Our youth team

[Semper Eadem]

After all the clamour about everyone wanting our youth team players to play (some people are saying Dawson should start without ever having seen him play) :? I have decided to take a closer look at them to see how good they actually are and are they good enough for this level? I want to know how good are youth players are.

Over the last few years it isnt really impressive, despite having a youth team that performed better than the current one, all we have produced is Tommy Wright, Matt Heath, Jordan Stewart, John Stevenson, Danny Thomas, out of these one has become a regular though not good enough for the premier, one fcuks up every time he plays in div, 1 cant be arsed and i think the other 2 are now playing sunday league If this is what a better side produced then what an earth have we got now??

Stearman has played one game and did well for a 17 year old, Tomi Petrescu who some were calling the "new Litmanen" has been sent back home, I played agaisnt Butcher many times and he didnt stand out on a park tbh.

Dont get me wrong I would love to see good youth players coming into the side but if Heath, Wright and Stewart are the best players to come out of it I really dont see the point.

btw for anyone interested our youth team is currently 3rd bottom of its league, with the mighty MK Dons and Bristol City the only teams below us.

So to summarise, does anyone really think anyone good is gonna come out of this youth team? :?

 

[mad biker]

Think Jordy was a product of the Villa youth set up, the only way we`ll ever find out how good our kids are is to give em a go, after all they could`nt do any worse than our seasoned pro`s could they ?

 

[SilverFox]

Think Jordy was a product of the Villa youth set up, the only way we`ll ever find out how good our kids are is to give em a go, after all they could`nt do any worse than our seasoned pro`s could they ?

Hey MB, how are things me old mate? Agree that we should chuck some of the youth in. I have watched Dawson and Stearman play a few times and have been very impressed. Dawson is certainly streets ahead of Gemmill or Gudjonnson.

Oh and I was wondering if there is any milage in the rumours that Scowy(Norwich), Dabizas(WBA), Keown(Southampton), Connolly(Brum?!?!?) and Heath could be on their way?

Have you heard anything?

 

[Who-Izzet]

Danny Thomas was a Forest youth player originally aswell.

D.Thomas - Boston United regular
J.Stevenson - ??? must be sunday league, perhaps he's playing for my old team Sapcote or Blaby Utd.

Stuart Campbell - Bristol Rovers regular
Stefan Oakes - Notts County regular
Martin Reeves - Northampton
Tommy Williamson - Canvey Island
Tommy Goodwin (old reserve team captain) - Hinckley
Sam McMahon - Hinckley
Guy Branston - Sheff Wed

Last I heard on these guys they were at these clubs.
Tim McCann - Glentoran
Steve Wenlock - Grantham
Martin Fox - Grantham
Stuart Wilson (who looked good at one time) - Grantham

ooops & of course these...
Matty Piper - Sunderland
Julian Joachim - Leeds
Emile Heskey - Birmingham
Russell Hoult - WBA
Well thats all the stats I'm doing for this week!

I agree with madbiker though, we'll never know unless we play them. I've noticed at Leicester that we seem to push the players from certain age groups up a level i.e many youth's play in the reserve's, U'17's in the U'18's etc etc. Perhaps this is why our youth setups are not too swanky, but saying that we aint no Ipswich who just keep on blooding them.

Scowcroft to Norwich or Palace £50k pleeeease (better than nothing man)
Dabizas we will pay whoever to have him.
Redknapp is an admirer of Keown & Mandaric wouldn't let him have him.

No havn't found anything at all yet. I'd put my money on Scowcroft for a small fee though.

 

[MHS]

Last I heard, Jonny Stevenson was at Cambridge City

 

[Who-Izzet]

Yeah thats right I remember hearing he went there at some point. What a waste though, I remember watching him. He came on as sub & scored a blinder against Ipswich when we lost 6-1 & scored the season before in the Premier against Villa.

He never actually started a match for us though. Still looked better than some of the players we have now.

Stuart Wilson was another one for me, looked like he had great positional awareness went to the Blades then to Cambs & further down hill.

 

[DesertFox]

Good work Who-Izzett.

What we need with the youth team/reserves is a sense of perspective. Let's get this right - reserve team football is not of a very high standard compared to the Championship level - most reserve teams would be beaten by most league clubs, even Conference sides. I've not been to see the reserves for years so can't comment on the current crop, but I used to see them every now and again. Many players who we hoped were "the next big thing" have wandered off into obscurity, as the above list shows.

When I saw the reservesa decade ago, two players stood out as being quality amongst the mediocrity. One was a commanding captain and centre back who was head and shoulders above anything else on the park. The other was a skillful playmaker who could operate wide on either flank or dictate the play in the centre of midfield. Who were they?

Brian Carey and Lee Philpott!

The worse thing about this is the fact that it's absolutely true!!

I agree entirely that the best of the crop must be given a chance. But the record speaks for itself - genuinely high quality youth players are hard to come by, at least at LCFC recently. If a player doesn't absolutely shine in the reserves, he's realistically not going to be good enough at Champ or Prem level. We have a few that are shining in the reserves at the moment, and they should be given a chance. But don't be too surprised if they don't all make it.

 

[Who-Izzet]

I suppose the good thing with having Levy around is that, he is known to give the younger talent a chance. If you take a look at Hearts squad, there must be around 15-20 players under 21. Looks like a Barry Fry squad though! We've seen Stearman now & Tommy Wright got 14 minutes in the last match even though he was a lone striker.

I think Matt Heath will be a quality defender, he makes the odd few mistakes but most defenders his age do. I'd say most quality defenders there best football at about 25-33, so hopefully the best years are yet to come. I just wish Matty Elliott was a few years younger to show him the ropes.

Ask for the other youngsters, we only have a 28 man squad I think so they should get there chance.

 

[highland fox]

I know he wasn't a product of our Youth set up but Damien Delaney never looked a bad player IMO,moved on far too quickly.He plays for Hull now centre half I believe.

 

[MHS]

Delaney did look good I agree. Whatever happened to Jimmy Willis?

 

[highland fox]

I think he had to retire with an injury.He started off shite then suddenly improved if I remember rightly,mind you there was Mohan and Carey alongside him so he would look good.

 

[MHS]

Willis scored 3 own goals in 94-95 season I think it was. We always seem to be unlucky with defenders that score own goals (Jimmy Willis, Steve Walsh, John Curtis, Frank Sinclair, to name a few)

 

[Country Fox]

was always a bit disappointed delaney was allowed to go so quickly, victim of the cuts as we approached administration i think.

what about james wesolowski? was talked about a lot a while ago? he actually got potential or is he going to turn out to be another petrescu u think?

 

[leicester_til_i_die]

was always a bit disappointed delaney was allowed to go so quickly, victim of the cuts as we approached administration i think.

what about james wesolowski? was talked about a lot a while ago? he actually got potential or is he going to turn out to be another petrescu u think?

wesoloski i think will turn out to be a good player. I still think petrescu would have been a good player, just unfortunate he never really got a look in, which is my guess why he left.

2 players i could never really understand why we let go, was Tommy Goodwin and Guy Branson, never really saw Branson play but heard good things about him. Tommy Goodwin saw him a few times and he seemed to be coming good.

 

[Country Fox]

i was under the impression petrescu had been given a 3 year contract at the end of the 2002/2003 season - tommy wright definitely was?? if thats the case then surely he couldnt just walk away??

 

[webmaster]

2 players i could never really understand why we let go, was Tommy Goodwin and Guy Branson, never really saw Branson play but heard good things about him. Tommy Goodwin saw him a few times and he seemed to be coming good.

Goodwin is now at Hinckley. I think that says something about his ability.

I used to work with Guy Branston's mum, so I kept an eye on him from when he was in the youth team. I think his biggest problem was a lack of discpline. His career since he left Leicester also suggests he wasn'y up to Premiership standard, and at the time it didn't look like we needed players who could play at a lower level.

 

[jon4001]

willis is in australia at the moment doing coaching is what i heard.

 

[alex]

2 players i could never really understand why we let go, was Tommy Goodwin and Guy Branson, never really saw Branson play but heard good things about him. Tommy Goodwin saw him a few times and he seemed to be coming good.

Goodwin is now at Hinckley. I think that says something about his ability.

I used to work with Guy Branston's mum, so I kept an eye on him from when he was in the youth team. I think his biggest problem was a lack of discpline. His career since he left Leicester also suggests he wasn'y up to Premiership standard, and at the time it didn't look like we needed players who could play at a lower level.

You just know it all Webbo, you really do....

 

[PFKAKTF FOX]

Just a thought, and it was something that was once talked about on a phone in on Talksport, and that is that youth team players should not be judged on results.

What they were eluding too was that a team can win the FA Youth Cup yet not produce one first team player because individually they arent good enough but as acollective make a good team unit. But on the other hand you can have a Youth team struggling to get results as a team but individually have 2 or 3 players talented enough to progress in the game.

If Dawson, Stearman, Porter et al are good enough they will get their chance, but dont judge them on the collective results of the reserve or youth teams.

 

[Who-Izzet]

Jimmy Willis, used to like him he was quite solid.

I seen Guy Branston start his career here & Damien Delaney. I thought myself they would have gone further. Perhaps Delaney still can, didn't we beat off interest from Man Utd to sign him?

I seen Russell Hoult start his career here too & to be honest I thought he was going to be a 3rd Division keeper (back then). He couldn't kick the ball, my & my brother used to crap ourselves everytime someone passed it back.

Branston has just been loaned to Posh, abit hot headed but when I've seen him play he's looked good, saying that not Premier standard though agreed.

Stuart Campbell & Stefan Oakes are the same, quite consistant but not really Premier quality.

PFKAKTF FOX is right though, well I hope. Some of these lads could be alot better than the other guys in the team, could be the answer to why we are so low down the table. Forest have Michael Dawson in their first team but where are they?

Can you guys remember Fernando Pasquinelli being here? He's bagged 3 in 10 for Aberdeen this season.