Adver News: Storey gets England call

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

There's no way we should loan out Storey. To me he should be above Rooney in the pecking order based on merit and is a great plan B coming off the bench. Start the odd game here or there and play about an hour-70 mins. He really should start on Saturday.  

Absolutely. Saturday is the perfect game for him to get a full 90 minutes under his belt and then go from there. If he's playing well enough to be in the team, put him in the team. If he's looking knackered, rest him or stick him on the bench.

[Reg Smeeton]

Think the issue is that a players quality at the age of 18 isn't much of an accurate indication of how good they will be in the future. Sure there are exceptions, Wayne Rooney for example, but they are exceptions. You could probably pick 10 different squads for under 19 level and have the same hit rate from all of them over time.

Makes me wonder what the point of them is and whether they're just a waste of time and money that could be put to better use elsewhere. Storey will learn a lot more from playing in League One for us than he will for the England under 19.

It's interesting to look back at squads from the annual Euros in the U 19 tournaments to see who comes through, for example in 2006 Scotland unusually qualified...in their squad...Simon Ferry and Scott Cuthbert.  Probably the two best names Robert Snodgrass and Graham Dorrans.

Spain that year had Gerard Pique and Juan Mata...

[jonny72]

But did playing in those tournaments actually benefit their development? Sure it gives them international experience but if they can't even get a game with their club its a bit pointless.

I'd get rid of all the under age games, spend the resources at a club level instead. Though I'd also increase the amount of international games for those on the fringes of the full squad. Something like the old B internationals but expanded.

[Reg Smeeton]

But did playing in those tournaments actually benefit their development? Sure it gives them international experience but if they can't even get a game with their club its a bit pointless.

I'd get rid of all the under age games, spend the resources at a club level instead. Though I'd also increase the amount of international games for those on the fringes of the full squad. Something like the old B internationals but expanded.

I'd imagine the likes of Spain, would point out how most if not all of their recent internationals, graduated from age level football, to the full side, so it must be worth doing.

It could just as easily be argued though, that their young players get more opportunity at first team level, due to clubs like Barca, Espanyol and Athletic Bilbao, having a policy of bringing through young locals.

[cheltred69]

Interesting looking at the squad list posted by Reg.

these lads are now about 21 years old and apart from Caulker (played around 90 league games in loan spells and now getting games at Spurs) none of the those at Premier League clubs look as though their career is really progressing - typically a few bit part loans to league 1 clubs or released to lower level clubs.

the only other 2 that look like establishing themselves are Clyne (now at Soton after over 100 games for Palace) and Phillips who started at Wycombe and is highly rated at Blackpool.

Does nothing for the argument that the top clubs are the best places for young talents to develop and supports my view that the Premier League being stacked with international stars is damaging to our national team

[Kinky Tom]

there was a stat a couple of weeks ago (and this is off the top of my head so may be slightly inaccurate but not much) that said that in the region of only 1.5% of all players used (maybe regularly?) in the prem last season were english and under 21.

i can't remember where i saw this but i definitely did - very worrying.

[Wilf Shergold]

It could just as easily be argued though, that their young players get more opportunity at first team level, due to clubs like Barca, Espanyol and Athletic Bilbao, having a policy of bringing through young locals.

It’s always interested me that in Spain the 2nd and 3rd teams of the big clubs are an integral part of the league system, so young players of, say, Barca, get game time in the equivalent of our Championship or League 1, 2 etc. Wasn’t it Real Madrid ‘reserves’ (Castilia?) who were good enough to win the Spanish Cup and played West Ham in a Euro Cup Winners Cup tie at the Boleyn behind closed doors?

Not that I’m in favour of this in England because we’ll all become even more subservient to the big boys.

A book well worth reading in my view is George Best and 21 Others by Colin Schindler. All about the 1964 FA Youth Cup Semi between Mans Utd and City, and what happened to the 21 players who weren’t Bestie. A sobering read, all young pro footballers should read it. That’s the year we reached the final, of course, but our 2 matches get a couple of paragraphs, no more. There’s some bitter reviews of it on Amazon from Manure – ites who clearly review books better than the Times, Indi on Sunday etc . You can buy it for 1p (plus p&p).

[Reg Smeeton]

It’s always interested me that in Spain the 2nd and 3rd teams of the big clubs are an integral part of the league system, so young players of, say, Barca, get game time in the equivalent of our Championship or League 1, 2 etc. Wasn’t it Real Madrid ‘reserves’ (Castilia?) who were good enough to win the Spanish Cup and played West Ham in a Euro Cup Winners Cup tie at the Boleyn behind closed doors?

Not that I’m in favour of this in England because we’ll all become even more subservient to the big boys.

A book well worth reading in my view is George Best and 21 Others by Colin Schindler. All about the 1964 FA Youth Cup Semi between Mans Utd and City, and what happened to the 21 players who weren’t Bestie. A sobering read, all young pro footballers should read it. That’s the year we reached the final, of course, but our 2 matches get a couple of paragraphs.

Well of that Town side, which reached the final and played in front of a crowd of 17,000 at the CG, only Don made the grade with us....Bruce Walker played a few games and scored a marvellous goal v Forest in the Cup, he had a sweet left foot. Tony Hicks played 50 odd games over a couple of seasons in goal, without quite establishing himself and Dicky Plumb who was spoken of in another thread recently.... had a career away from the CG, was also in that side.

ManUre, had Jimmy Rimmer and John Aston, both of whom were in European Cup winning sides.