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Academy Thread 20/21


Ghost of Clough

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On 06/12/2020 at 20:12, Ghost of Clough said:

I'm expecting him to move up to the U23s in the New Year, and get a few first team games under his belt once out Championship status is retained... as long as he's planning to stay with us.

He's still only 16, so has to be managed carefully. We've put a number of 16 year old into the first team over the years and they've suffered from injuries as a result (Holmes, Barnes, Bennett,etc...)

I see in the latest RamsTV training video Kaide Gordon is already training with the first team.

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On 06/12/2020 at 20:12, Ghost of Clough said:

I'm expecting him to move up to the U23s in the New Year, and get a few first team games under his belt once out Championship status is retained... as long as he's planning to stay with us.

He's still only 16, so has to be managed carefully. We've put a number of 16 year old into the first team over the years and they've suffered from injuries as a result (Holmes, Barnes, Bennett,etc...)

Think you may be getting ahead of yourselves! Some of the younger ones train with the first team every so often. He’s not played that many games for the 18s and none for the 23s as far as i’m aware. Derby will want him to be seen to be training with the 1st team to get his value up and keep the hype going. Hopefully he didn’t get injured, I noticed that he wasn’t in the 18s team against MCFC yesterday

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20 hours ago, Footymum2017 said:

Think you may be getting ahead of yourselves! Some of the younger ones train with the first team every so often. He’s not played that many games for the 18s and none for the 23s as far as i’m aware. Derby will want him to be seen to be training with the 1st team to get his value up and keep the hype going. Hopefully he didn’t get injured, I noticed that he wasn’t in the 18s team against MCFC yesterday

I didn't make my comments because he's been taking part in first team training. I made my comments because he's head and shoulders above anyone else we have in the U18s - it's a no brainer to me that he'll step up to the U23s very soon.

Once at U23 level the competition on the right wing is currently Shonibare and Wilson. Across the forward line we also have Cresswell, Duncan, Stretton and Hector-Ingram who all prefer to play central meaning we only really have 3 wingers for two positions. Given the shortage of numbers , there is little competition preventing Gordon getting game time at that level and possibly impressing enough to get a first team opportunity. The U23s have 13 games from New Year onwards, plenty of time for Gordon to prove he's worth a go in the first team.

We'll have little to play for in the final 5 games of this season, so chances for youth players will be up for grabs.

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31 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I didn't make my comments because he's been taking part in first team training. I made my comments because he's head and shoulders above anyone else we have in the U18s - it's a no brainer to me that he'll step up to the U23s very soon.

Once at U23 level the competition on the right wing is currently Shonibare and Wilson. Across the forward line we also have Cresswell, Duncan, Stretton and Hector-Ingram who all prefer to play central meaning we only really have 3 wingers for two positions. Given the shortage of numbers , there is little competition preventing Gordon getting game time at that level and possibly impressing enough to get a first team opportunity. The U23s have 13 games from New Year onwards, plenty of time for Gordon to prove he's worth a go in the first team.

We'll have little to play for in the final 5 games of this season, so chances for youth players will be up for grabs.

say it every season but being in a safe position with 4 or 5 games to go gives us a real chance to get prepared for the following season.  Every year we stagger across the finishing line which is great and exciting but if the opportunity arrives where we can blood a few without pressure that may work in our favour.  

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1 hour ago, Spanish said:

say it every season but being in a safe position with 4 or 5 games to go gives us a real chance to get prepared for the following season.  Every year we stagger across the finishing line which is great and exciting but if the opportunity arrives where we can blood a few without pressure that may work in our favour.  

I think it worked for Buchanan at the end of last season.

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8 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I didn't make my comments because he's been taking part in first team training. I made my comments because he's head and shoulders above anyone else we have in the U18s - it's a no brainer to me that he'll step up to the U23s very soon.

Once at U23 level the competition on the right wing is currently Shonibare and Wilson. Across the forward line we also have Cresswell, Duncan, Stretton and Hector-Ingram who all prefer to play central meaning we only really have 3 wingers for two positions. Given the shortage of numbers , there is little competition preventing Gordon getting game time at that level and possibly impressing enough to get a first team opportunity. The U23s have 13 games from New Year onwards, plenty of time for Gordon to prove he's worth a go in the first team.

We'll have little to play for in the final 5 games of this season, so chances for youth players will be up for grabs.

It will be interesting to see! Derby are working very hard to try and get him to sign the pro contract that they have offered, so that may be an inducement for him, but I still feel it is too soon for him to move up to the 23s. The 18s age group aren’t a very strong group so he is going to look better than the rest but it is a very big step up from playing half a season  18s football and then go to 23s

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5 minutes ago, Footymum2017 said:

It will be interesting to see! Derby are working very hard to try and get him to sign the pro contract that they have offered, so that may be an inducement for him, but I still feel it is too soon for him to move up to the 23s. The 18s age group aren’t a very strong group so he is going to look better than the rest but it is a very big step up from playing half a season  18s football and then go to 23s

That's a fair view. However, I look at the U23 squad and see 7 options for the front 3 positions (8 if we include Hutchinson as cover for the wing). Of those 8 options we have:

  • 2 in the first team squad (Stretton and Hector-Ingram)
  • 1 out on loan, soon to be returning, hopefully going out on loan again (JML)
  • 2 older players who should be going out on loan (Cresswell, 21, and Shonibare, 22)

That should leave just Wilson, Hutchinson and Duncan as our forward options for the second half of the season. Even with Cresswell and Shonibare remaining with the U23s, whether it's too soon or not, members from the U18 squad will get chances simply due to the size of the squad. Based on recent form, Gordon's at the front of the queue for me.

It's not as if many of the U18 options have played much more at that level (or above) than Gordon over the past 2 seasons either:

  • SThompson - 954 mins
  • Cybulski - 945 mins
  • Williams - 692 mins
  • Gordon - 526 mins
  • Borkovic - 384 mins
  • Kelly Caprani - 182 mins
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9 minutes ago, roboto said:

Does anyone else hope that the Kaide Gordon to United rumour is just someone mishearing Kai Rooney signing for them? ?

 

All that's been confirmed was they (among a host of clubs across the continent) were interested.

If he had already agreed to join them, I doubt we'd be playing him above his own age group, never mind training with the first team.

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On 17/12/2020 at 16:49, Ghost of Clough said:

That's a fair view. However, I look at the U23 squad and see 7 options for the front 3 positions (8 if we include Hutchinson as cover for the wing). Of those 8 options we have:

  • 2 in the first team squad (Stretton and Hector-Ingram)
  • 1 out on loan, soon to be returning, hopefully going out on loan again (JML)
  • 2 older players who should be going out on loan (Cresswell, 21, and Shonibare, 22)

That should leave just Wilson, Hutchinson and Duncan as our forward options for the second half of the season. Even with Cresswell and Shonibare remaining with the U23s, whether it's too soon or not, members from the U18 squad will get chances simply due to the size of the squad. Based on recent form, Gordon's at the front of the queue for me.

It's not as if many of the U18 options have played much more at that level (or above) than Gordon over the past 2 seasons either:

  • SThompson - 954 mins
  • Cybulski - 945 mins
  • Williams - 692 mins
  • Gordon - 526 mins
  • Borkovic - 384 mins
  • Kelly Caprani - 182 mins

 

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