2017 has been a great year for England youth, is it significant?
The U17s have just beat Brazil 3-1 to get to the final of the World Cup. In 2017 we've also seen
- U21s got to Euro semi finals
- U20s won the World Cup
- U19s won the Euros
- Won the Toulon tournament (U20)
- U17s got to the Euros final
When it's kinda unfashionable right now to say anything positive about England this is good to see. I thought it's interesting (I kinda cba to do the work) if there's a significant correlation between the groups of players that win these tournaments and whether the same groups/generation of players tend to do well for the full national side.
On other hand I think U17 success is still at a stage where it's more development than actual evidence of future success. Still at an age where more athletic kids who've developed early can dominate lads who have had a later development, and so many variables that can alter a player's career for better or worse from age 16 onwards. You also can't assume at U17 level you've got the best squad of 25 players that are under 17 in the country at that point, element of selection bias as I imagine players at top clubs have a chance of being known to get picked while people like Harry Maguire or Dele Alli kind of slip through the net. We won the U17 World Cup previously in 2010 and that whole squad 7 years later has very few names in top level football https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_UEFA_European_Under-17_Championship_squads
England's Success at Youth Level
posted on 25/10/17
Scotland were struggling to produce good players even before the Bosman ruling, to be fair.
posted on 25/10/17
comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 9 seconds ago
Scotland were struggling to produce good players even before the Bosman ruling, to be fair.
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Man Utd's most promising youngster McWhoever is Scottish. Liverpool's most promising youngster is Scottish
posted on 25/10/17
McWhoever
posted on 25/10/17
comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 17 minutes ago
I'm not too sure, Edin. He was captain of the u17's last year I think. Was injured ahead of the Euros and we got to the final so maybe they didn't want to change a winning side?
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Tbf is this is the case then it shows how much better the U- set up is than the national team. Favouring a system rather than the players
posted on 25/10/17
Marcotti (I think it was him on his podcast, anyway) said the group of players born around the milenium mark are very special, and are sought by all the big clubs in Europe.
Interesting time . I would love a few to go as Sancho has.
posted on 25/10/17
Yeah definitely. Sancho and Gomes are the two high profile players in the squad and it doesn't appear they've bent over backwards for the inclusion in this tournament, and it's not been to the detriment of the team evidently.
But as mentioned, it's down to the clubs how good most of these players end up.
posted on 25/10/17
Too young too judge. Many of those players are just early bloomers and have matured faster then their peers. Only a few will probably end up becoming regular PL performers.
posted on 25/10/17
It's all about the pathways which unfortunately there is a clear lack of at the top level in England and that's what it really boils down to, well that and the pathetic excuse of a reserve league.
It is so difficult to judge players of such a young age but this group of U17s has something about them. I'm struggling to remember watching an England youth side as good as this lot and when you consider Gomes has been pretty much a spectator during the tournament and Jadon Sancho especially has been absent for the knockout stage, I think that says quite a lot about this group.
posted on 25/10/17
comment by Genius🤓_AppleCart_Space🚀_Dude_Featuring_Zorak (..We all got a Chicken🐔-Duck🦆-Woman👩🏼 thing, Waiting for us.) (U19099)
posted 3 hours, 15 minutes ago
Cant help but think of Ravel Morrison.If only he had a friggin brain.
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And wasn't a complete caant
posted on 29/10/17
Don't worry by the time they're twenty one they won't be capable of trapping a bag of cement,thanks to the FA and the woeful managerial merry-go-round of utter mediocrity that have followed their rules!