed he was English with Finnish parentage due to his age. Incidentally, the competition mentioned on his schools website is this one. https://translate.google.com/transl...-hudd-u15-maajoukkueeseen&prev=search&pto=aue Galvez isn't mentioned other than in the pre-tournament squad list but there's another player there, centre forward Roni Hudd, who was also linked to Watford a couple of years ago. I say linked, his name would come up with Watford as his club but I've never found any real confirmation this was the case and he now appears to be with Finnish side Vaasan Palloseura.
Anybody remember the mysterious trialist Chi Ezennorim, an unused sub from the recent U23 game against Birmingham? No searches or requests were able to shed light on who the player was and I even wondered if we had someone in under a pseudonym. Well, I may have found out his identity tonight thanks to a picture on google while searching for someone else. I've now a feeling his name was misspelt on the Birmingham team sheet, an all too eager 'R' taking the place of a bashful 'L' and he is actually Chi Ezennolim. Or, to give him his full name, Chibuike Udogu Ezennolim. Ezennolim is currently a free agent after being released by Millwall where he was part of their U18 & U23 squads until this season. He's not long turned 19, is English with Nigerian heritage, stands 6' tall and is a left footed left-back. There are no real details but here he is on Transfermarkt. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/chibuike-ezennolim/profil/spieler/746545 If you're at a loss for what to do in the next 5 minutes 38 seconds, here's a video he currently has up on YouTube to impress interested clubs & scouts.
I posted the U18 result against Crewe on Saturday as 0-0 - taken from the Crewe Alexandra official site - but I'm now seeing scores of 2-1 and 3-1 to Watford on trusted youth football sites. I've asked Watford for the result and I'll keep checking to see if I can confirm anything one way or the other. Apologies for it being a bit of a mess this week. I also posted Part I of an Omar Riza interview where he talks about U23 football and Part II is now up. To save anyone who's interested having to look back to find the first episode, here they both are. I'll do the same when the final two episodes appear. Part I Part II
Final update on the Watford U18 vs. Crewe U18 score from November 7th. Watford have let me know - believe me, nobody is more shocked than I they actually answered my question - Watford did in fact win 2-1 and not draw 0-0 as the Crewe Denialists (as I shall now call them) have posted on their official site. Again, I apologise for the confusion and messy nature of the updates.
In addition to claiming they won 2-1, did our club also claim that Gueye played in this game as part of his "getting ready for the first team" process ?
Really strange. YouthHawk are the only site I've looked at who've had the correct score so far. I don't understand why finding academy scores is so difficult and sometimes so seemingly secretive.
No news on Gueye but Estupinan & Suarez are practicing their double act for the end of season awards gala. Something about a cover of 'Leavin' On A Jet Plane' by all accounts.
The Recluse - I imagine you as some kind of TV detective, with your wall of information with links to all the clues! I really enjoy reading the posts in here, just hoping one day one of these names starts to show up in the first team, will be nice to have read a bit about that persons progress through the youth teams.
Thanks EB Hornet. I'm not quite at the stage of lines of string connecting players/clubs/age groups (yet!) but I do go through a few notebooks! I did bang on a bit about Dan Phillips last season and before but he's not quite managed to make the impression I'd hoped for. After being involved in a few 1st XI games he'll now have found himself in a new position mentally in going back down to the U23s. Not many will agree but I think he has the raw ingredients to make an impact in the next year or so, it's now a question of application and consistency. Fingers crossed something clicks for him and he progresses enough to earn more chances at some point. And don't be put off by the results, especially of the U18s. We do have a fairly decent crop of 16-18 year olds as individuals across all positions. Not obvious stars of the future but there are some decent young players in there. As with Phillips though, it's now up to them to apply a professional mindset to their own development week after week to stand any chance of finding 1st team football anywhere in the next 5 or so years. And as followers of this club it's just as important we have patience with the kids coming through, especially the 19/20-yr olds around the first team because it's quite a leap from age level games to competitive matches.
Any reason Phillips hasn't played in the last couple u23 games, do you think? Injured, or being kept on standby for the first team?
I've not listened to the 3rd part yet but here are the 3 episodes of Omar Riza talking academy football to the Academy Football Network released so far. The final episode will (should?) come out next Tuesday. In other academy news, Watford will be at home to either Dorking Wanderers or Colchester United in the 2020/21 FA Youth Cup 3rd Round.
No game for the U23s this week but the U18s have started the weekend off well with a 1-0 win over Charlton. Charlton were sitting second in the league before todays games and Watford fourth but 16-yr old Shaq Forde's winner was the difference, according to our official twitter feed. https://twitter.com/WatfordFC/status/1330140490176622593?s=20 Forde, whose younger brother signed for Arsenal earlier this year, only turned 16 in May and is already a regular for the U18s this season while also appearing several times for the U23s. He's a forward who generally operates on the left side but looks as though he could play anywhere along the front line.
With no official fixture for the U23s this week, a friendly against Brentford 'B' has been arranged for tomorrow - Tuesday, November 24th. Kick-off will be 12pm at Clarence Park, home of St Albans FC. No members of the public are allowed into the ground. It's anyone's guess whether Watford will give the game any coverage but Brentford '...will be providing live updates across social media of this fixture, as well as a match report and highlights in the coming days. Unfortunately there will be no live stream available.' https://www.brentfordfc.com/news/20...b-to-take-on-watford-u23s-tomorrow-afternoon/
Colchester United beat Dorking Wanderers 2-0 meaning Watford will face United at home in the FAYC 3rd Round. The two sides met at London Colney in September with Colchester scraping home, let me just check the score... checking again... one more time... 7-2. Yes, United won with a mixture of 7 (seven) offside goals & penalties. Probably. No penalties or offsides you say? Huh. I'm not 100% sure but I think it was actually 2-2 at half-time. No date has yet been announced for the upcoming cup tie.
As promised, here are all parts of the Omar Riza interview where he's talking U23 football on The Academy Football Network. Maybe next time give the fella off screen a mic if he's going to ask questions though.
Sounds very promising. Hopefully we will get the full £27.63 from Citeh when they pinch him in a year's time.
Watford U23s 1-3 Brentford 'B' In the Hexapod Invertebrates (friendly) Cup between the Hornets and the Bees at Clarence Park today it was the away side who stung the hosts to secure a comfortable victory. Max Haygarth opened the scoring after 6 minutes to give Brentford the lead only for one of Watford's trialists to equalise just after the half hour mark. The sides went in at half-time level only for Alex Gilbert to put Brentford ahead once again in the 57th minute. Haygarth scored a penalty with 11 minutes remaining to make the game safe for the visitors. So far Watford haven't released any information or acknowledged the game took place, unlike Brentford who put up a team sheet of their side, which included ex-Hornet Lewis Gordon, and followed the game live on twitter. It was only Brentford referring to 'one of the Watford trialists' several times which allowed me to know there were some playing. As it is, player names for our lot are impossible to source right now but if I come across anything I'll post it ASAP.
Why would the club not say anything at all? The Pozzos might not care but people at the club are Watford fans and should know some supporters might at least want to know about the Youth team etx.
I wonder have they made cutbacks and let go of the people who wrote reports, etc for the youth teams.
I may have found the reason why nothing was said. In Brentford's report they've kindly named Waford's line-up and fark!n' hell - how many trialists?!? Watford are protective of releasing names of players on trial so I guess they've wanted to keep it quiet for that reason. That's no reason not to acknowledge the match itself or not to give news of the result but they're pretty useless reporting most things at this level at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if they have, as nornironhorn suggests, made cutbacks to the media team and now concentrate the vast majority of time on the 1st XI. Maybe they're short staffed because of Covid-19 too? Either way, it's still a piss-poor effort at the moment and what with being unable to go to any matches, I'm losing interest in football both generally and in Watford. https://www.brentfordfc.com/news/20...rt-for-watford-u23-vs-brentford-on-24-nov-20/ Here's the Watford team for the Brentford friendly. It's good to see Henry Wise finally make an appearance again this season - he's been out of action for some time - but still no Sam Dalby.
Max Gayle has joined Watford U18s on trial for this week from Erith & Belvedere FC. Gayle, a centre-back, was on an Advance Player Development scholarship before joining Erith & Belvedere 3 months ago. E&B, based in Bexley, play in the - deep breath - Southern Counties East League Premier Division and have been sharing Park View Road with owners Welling United since 1999. (Thanks wiki). Good luck Max! Here is Max's welcome when he joined Erith.
