Who did you play with or against in school or youth football who made it big time and what were they like as youngsters

blue44 said:
Steve Wrigley.
early 1970's him and his mates played
with me and my dad in King Georges playing fields Ashton.

He was 1 year older than me,he was an absolute amazing dribbler,ran rings around all of us,he joind Palaces youth team/set up,they had a big reputation i was told as a kid.

he ended up at Forest when Cloughie was there but a bit part player if i remember correctly, ended up on the coaching staff at City too under Pearce
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Good name for a dribbler.
 
paulchapo said:
Ronnie Healey who played in goal for City for a short while in the very early seventies went to my school Newall Green. He was a few years older than me though. Every year they used to have a teacher's v the final years football team game. Mr Roberts the games teacher brought Ronnie along one year. I'm sure he did some minutes in one of the team's goals for a while but my memory may be playing tricks on me it was a bloody long time ago now lol.
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I remember Healey. He used to drop kick the ball out. Think he played in the CWC when, as injury ravaged holders, we went out to Chelsea who won it iirc.
 
oldhamblue said:
We played in a school cup match against North Chadderton. They had a lad who stood on the halfway line just waiting for long balls over the top. Scored a hat trick. Mark Robins

At our school, Mark Owen was a year younger than me. Decent footballer. Remember reading he had trials for the rags before he joined Take That. He played for local team Freehold when work commitments allowed
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You must’ve been a Few years behind me, I knew Mark well, had trials at Chadserton FC and he played for Hollinwood as well, he did have a trial at the rags but a think it was a groin injury that put paid to his footballing career. My brother was in his year couldn’t elieve it when he told me he was in Take That, really nice lad always got the birds even before TT.
 
KS55 said:
I remember Healey. He used to drop kick the ball out. Think he played in the CWC when, as injury ravaged holders, we went out to Chelsea who won it iirc.
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That's him. Decent keeper but a bit small and dropped the odd clanger, the one in the second leg of that competition against Chelsea being costly.
 
Not about myself but my twin nephews and two City Links.
They were in the Nottingham Forest Academy under 14s same time as SWP. Boss was Paul Hart.
Coached by Steve Wigley who managed Southampton.
 
Best player I played with was a lad called David Tuttle. My god what a player as a kid, scouts from all over were watching him every week. Eventually signed for Spuds. Had a bit of a journeyman career, seemed to be one of Harry Bassett's favourites and followed him around.

Regularly played against Joey Beauchamp. What a player he was. Should have played at a higher level, but clearly had problems. R. I. P
 
I played cricket with Eddie Howe. He was a cracking player and was playing Under 15s when he was only 11. Never even knew he played football at that time. Next thing I hear hes playing for Bournemouth. He was a really nice lad from a really nice family. His grandad and my grandad used to spend days sat together on boundary watching us.

City players, Ive played against Adie Mike (in a game where Garry Flitcroft was on bench) and Gerry Gow. (called me a c***, as Id had the audacity to tackle him)

Played with and against few players who made the grade at Southampton, Paul Tisdale (Went on to coach in League 1 and 2) and David Hughes, and a fella who played a few games for West Ham called Scott Mean, who in fairness played me off the park at Dean Court.

Ben White from Arsenal went my old school but about 20 years after Id left so cant really lay that claim to fame.
 
Played against Phil Whelan when he was about 17, he went on to play for Ipswich, Boro, Oxford and Southend. I was warned about him before the game that he was just about to turn pro and I would have a hard game. Ran him ragged and couldn't understand what the fuss was.
 
Played for North Manchester Boys a couple of times and one of those games were against the rags youth side at the cliff.

Their side included both Nevillves, Scholes, Butt and Cooke.

I came on as a sub playing right back and had to mark Scholes who was playing left wing
 
I played against John Macken when I was about 12 in a school v school match. His school was St Matthews in Moston if I remember rightly. He was a fully grown man with a beard and massive legs.
 
Went to school with a lad called Joe Mwasile. He was miles, miles better than everyone at football. Could run rings round any number of us. Used to play against fully grown adults when he was 16 and 17 and he made them look like toddlers.

My memory is a bit foggy because we weren't really friends, we just went to the same school, but as far as I can recall he was being looked at by Chelsea scouts. But then he broke his leg and was in a cast for 6 months. When he came back he was nearly as good as he'd been before but he was never quite the same and the momentum for his potential Chelsea move went flat.

He signed a professional contract with Morecambe 12 months later and played about 50 games for them. He was loaned back and forth between a few non-league clubs after that and eventually signed for Salford City when they were in the Northern Premier League. He got on BBC TV when they beat Notts County 2-0 in the FA Cup first round in 2015 and almost scored one of the all-time great first round goals (1:55:05 on the video below) but fluffed his lines a bit.

Last I heard he was playing for Nantwich in the 7th tier. Makes you realise just how good you have to be to make it at the top level.

 
youngbob said:
Went to school with a lad called Joe Mwasile. He was miles, miles better than everyone at football. Could run rings round any number of us. Used to play against fully grown adults when he was 16 and 17 and he made them look like toddlers.

My memory is a bit foggy because we weren't really friends, we just went to the same school, but as far as I can recall he was being looked at by Chelsea scouts. But then he broke his leg and was in a cast for 6 months. When he came back he was nearly as good as he'd been before but he was never quite the same and the momentum for his potential Chelsea move went flat.

He signed a professional contract with Morecambe 12 months later and played about 50 games for them. He was loaned back and forth between a few non-league clubs after that and eventually signed for Salford City when they were in the Northern Premier League. He got on BBC TV when they beat Notts County 2-0 in the FA Cup first round in 2015 and almost scored one of the all-time great first round goals (1:55:05 on the video below) but fluffed his lines a bit.

Last I heard he was playing for Nantwich in the 7th tier. Makes you realise just how good you have to be to make it at the top level.

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I played with multiple lads all destined to make it to the top and only a few of them made half decent lower league careers. Its a cut throat business!
Best I played against was welbeck. I marked him and he scored 4 haha
 
Also, wasn't going to say because it gives away where I went to school, but fuck it, might as well...

When I was at Stockport Academy sixth form, the lads in Years 12/13 would play against the teachers every Friday at 3.30pm. Usually we had enough for 10 or 11-a-side. That's when Joe Mwasile (see above) would play with us.

Anyway, not every Friday, but about once a month, we were short on players. Whenever that happened, a little Year 7 lad would pop his head round the astro-turf gate and ask if he could play. Reckoned he could take us all on.

He was never allowed to play because the teachers weren't insured to play against kids his age but that didn't stop him asking a few times. He just used to sit watching for a bit and then go home.

Pretty soon he was moved to a different school and naturally none of us ever thought we'd see him again. But then in 2017, City were playing a pre-season friendly against United and I recognised one of the lads in City's line-up.

Yep.

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M16 citeh said:
I played with multiple lads all destined to make it to the top and only a few of them made half decent lower league careers. Its a cut throat business!
Best I played against was welbeck. I marked him and he scored 4 haha
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Yeah it's nasty. If you're in the Academy at City and don't make it you're usually set for a career at a decent level. Someone I know when to school with Chris Chantler, who would have probably made a go of it at City but was ousted when we got taken over. He had a decent career playing for Carlisle United and Kilmarnock in Scotland. But if you're at the Academy of a team in League Two and don't make it, you need to think of finding another career. It's why so many young lads end up on the scrapheap a bit.
 
John Foster , Rae Ingram , Adie Mike , Ryan Wilson ( Giggs ) , Simon Davies all sound as fuck probably more but my memory is not what it was
 
youngbob said:
Yeah it's nasty. If you're in the Academy at City and don't make it you're usually set for a career at a decent level. Someone I know when to school with Chris Chantler, who would have probably made a go of it at City but was ousted when we got taken over. He had a decent career playing for Carlisle United and Kilmarnock in Scotland. But if you're at the Academy of a team in League Two and don't make it, you need to think of finding another career. It's why so many young lads end up on the scrapheap a bit.
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I know so many lads who's lives took a turn for the worse after being released! One lad who was released from United cuz school told them he was failing maths. I can't see the link myself but it ruined his prospect in life!

Anyway great story about nearly playing with Phill! Bet he would have run rings around you!
 
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