Academy & U21s

[Guest]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/july/18/rovers-retain-top-academy-ranking-/

 

[joey_big_nose]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

Telegraph now backtracking on the signed deal and confirming no deal is signed with Philips and talks are ongoing 

You have to think if he’s not signed now he’s unlikely to especially if Spurs are in his agents ear, could be potential millions lost again here 

If we promise him serious game time I can see we would have a chance of signing him. Going to Spurs theres a real risk he would just disappear into the U23s and endless loan factory. 

Depends if we can promise him first team football I would say, as obviously if it's a choice between Spurs U23s or our U23s he may as well go to London. I have no idea if he's good enough for first team or not.

[joey_big_nose]

3 hours ago, JoeH said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/july/18/rovers-retain-top-academy-ranking-/

 

I do wonder if we as fans don't really recognise how good our academy is.  I certainly didn't till I started looking into it.

Premier League 2 (the Premier academy competition in the UK) has two divisions : 

• Division 1 - 14 clubs, 12 of them clubs with senior team in Premier League. Just us (finished 9th above Chelsea and Everton) and Derby (finished dead last and miles off the pace) not in the prem. 
• Division 2 - 14 clubs, 7 prem (including the likes of Villa, Newcastle, Southampton, Wolves) and 7 championship

If you consider we have also aggressively promoted a lot of our youth players to the Senior Squad it's really an impressive achievement. Maybe there is something in considering our academy something really remarkable at the moment? And when we fret about using "kids" it's a different proposition to say promoting kids at Millwall or Bristol City (both of which are not even in PL2 Div 2).

Details here : https://www.premierleague.com/tables?team=U21&co=16&se=438 

Edited July 18, 2022 by joey_big_nose

[lraC]

12 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

I do wonder if we as fans don't really recognise how good our academy is.  I certainly didn't till I started looking into it.

Premier League 2 (the Premier academy compeition in the UK has two divisions)

• Division 1 - 14 clubs, 12 of them clubs with senior team in Premier League. Just us (finished 9th above Chelsea and Everton) and Derby (finished dead last and miles off the pace) not in the prem. 
• Division 2 - 14 clubs, 7 prem (including the likes of Villa, Newcastle, Southampton, Wolves) and and 7 championship

If you consider we have also aggressively promoted a lot of our youth players to the Senior Squad it's really an impressive achievement. Maybe there is something in considering our academy something really remarkable at the moment? And when we fret about using "kids" it's a different proposition to promoting kids at Millwall or Bristol City (both of which are not even in PL2 Div 2).

Details here : https://www.premierleague.com/tables?team=U21&co=16&se=438 

I spoke to one of the coaches a few months ago and he said he ahs never worked with a set of youngsters as good and expects big things of quite a few.

[rigger]

The official site has the U18s playing three times on the 30th of July. Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what is the format ?

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/july/18/rovers-retain-top-academy-ranking-/

 

great news and Rovers Academy is one of the best in the country and regular producing first team players for the head coach over the last 5 years. 

[RV Blue]

Something ironic about the Cat 1 academy news coming out in the same day that we learn that we haven’t signed Phillips on a professional contact, almost makes you think what’s the point?

[inflikted]

9 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

I do wonder if we as fans don't really recognise how good our academy is.  I certainly didn't till I started looking into it.

Premier League 2 (the Premier academy competition in the UK) has two divisions : 

• Division 1 - 14 clubs, 12 of them clubs with senior team in Premier League. Just us (finished 9th above Chelsea and Everton) and Derby (finished dead last and miles off the pace) not in the prem. 
• Division 2 - 14 clubs, 7 prem (including the likes of Villa, Newcastle, Southampton, Wolves) and 7 championship

If you consider we have also aggressively promoted a lot of our youth players to the Senior Squad it's really an impressive achievement. Maybe there is something in considering our academy something really remarkable at the moment? And when we fret about using "kids" it's a different proposition to say promoting kids at Millwall or Bristol City (both of which are not even in PL2 Div 2).

Details here : https://www.premierleague.com/tables?team=U21&co=16&se=438 

To be fair to Derby their U23s were basically their U18s cos half their U23s (and some U18s) were drafted into the first team - and have since been signed by bigger clubs in the Premier League and abroad (Palace, Udinese, Werder Bremen). They have a good youth system but they didn't have any senior players so everyone got bumped up a bit earlier than planned.

[Guest]

21 hours ago, lraC said:

I spoke to one of the coaches a few months ago and he said he ahs never worked with a set of youngsters as good and expects big things of quite a few.

The 18's which have taken a stronghold on the 23's now (Phillips, Batty, Leonard, Wharton) are widely regarded by everyone I've spoken to as a bit of a golden generation for the clubs academy. There's nothing wrong with rushing them through if there's a belief amongst people who know their stuff, that they're good enough.

[rigger]

Does anyone know how the Academy got on today, against Blackpool ?

[bluebruce]

53 minutes ago, rigger said:

Does anyone know how the Academy got on today, against Blackpool ?

The official website hasn't even updated how the U21s got on against Lancaster City on the 8th July!! No news there about the Blackpool game today for the U18s either, unsurprisingly.

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

The official website hasn't even updated how the U21s got on against Lancaster City on the 8th July!! No news there about the Blackpool game today for the U18s either, unsurprisingly.

I was thinking exactly the same.

[Rogerb]

Under 23s away at Chorley on Saturday 23rd July kick off is 1pm

[bazza]

2 hours ago, bluebruce said:

The official website hasn't even updated how the U21s got on against Lancaster City on the 8th July!! No news there about the Blackpool game today for the U18s either, unsurprisingly.

Yes. No surprise. We are Venky Rovers who cannot organise a booze up in a brewery. Who is in charge of club information distribution? Bring back Mr Grooby. All is forgiven.

[neophox]

How is Peter Thomas doing?

[bluebruce]

37 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Clicky.

P.S. U23s

Cheers. They're the U21s now. The club needs to catch up, clearly.

[bazza]

9 hours ago, goozburger said:

Clicky.

P.S. U23s

Just the score and then a blank sheet. People at the club really seem to care.

[had.e.nuff]

is the u21 newcastle game on to today not seen anything about it yet

[rigger]

2 hours ago, had.e.nuff said:

is the u21 newcastle game on to today not seen anything about it yet

I have just phoned the Rovers, and they say the game is on, 14:00 kick-off.

[rigger]

Just back from the U21s game against Newcastle, we lost 1-3 to a better organised side. Pike does not look good enough to challenge for the first team. Gent is a full-back, out of his depth at center-half. Batty spent too much time, arguing with the ref. Duncan Ferguson was watching, so was Ash Phillips. 

Edited July 20, 2022 by rigger

[Rogerb]

under 21 play Chorley tomorrow kick off 1pm fiver to get in.

[Tom]

Ash Phillips wearing number 5 today, if that’s his squad number it’s a big sign of intent whilst he hasn’t signed a contract 

[Rogerb]

Chorley 0 Rovers 2

[rigger]

Sam Burns scores another two against Chorley, thats seven in three games. Yet not given a chance in any of the first team pre season games. I find this very strange.

[bluebruce]

2 minutes ago, rigger said:

Sam Burns scores another two against Chorley, thats seven in three games. Yet not given a chance in any of the first team pre season games. I find this very strange.

Good that he's scoring. Probably get a decent loan. But his goals were, am I remembering right, 3 or 4 against Darwen? The two just now. So one inbetween? Darwen are very, very far below our level, and he has only gone from 5 to 7 just now when our pre-season is done. I don't think it's too strange he wasn't involved, we had more senior options who needed to get minutes in before the season.

Friendlies aren't too critical for much more than minutes anyway, and he'll have had more of those playing for the kids. Like I say, a good loan should be his next step now.