Thought I would post a little on the lads who signed on pro terms the other day. As we all know our academy has been badly lacking in output in recent years. Last year saw a turning of the tide with Vela, Blakeman, Riley and O'halloran and Sampson offered pro-terms with all getting 1st team experience. Vela and Riley being the particular stand-outs.
This year 4 lads have been offered pro-terms - Odelusi, McQuade, Kellet and Lynch. The fact we have 4 youngsters being offered such deals is a real sign of last year not just being a one off and we have some more rather good players on the pro books.
Odelusi is a tricky striker who in my opinion has it all. Pace, natural scoring ability, dribbling ability and is good in the air. He missed the first half of last season with a broken leg but he returned in the form that he left. He fills a gap in that our academy rarely churns out the pacey strikers that are so important. I can't see him making an appearance bar a cameo in the cup. This in part to the fact the reserve coaches "Wallcotted" him towards the end of last year and started playing him on the wings. Although he looked all right there, he had less impact. I really like him as a player and think he should be able to become a first team player in the years ahead if he continues on his current trajectory. 7/10
Jay Lynch doesn't look like a keeper at under 6ft, but he sure as hell makes up for his lack of size with raw ability. Although many would see this lack of height as a drawback, it gives him increased agility and balance. He moves quicker then most keepers which gives him a great edge. He has all the attributes to be a very good keeper and I can see him rather than Lainton being the successor to Bogdan. Although unorthodox, he could be a very good player. 7/10
Andy Kellett has taken the academy by storm. Pretty much skipped over the U18's to go straight in to the reserves, this LB is a great little player. His LB play more reminiscent of Jordi Alba then Paul Robinson, he is a supurb attacking left back. Excellent dribbling and control, constantly making forward runs and looking for the overlap, his attacking arsenal is stocked a plenty. His defending worries me somewhat. He is very lightweight for a defender and I've seen him eased off the ball in our half a couple of times. Im quite certain though with him still being 17, he will grow and round the defensive side of his game. Named academy player of the year, he has a bright future although perhaps at LM/LW if not LB. 9/10
Alex McQuade is a steady CB. Can't say he has ever overly caught the eye, but could this be a good thing from a CB? I will watch him more this season than I have last year but part of me thinks he may of been given a deal due to the CB exodus we had last year. Both Connolly and Bennett moved on leaving no emergency youth CB should we need one. Watch this space. 5/10
Youngsters Sign Pro-Deals
posted on 10/7/12
largehat,i get your point but the likes of o'halloran ,eaves , they are old enough now they are either good enough or should be shown the door,eaves for instance i know he was injured last season but before that he scored 3 goals against us but cant get a game for us, just wondering if sordell will get the opportunity or will it be davies & n'gog i would love to see even in a freindly sordell & eaves but dont think it will ever happen,but cant understand why not
posted on 10/7/12
It only 'matters' if we release a young player if he then goes on to prove us 'wrong' in later years - though in the cases of Vaz Te and Walters I genuinely think they were just late developers. We had Vaz Te on the books for about 5 years and he played about the same number of PL games.
And let's not forget we were a PL club when we released him and he has proven exactly nothing at PL level yet. He scored 22 goals last season, I personally think he will score about 7 or 8 next season. Work keeping just for that? It's debatable.
The cost of paying a youth player is tiny in the grand scheme of things, I see nothing wrong with us signing Tom Eaves for a couple of hundred grand, even if he doesn't work out. We all want the youth team to produce the stars of the future, but on an individual level it's a bit of a numbers game, we probably have to spend 3 years on 10-15 players to produce a possible first teamer.
Last season Riley and Vela emerged so we are starting to yield some results. Blakeman also made his first team debut.
posted on 10/7/12
Every year we offer pro terms to about 4 youngsters, after we have released 4 younsters who were given pro terms in earlier seasons.
Scott Jamieson, James Sinclair, Zoltan Harsanyi, Johan Smith, Matthew Cassidy, Nathan Woolfe, Aaron Mooy, Chris Basham, Danny Livesey, Chris Howarth, Blazej Augustyn, Robert Sissons, Jaroslav Fojut, Danny Ward, Temitope Obadeyi, Mark Connelly to name but a few who have gone pro with great promise then got released because we thought they weren't good enough.
Forgive me for sounding bored with it all, but I just can't believe the next 4 in the production line are heading any other way but out the door.
posted on 10/7/12
Danny Ward and Chris Basham were both sold for good money. So not sure they should be included.
posted on 10/7/12
Fojut at Celtic too. Plus all those came before the sweeping academy changes 4 years back. Very few of that list made a PL appearance, Riley and Vela did. Signs of progression so don't write off this batch just yet Bricks.
posted on 10/7/12
The Acadamy is designed to produce players to play first team football for Bolton Wanderers and assist in not having to buy players, thus saving money..
On occasion, due to the size of our club a player will outgrow the club and move for massive amounts of money...
These are the reasons for an Acadamy IN MY EYES.. We can talk community all day, but fact is it needs paying for & players playing for us..
I'm not sure we can say this is happening... Yet.
posted on 10/7/12
Come to think about it, we have only produced 2 very good players from our youth team/academy and they were Alan Stubbs & Kevin Nolan.
We got quite a few games out of Nicky Hunt and Joey O'Brien. Nicky Hunt got found out and Joey O'Brien was unlucky with injuries and I actually thought he had something about him and still do.
posted on 10/7/12
Looking at the current crop from what i have seen i do think vela and riley provided they are given a chance mind,have got what it takes to play at this level.o'halloran got potential but i think he will find himself playing at a lower level in the future.im still bugged however by selling danny ward last summer,this may come back to haunt us this season,should not have been sold should have been given a chance or at least sent out on loan to keep an interest in him.
posted on 10/7/12
There have only been two young players I felt we should have kept on at the time of them leaving..didn't even come through the youth system properly either.
Those being Ricardo Vaz Te, and Blerim Dzemaili. Should have kept them, but both had injury problems and went before they had a proper chance.
In terms of our own players we've produced, it's been a mess for years..but I'm not worried about the likes of Basham, Ward, O'Brien etc coming back to haunt us.. They were not good enough..or to put it better..the money offered was more valuable than the players themselves. Never thought much of Ward, championship will be his plateau. We've basically replaced him with Wylde who was free anyway.
I've always thought academies had two uses, producing your own players to bring into the squad, and secondly producing players who can be sold on I they are not good enough..we've done a tiny bit of the second..but we need more emphasis placed on point no.1.
posted on 10/7/12
The jury is out on our youth policy until it starts producing players that are first team regulars. It's the ambition of all teams and managers to grow your own. Whether anything comes of it time will tell. Wanting a good youth policy is nothing new at bwfc.