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Anyone heard of Jack Sparks

ATLAM

By ATLAM
in The Saints

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ATLAM

ATLAM

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Age 14ish plays for Exmouth/Exeter and according to my work colleague who lives there the best kid in Devon and all the big boys are after him but his dad wants him to come to St Mary's .

del boy

del boy

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Is that Mark's son Sparks? thought they would prefer St Michaels

 

(ample scope for jokes here, and if anyone can currently get him to play in a more direct style, its RK)

hutch

hutch

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Age 14ish plays for Exmouth/Exeter and according to my work colleague who lives there the best kid in Devon and all the big boys are after him but his dad wants him to come to St Mary's .

No, Mr. Sparks, it seems none of us have heard of your son.

The9

The9

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Let's face it, even being highly touted at the age of 14 there's still probably a 95% chance he never plays more than 10 professional League matches.

andoru

andoru

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I heard he's quite bright. Got AAA on his GCSE's. As a player, he's the current top scorer in his league, and he can alternate between the two wings. Good attitude too apparently. Conducts himself well.

david in sweden

david in sweden

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Let's face it, even being highly touted at the age of 14 there's still probably a 95% chance he never plays more than 10 professional League matches.

 

you mean like Theo Walcott .....and that Bale fellow?

Redslo

Redslo

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No, I think he means like Freddy Adu, Cherno Samba, Tom Taiwo, John Bostock, Gael Kakuta. The list goes on.

 

Freddy Adu has played in at least 189 professional games.

 

Cherno Samba has played in at least 27 professional games.

 

Tom Taiwo has played in at least 200 professional games.

 

John Bostock has played in at least 104 professional games.

 

Gael Kakuta has played in at least 100 professional games.

 

(Source for all this is Wikipedia.)

 

While I am sure they all hoped for more, they have all had respectable careers and made a living playing the game they, presumably, enjoy.

 

Of these folks, I have only seen Adu play and I can't help but think that he would have become a much better player if he had signed for Southampton, rather than DC United at age 15. Of course, this was not possible as Manchester United considered signing him before he turned 18 and he could not get a work permit. That being said, he did fairly well at DC United given his age and his career really didn't start going downhill until his series of unsuccessful loans after he signed for Beneficia, but I digress.

 

My point is that if someone shows outstanding talent at age 14 they have a very good chance of becoming a professional footballer and their chance of being a very good player is much better than average. Think of all the people who are playing football world wide at age 14. Only the best are still playing in their 20s and virtually all of them would have been identified as very good prospects at age 14.

CB Fry

CB Fry

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Freddy Adu has played in at least 189 professional games.

 

Cherno Samba has played in at least 27 professional games.

 

Tom Taiwo has played in at least 200 professional games.

 

John Bostock has played in at least 104 professional games.

 

Gael Kakuta has played in at least 100 professional games.

 

(Source for all this is Wikipedia.)

 

While I am sure they all hoped for more, they have all had respectable careers and made a living playing the game they, presumably, enjoy.

 

Of these folks, I have only seen Adu play and I can't help but think that he would have become a much better player if he had signed for Southampton, rather than DC United at age 15. Of course, this was not possible as Manchester United considered signing him before he turned 18 and he could not get a work permit. That being said, he did fairly well at DC United given his age and his career really didn't start going downhill until his series of unsuccessful loans after he signed for Beneficia, but I digress.

 

My point is that if someone shows outstanding talent at age 14 they have a very good chance of becoming a professional footballer and their chance of being a very good player is much better than average. Think of all the people who are playing football world wide at age 14. Only the best are still playing in their 20s and virtually all of them would have been identified as very good prospects at age 14.

Only if your "average" is all 14 year olds on the planet. A pointless comparison but then you have previously talked about clubs requiring 57 points to be mathematically safe in the Premier League, so I know it is your stock-in-trade.

 

Most, the vast majority, young players recruited into clubs don't make it. It's kinda intrinsic to the process. So, as The9 says, yer average 14 year old starlet will fail.

The9

The9

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you mean like Theo Walcott .....and that Bale fellow?

 

Hmm, let's think, and how are most of their teammates at the age of 14 doing, even considering that they were one of the most-widely talked about groups in Saints Academy history? And what about every other club's 14 year olds from that season? All full of the stars of their U15s, or with one, maybe two having made it?

The9

The9

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Hmm, let's think, and how are most of their teammates at the age of 14 doing, even considering that they were one of the most-widely talked about groups in Saints Academy history? And what about every other club's 14 year olds from that season? All full of the stars of their U15s, or with one, maybe two having made it?

 

Also, if I was weighing in with the pedantry and referring to appearances for the club they came through at (which admittedly isn't the argument, but is relevant to how useful they might be to Saints), Walcott only barely made 13 starts in the league for Saints (and 8 subs). Bale made 40.

Redslo

Redslo

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Only if your "average" is all 14 year olds on the planet. A pointless comparison but then you have previously talked about clubs requiring 57 points to be mathematically safe in the Premier League, so I know it is your stock-in-trade.

 

Most, the vast majority, young players recruited into clubs don't make it. It's kinda intrinsic to the process. So, as The9 says, yer average 14 year old starlet will fail.

 

Depends on what you mean by "starlet" and "fail." If by starlet you mean anyone at a football academy about whom good things were ever said, then yes they will fail. If you mean the ones who stood out as among the best at age 14, then it depends on what you mean by fail. I think that having a career as a professional footballer is not failure and I suspect that most of the best 14 year olds at good academies will achieve that. But I don't know for sure and I do not know how to approach figuring that out. (Maybe I should review academy rosters from 10 years ago and search for contemporaneous rave reviews of young players and then find out where they are now. Frankly, this seems like the sort of thing The9 is good at.) On the other hand, if by fail you mean not making it as a regular in the Premier League, then you are right.

 

I continue to be befuddled by why you are so offended that I accurately calculated the number of points needed to be mathematically safe in the middle of the season and came up with a number that everyone new would drop as the season progressed.

david in sweden

david in sweden

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Hmm, let's think, and how are most of their teammates at the age of 14 doing, even considering that they were one of the most-widely talked about groups in Saints Academy history? And what about every other club's 14 year olds from that season? All full of the stars of their U15s, or with one, maybe two having made it?

 

OUCH ! now now "9"...let's be grateful that we do get some talent emerging from the Academy..along with Surman, Dyer, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Targett and JWP

 

but of course you're right. We've wasted decades on talented 14 years old who eventually ended up working on a building site and playing Parks football at weekends.

 

perhaps we shouldn't even be discussing this young Spark, he's sure to be a waste of space anyway........:thumbdown:.

sotonist

sotonist

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Age 14ish plays for Exmouth/Exeter and according to my work colleague who lives there the best kid in Devon and all the big boys are after him but his dad wants him to come to St Mary's .

 

in case he gets ohm sick.

St_Tel49

St_Tel49

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well done, sotonist ........I thought we'd seen the last of the current crop of electrifying puns........

 

Amazing how many are generated when people are in the mood!

  • 2 weeks later...

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