Football

Youth signings. Allegedly.

Neither Bats or Tammy have set the world alight the last six months or so.

I’d love either of them to be our 20+ goals a season striker but can’t see either getting there.

Ah that old thin line... second offence? first time they just ban on youth signings don't they?

Bats is having a hard time/not playing at Valencia, but he was dynamite for Dortmund last season. Isn’t Abraham scoring regularly for villa? Calling @villa-ru !
Find it amazing that Chelsea could spend that much on batshuyai (sp) and still not know if he’s good enough for them/finished product.
Are we into a more expensive niasse situation?

There are apparently clubs interested in permanently signing both of them. I’d hoe Chelsea have learned from their previous dealings and negotiate a sell on or buy back clause.

Abraham is off to Wolves for £18 million apparently which says all it needs to about his perceived ability and his ambition.

Expect ManU or Liverpool to buy him for £60 million in a year or two.

It does only seem to be Spurs out of the top-4 bothering clubs (possibly Arsenal if you rate their chances of a top-4 finish) who actually have consistently played academy products.

I'm struggling to think of anyone bar Rashford who has made the grade at United, Foden hasn't really established himself at City, Liverpool have Alexander-Arnold, but apart from that it's not a good picture really.

Lingard?

And of course Pogba.
But now I sound like Jose.

Lingard of course.

Pogba I wouldn't really count, I think stealing 15-16 year olds from foreign clubs' academies isn't really the same.

awaits input from manc ronnie

Lingard is: -

a) Shite
b) 25

Though he is an academy product

It was more around taking talent from other clubs academies.
I wholeheartedly agree with your summation though.

We’ve invested in the youth and facilities side of the club so expect our manager to play them.
One of the reasons I think van gaal was in the frame before he was poached by United and why we wanted pochettino when he decided to leave Southampton.
But we’ve fewer academy players who have made it to the first team than you think.
Kane, winks, Mason, bentaleb, Rose (poached from Leeds) josh onomah, Kyle Walker peters, oliver skipp. But pochettino is ready to give them a go if he thinks they are good enough.

Just haven’t had as many as fans would like who have been as successful as Kane, who is now the benchmark.

I heard somewhere (r5 probs) this question:
how many EPL clubs have a striker/main goalscorer who is an academy product?

spurs, united, palace... erm any more?

Leicester bought Vardy from the Conference, which obviously isn't the same but it's not bad going.

They seem to have a good youth setup as well, with Chilwell and Choudhury playing regularly, and Harvey Barnes being hyped up at West Brom.

I was looking through the Under 17 World Cup winning squad though, and although they still have a couple of years' development yet, only Foden, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi and Sancho have had decent first team game time.

Arsenal have a bunch of academy players coming up and getting 1st team time but not in main goal scorer positions.
Maitland Niles, Smith Rowe, Nketiah have scored in various competitions. Bukayo Saka too but he hasn’t scored yet. Welbeck and Iwobi are older academy players, but also not lead strikers at least for very long

Welbeck is an academy player, but not Arsenal's academy.

That david squires is funny isn't he?

Morata is looking more distraught than Torres ever did playing in blue. We need a striker that can ease the burden on Hazard.

The new years day panels are excellent.

All the Kopite stuff is hilarious...

And so fucking true...

@jaw I can't be fucked to watch the Soton game, I know I'll cave and watch some "highlights" very shortly but fucking meh...

the previous one with jurgen and jose partridge is great

dude you can't leave that in the bathroom ..............

If Liverpool tonk M City tonight, is an unbeaten season feasible?