Academy And Under-23s

He's already been called up to the England youth teams - that will have already alerted every possible scout to him already, so I don't think any insta posts will make any difference.

 

As I've pointed out before a few things give me some vague hope with Eboue:

- Firstly he was already dumped by Arsenal when he was younger, so might not be at the level where the few elite, un-rejectable clubs make a big move for him. Or he might be more cautious of another such move already.
- Next he's the son of Emmanuel Eboue, so he'll hardly be short of cash - so a move to a lower level PL club on a youth contract will not really be the same degree of potentially life changing money to him as it would be for most other academy players. Therefore he might prioritise a bit more the possibility of playing time.
- He'd likely live locally.

Maybe he will still get poached, but just not sure it's as much of a foregone conclusion as others have been. And the U21s were only playing friggin' Colchester.

 

Further to the earlier comments about Eboue - it's worth noting that he seems to have not been called up to any of the England youth squads for the latest round of internationals.

It seems he is very much just on the fringe of the England youth teams. By contrast, Amass was a first choice starter.

 

Hopefully he is poor enough that we get the chance to keep him.

 

You couldn’t make it up. I mean what is the point in developing youngsters when any player with any ability is just taken for peanuts by a prem club ? Even players who have previously been kicked out by another prem club.
It really is so sad that football has come to this.

 

So predictable, but that doesn't make it any less infuritating.

These EPPP rules are simply legalised theft for the big clubs. Cherry-pick other clubs' exciting talents with your loose change, then after a couple of years you'll be able to loan them back to the Championship for decent fees each time, before eventually selling them for big money at 21 to meet your financial fair play obligations.

What a system.

 

These should come with 50% sell-ons by default.

Make it beneficial for clubs to develop youth with the expectation that they will be poached.

We saw what, £70k for a £100m Sancho?

 

This one is a beauty. Kid gets put on scrap heap by Arsenal. We invest in him and make effort to develop him. He f***s off to Chelsea for pittance. Won’t make grade at Chelsea but they can sell him for £15m down the line to allow them to dodge financial fair play. An absolute disgrace of a system.

 

Not quite. We did a deal with City for Sancho. We got an 'up to' £500k transfer fee and negotiated a sell-on

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ws/man-city-sign-14-year-old-prospect-8798045

We got £2m when he went from Dortmund to Man Utd.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...2million-jadon-sancho-move-manchester-united/

And presumably a chunk when he went from City to Dortmund before that.

Still peanuts compared his overall value but arguably a lot fairer than the standard robbery fees for academy products.

 

I bet we end up having to share any future compensation for training input with Arsenal too!

 

He’s a poor example we released him the summer before he broke through. So wasn’t really on radars

 

Ashley Young was a bad example of the system, but perhaps a blueprint to what we could do to make our academy work again.

He was "too small" for even our own coaches to rate him as a prospect and only one of the youth team coaches at the time wanted to keep him as they saw past his physical stature. I don't remember the name but I think Watford FC and this coach also disagreed and fell out about a finder fee or something.

Eboue is described as a "powerful player". So he's developed his physical attributes already and at 15/16 is going to stand out.

I wonder if the Watford Youth team setups should be looking far more at the smaller more skillful players as they're not going to shine until they hit 18-21 and bulk out.

But yes the system is a ******* shambles.

 

I sort of understand your reasoning but apart from Young I can't think of anybody who falls within your remit.
I think Cliff Powell, the former Hornet played for Grangepark school. It was like children playing against a man. He was insanely good at that level. But I seem to remember I played against a CB from the same school who was joining Millwall he was an excellent player who stood out from everyone but he didn't develop and I ended up playing against him in the Sunday leagues and I destroyed him all the time.

 

Luton got knocked out on pens, so we're at home to Crewe in the next round.