daldridge7

Hugo isn’t ours he’s just on loan to Goztepe with an option to buy for Goztepe as part of our deal for Alcaraz

Interesting to see the shift in strategy for U21 players has been more towards picking up young players who have professional league experience like O’Brien-Whitmarsh and Akachukwu from the Irish leagues, and 3 of the deadline day signings in Buck (MLS), Macleod (Scottish Prem), and Dipepa (League 2) rather than trying to pick players from leading academies, additional all of these 3 have now played at international age group level. Also, strangely our other deadline signing Tabares from Fulham had only just signed a professional contract in July but seems we wanted him enough to prise him away. Players who have been competing against professional/older or more physical players, also tend to develop quicker. This change in strategy is interesting because you can see how much physicality helps increase your chances of getting into our first team. For example, although Dibling hasn’t been exposed to professional football, he does have an advanced physicality for his age. You then compare him to Sam Amo-Ameyaw who is a similar level of skill (probably a better finisher and quicker but not as good at passing which you would expect from one being mainly a winger vs primarily an eight) but definitely more slight physically. Dibling’s advanced physicality has definitely accelerated his integration into the first team and now looking to get a start whereas SAA is still looking for significant minutes in the PL but did finish very well vs Cardiff. Will be interesting to see longer term if this strategy leads to more first team players being developed from the academy - even though this strategy would require them coming in to the academy at a later age or exposing our academy players to more loans. Hopefully the new players will embed into the U21s quickly and start to push for minutes in the PL. I think Dipepa looks particularly exciting with United having been looking at him only in May, he looked good in his clips for Port Vale (although hard to judge on YouTube videos) but a couple of really nice touches and assist in the England game today against Portugal U18. Also excited to see our academy players from the age groups come through such as Jay Robinson, Leo Rodella, and Dylan Moody - although GK is a notoriously hard position to bring through. Despite a few obvious big losses to the big teams this summer it looks like we hopefully have a talented u21 and u18 team again this year.

Martin’s comments about not using our academy players because he hasn’t used them much so far is so far attached from what Southampton is about. I get that he needs to win and needs to get promotion but a dead rubber when you already have injuries, if this isn’t a free hit for academy players then when is? And that’s exactly what they will be thinking too, that’s always what Southampton had as its USP over other better paying or grander academies. The fact that we don’t have the evidence to back that up will surely lead us to lose even more players like Doyle and JJM did this season. If we stay in the championship longer than our parachute payments - not saying we will, just if - then the academy will be critical. There’s some incredible talent in our academy but their minutes are going to loan players who, besides Downes and THB, have been hot and cold. I understand we had to buy in some talent from other academies as we definitely had a couple of years where the academy was a bit baron, but there’s a lot of attacking talent at least coming through and it’s not getting its opportunity to get any kind of minutes at all.

Has this worked for you since?

If you use a vpn and sign up to one of the international locations without broadcast coverage would you be able to get all the games in the international package? Theoretically, ofcourse

Wasn’t there news that the academy coaching staff are saying that his all round game has got a lot to improve to be playing with the first team. I think that’s why you hardly ever see him in first team training nowadays but Kami, Amo-Ameyaw, and Payne seem to be getting pushed instead. Although, I agree the first team just need goals, we’ve got plenty of other bodies who just run about.

It was a two year contract wasn’t it? That means it’s up at the end of this season. You can only sign them up to short contracts at that age

Looks like we are losing more talent from the staff https://trainingground.guru/articles/manchester-united-hire-southamptons-lead-data-scientist With Crocker, Shields, and the lots from Luton gone or going and only being replaced by Jason Wilcox. I know Sport Republic want to centralise data and scouting and recruitment but will be interesting to see what happens next.

Doesn’t look like it’s going to happen right now

In my opinion this was definitely in regards to the appointments of Wilcox (football) and Boss (commercial). This out of context looks bad but what he had also said is they are still looking to add a couple more, right back wasn’t a priority, that they were looking for added potency or power up front but wouldn’t commit to whether it was a someone who could play across the front or a traditional 9. This quote was from a question that was if we didn’t get any forwards in, would he be happy with what he has. Jones then basically says they are good lads and they are only going to add quality that improves options, otherwise they might as well make the most out lf what they’ve got.

Completely agree, there’s a lot of conversation before a club submit a bid, especially as it’s not deadline day or anything. If they knew it was completely off the table, why would they bother submitting a bid. I think it was just as per usual well below their selling point or even at the point where they would consider negotiating

As Jones said he didn’t pull up any trees on debut but I did think he put his body on the line and covered a lot of distance. He had only a short training session and having to deal with the jet lag and acclimatisation to winter in the UK and he still was as good as Diallo. Surely with a full week under his belt, he should be dislodging Diallo, if we’re not playing JWP as a cm. Diallo has an ok game 1 in 5 games and the rest of the time he looks out of pace. He’s awful at maintaining possession, even when just going sideways. He’s managed to get away with it with JWP in the 10 and Lavia alongside him because he’s got extra bodies to help make up the ground for his mistakes. He does a job as a squad player, but hopefully Alcaraz takes his slot sooner than later.

Meghoma, the left back, didn’t complete his move until only recently when his deal was meant to be complete at the same time as Amo-Ameyaw about June/July time

Any idea why have no friendlies planned? Or have I missed something before the Lincoln match?

Different role

Kayne McLaggon and Callum McNish

Arsenal and Chelsea were offering him youth recruitment roles, whereas he chose us because we offered a first team role. It was always going to be a stepping stone, but no one expected it to be this quick. As said in the Ben Jacobs tweets, if he was expecting everything to be in perfect structure and have a resources up to his eye balls, he clearly didn’t do enough research on Southampton, because that was never going to be the case. We were 6 months after a takeover when he came in and trying to revamp the first team playing and coaching staff so there was always going to be a transition in resource and structure - he shouldn’t then use that as an excuse. Let’s be honest, he’s moving because he’s getting a massive pay rise and will get to work at a Champions League level which you can’t blame him for. But, since we were willing to gamble on giving him his first senior role, you would have hoped he would have committed to a bit longer than 3 months. Even one season is a fair stint. I don’t think gardening leave is helping anyone but on to the next one in my eyes. Hopefully we can unearth another good one who is keen to bring in talented players without blocking the academy pathway where we have some gems coming up in the next few years

Cowley already making excuses ‘It’s going to be their under-23s, whereas ours is predominantly an under-18 team’. I would imagine their team will still be more senior than ours though because our B team is pretty young

Watching Dibling tonight and in the highlights from the U18 his close control is insane. Very similar to Jack Grealish, he will win a lot of penalties and free kicks. He’s also one of our physical most developed young players too, especially against the other high potential forwards such as Ballard and Morgan. I think that will get him closer to the first team quicker but, having left briefly in the summer, he does have some catching up to do.

Good finish from Ballard. Also Doyle is back in training but not fit for matches yet. Good to see we finally confirmed the spurs LB for the U18s too

As SuperSAINT said I think there is a lot of injuries and as the B Team has taken the cream of last years Southern League winners, It has taken an effect, especially when the first year scholars are probably getting used to a higher intensity and following the playbook

Interesting to see Princewill is named on the official team sheet today for the U18s. Surely if he was still a trialist, even on something like that, he would be listed as Trialist A?

From the sounds of it he let Ralph down a bit last year with his performance last year in the league cup. I’m also not convinced that Ralph loves the youngsters pushing for loan deals, I think he would rather have the same on the playbook and push for a first team role but maybe that’s just me. As we’ve seen before with Slattery, and to a lesser extent Tyreke Johnson, as a youngsters it’s hard to come back when you’ve let Ralph down even just once. I hope Small proves us wrong because he came very highly rated. I think when he moved Everton was asking for £5mil for a 16 year old.

Do we think his U18 England form this week will be a trigger for Ballard’s inclusion in the prem match day squad like Tella’s 4 goals against Leicester or Dibling’s hat-trick vs Newcastle. Although I think he has a chance especially if someone gets a knock, I think all the examples I gave were standout performances for the B team which I’m sure Ralph has had a closer eye on than the England age groups and in his preferred system. Also, Ballard was playing with some class players with England and is probably getting a better quality of chance. Castledine who he played upfront with when he got two is meant to be the next big thing at Chelsea, Bellingham has looked class in the Birmingham setup and Ndala was just noted in the Guardian as being the breakout star from the City Academy. If he continues to perform in the B team, he might get another chance vs Sheff Wed in the league cup. it was good to see the boys in the U17 England team as well. Saw one of JJMs goals and he looked on good form. Hopefully Dibling can get up to speed quick too. All of this plus Kami must be back soon

Didn’t we sign a keeper on loan from city already for the U18 this season? Will happily be proved wrong but arguably GK is the one position we haven’t really ever produced a quality player through the academy. I always thought Bycroft looked like he had a bit about him but he’s been on loan in non-league for two years and has disappeared out the picture a bit. Wright has looked decent as well. Good luck to Jak hopefully he becomes a force in the youth team this year.