FA Youth Cup Final - Chelsea v City - 27/4 7.45pm (ITV4) / tickets (merged)

[BigOscar]

I thought we were pretty decent considering we were up against a team of giant physical specimens in weather really not conducive to trying to play football. I wasn't particularly impressed by any of Chelsea's players, none of them stood out from anything other than a physical aspect particularly, not in the way Brahim, Sancho and Davenport did, or Buckley in places. They've built a very effective youth team, but I'd be very surprised to see any of them do much more than someone like Chalobah did a few years ago. The leftback DaSilva is probably the most plausible looking first teamer I think, but who knows.

To be honest I never really fancied our chances without any fullbacks, it's such an important area for the way we want to play so to have players there who really can't threaten going forwards was always going to make us pretty easy to play against. There's a few in our team that strike me as good youth players who probably won't become good adult players, but I won't write them off too early.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Not really mate, as I think the poster means of the standard we now require. Look at the players that we've brought through in the last 15 years. Plenty of them made our first team and still would if we were an average Premiership team but out of all those probably only Sturridge has the ability to be a regular in our current team.

Be amazed if more than one of last night's starting team make our first team on a regular basis.

If we only produce one player every ten years, then either a) we are going to be worse than most or b) everyone else is as bad. If b) where are we going to get our players from ? There will be 20 players in each league accross Europe, let's say 5 top leagues that's 100 players to to fill 22 places per season in all the top teams for ten whole years.

What has happened at City & in this country is that people have been brainwashed to believe the bullshit spouted by some so called 'experts' that it's not possible to produce a significant number of your own players because of the standard of top football.

It is complete crap. The youth system in this country has been mismanaged by 'jobs for the boys' wankers so the standard dropped & then when clubs do produce players, the managers are so concerned about their own jobs & ambitions that they will sign old farts they trust, on free transfers, rather than try a kid, or in the position of the managers with money to spend, they will spend every fucking penny, not even leave one penny unspent, if they can & just sign extra players to fill squad places.

If we hadn't spent a fortune on DeBruyne, Sterling, Otamendi, I don't believe for one second that Kelechi would be playing v Real Madrid, there would be a 30 year old Spanish geezer playing there. Bony has failed, is the only reason Kelechi gets games. If LVG had another 500 mil to spend, nobody would know who Rashford is.

We fucked off Denayer because keeping him would mean Demichelis is a spare part. Harry Kane was being farmed around whilst no marks took his place.

Imo we have players right now who should be a year more advanced than they are & would be a completely different standard if they had been used in the first team. Some we will never see.

Intersting that both Wilkins & Pearce have said that they think there are kids in both teams who would have no problem at all playing with top players right now but are not sure many will get the chance.

Diaz on the other hand, they expect to make it whatever. So does the Goat & so do I.

Getting rid of Pellegrini will be a huge step towards the club's stated ambition to have a hard core of 5-6 homegrown players in the first team in the not to distant future.

I think this is very doable & will indeed happen. We could even have that many at least in the squad next season if they do well when Pep arrives.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

You mean a Spanish club like Barcelona that batters every English Premier League club it plays....they don't come much smaller than the likes of Iniesta and Xavi.

I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. Barcelona is a completely unrepresentative comparison to make, a club blessed with an exceptional generation of players, including the utterly unique Lionel Messi. A normal team of that physical size in the Premier League would get bullied and outmuscled non-stop. Diaz looks our best bet to make the grade, although on last night's showing Buckley and Sancho looked better equipped, but it may take 3 or 4 more years for him to fill out sufficiently for first team football. He barely featured last night for the first hour

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Agreed – building a youth team around big powerful players is a complete waste of time. When you look at the difference between junior coaching in Spain, Germany and Holland (where they do really well in bringing through technically good players) the difference is around the focus on core skills and they actively try to take the power and pace out of youth football. Chelsea seem to have gone the opposite way, build a big strong physical team and win the cup – however being big at youth level does not translate to senior football where big is not enough! I’d rather lose the final with a team full of really skilful players, some of which will end up being tall / fast / strong to add to their game. They will be the ones that can bring something special through to the first team. I have total faith in our youth set up.

I think you're doing the Chelsea youth system a great disservice. Over the last 2 or 3 years their youth teams have contained several players who aren't just physically imposing, but also talented. Also, bar 1 or 2 16 year olds, most of our team are already 17 or 18 years old. They might fill out physically from there, but they ain't likely to get a lot taller

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Roberts plays on the opposite side to Barker so wouldn't affect him in any way and M Garcia plays centrally so it's the same deal. Celina can play over on the left but is more a striker/2nd striker.

Given his undoubted talent I'd thought that the only 2 reasons for him not appearing anywhere would be either injury or attitude. He does let his head drop when he loses the ball and just wanders back, needs a kick up the backside or some serious motivation.

I appreciate they all play in slightly different ways but I would think that when it comes to first team oportunity the players who are pushing hardest get the nod. It would have been simple enough to play Barker on his preferred wing in the FA cup game against Chelsea however he only made it on off the bench. That suggests to me that he is not forgotten but he is behind the others in terms of being ready and pushing to be more involved.

 

[Craig]

If we only produce one player every ten years, then either a) we are going to be worse than most or b) everyone else is as bad. If b) where are we going to get our players from ? There will be 20 players in each league accross Europe, let's say 5 top leagues that's 100 players to to fill 22 places per season in all the top teams for ten whole years.

What has happened at City & in this country is that people have been brainwashed to believe the bullshit spouted by some so called 'experts' that it's not possible to produce a significant number of your own players because of the standard of top football.

It is complete crap. The youth system in this country has been mismanaged by 'jobs for the boys' wankers so the standard dropped & then when clubs do produce players, the managers are so concerned about their own jobs & ambitions that they will sign old farts they trust, on free transfers, rather than try a kid, or in the position of the managers with money to spend, they will spend every fucking penny, not even leave one penny unspent, if they can & just sign extra players to fill squad places.

If we hadn't spent a fortune on DeBruyne, Sterling, Otamendi, I don't believe for one second that Kelechi would be playing v Real Madrid, there would be a 30 year old Spanish geezer playing there. Bony has failed, is the only reason Kelechi gets games. If LVG had another 500 mil to spend, nobody would know who Rashford is.

We fucked off Denayer because keeping him would mean Demichelis is a spare part. Harry Kane was being farmed around whilst no marks took his place.

Imo we have players right now who should be a year more advanced than they are & would be a completely different standard if they had been used in the first team. Some we will never see.

Intersting that both Wilkins & Pearce have said that they think there are kids in both teams who would have no problem at all playing with top players right now but are not sure many will get the chance.

Diaz on the other hand, they expect to make it whatever. So does the Goat & so do I.

Getting rid of Pellegrini will be a huge step towards the club's stated ambition to have a hard core of 5-6 homegrown players in the first team in the not to distant future.

I think this is very doable & will indeed happen. We could even have that many at least in the squad next season if they do well when Pep arrives.

Well, no because we'll continue to buy players. I wasn't saying we'll only produce 1 player every 10 years anyway.I was just trying to point out that's what I think the poster you replied to meant. We'll produce plenty of players that will have good careers in football but very few who make it with us.

Hopefully we start to produce many more but it's important to remember how outstanding most top players look at u18 level. People like Richards and Ireland looked sensational and Sturridge was on another level at the time. The jump is absolutely huge and out of last night's team nobody really shone in all honesty. Obviously like everyone else I've got high hopes for Diaz and he's got age on his side but the rest in the starting line up it looks highly unlikely any will be Champions League quality for us.

 

[br88]

I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. Barcelona is a completely unrepresentative comparison to make, a club blessed with an exceptional generation of players, including the utterly unique Lionel Messi. A normal team of that physical size in the Premier League would get bullied and outmuscled non-stop. Diaz looks our best bet to make the grade, although on last night's showing Buckley and Sancho looked better equipped, but it may take 3 or 4 more years for him to fill out sufficiently for first team football. He barely featured last night for the first hour

I can't believe you are complaining about a 16 year old lad for not being the star for once...he has been amazingly consistent playing against people much older than him. I agree about Sancho and, like Diaz, there is great excitement at their skill levels. I am not interested in the fast, hardworking and well drilled type of young player that Chelsea mainly have....I enjoy watching Diaz and Sancho so much more. And, as you say, Buckley looks a very interesting prospect too.

 

[Mike N]

Played well in the first half and were the better team IMO. Chelsea took advantage of the error and deserved the win over the tie. Some very good prospects who could well break into the first team one day.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

I can't believe you are complaining about a 16 year old lad for not being the star for once...he has been amazingly consistent playing against people much older than him. I agree about Sancho and, like Diaz, there is great excitement at their skill levels. I am not interested in the fast, hardworking and well drilled type of young player that Chelsea mainly have....I enjoy watching Diaz and Sancho so much more. And, as you say, Buckley looks a very interesting prospect too.

Complaining? Seriously? Just a simple statement of fact. I love watching him play

 

[PhillyBlue]

I thought we were pretty decent considering we were up against a team of giant physical specimens in weather really not conducive to trying to play football. I wasn't particularly impressed by any of Chelsea's players, none of them stood out from anything other than a physical aspect particularly, not in the way Brahim, Sancho and Davenport did, or Buckley in places. They've built a very effective youth team, but I'd be very surprised to see any of them do much more than someone like Chalobah did a few years ago. The leftback DaSilva is probably the most plausible looking first teamer I think, but who knows.

To be honest I never really fancied our chances without any fullbacks, it's such an important area for the way we want to play so to have players there who really can't threaten going forwards was always going to make us pretty easy to play against. There's a few in our team that strike me as good youth players who probably won't become good adult players, but I won't write them off too early.

Sounds like Chelsea has built a team full of American Footballers :).