England have a great number of young talents at the moment and a few of them had the experience of winning the U.17 and U.20 World Cup three years ago, so how are they nursed forward and will it be possible to get the best out of them all.
As a follow up on those players from the 70’s and how some made the cut to the full international scene while others vanished into the lower league’s and some had switch and turns in their careers few would believe was possible.
So great to see that several of those U.17 and U.20 World Cup winners are having great progress while others have not yet “shined” as we would have thought, but it’s “early doors” and hopefully we will see them progress on after another.
Firstly we will take a look at the goalkeepers. Freddie Woodman of Newcastle United is yet to make his big breakthrough and at the moment out on loan at Swansea City. He is 23 and at the moment settling a position in the Championship, but the way to the Newcastle United first team might be long with a certain Martin Dubravka doing so well.
Attacking midfielder Kieran Dowell is also out on loan from Everton and at the moment playing for Wigan Athletic, while a player that could be close to a full international call-up, Dominic Calvert-Levein are progressing heavily under Carlo Ancelotti.
Kyle Walkers-Peters did get his first team games at Tottenham Hotspur, and still very much a Premier League player, currently at Southampton on loan.
To see the talent of Ademola Lookman not really showing, struggling to get the time needed from their managers to really shine and at the moment at Red Bull Leipzig in the German league. Games are rare and hopefully he will be seen and given a role somewhere that can lead to him getting his full breakthrough. A rare talent and a player with a phenomenal potential, certainly hope we would get him into a team that needs him and that he can floursih.
Steve Cooper, currently in charge at Swansea City, is doing a job to really get some of these players to shine, but maybe he has added too many of his former pupils to try to find the path to that promotion. Ryan Brewster and Conor Gallaghan are both out there partnering up with Woodman and hopefully they will get the experience needed.
We just have to wait on Morgan Gibbs-White who at the moment are a bit on the “fringe” at Wolves, but part of the plans at Molineux. Nice to see Wolverhampton Wanderers nursing forward talent, they used to be a factory many years ago with so many great prospect coming out of the gates in yellow and black.
Nya Kirby is still very much part of Crystal Palace, but so far the 20 year World Cup winner has not seen much first team football. He has spent time at Blackpool in League One, but it will be exciting to see if Roy Hodgson will give Nya a chance in the first team soon. Crystal Palace should be the ideal place to progress as we have seen with his former team mate Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The game is a “floating ocean” and to get in a team or miss out can be coincidences. When Frank Lampard appeared at Chelsea last summer, he showed courage and gave a number of young faces a chance to establish themselves. Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi, Reece James and Fikayo Tomori are all very much part of the first team set-up.
Hudson-Odoi (U.17) and Tomori (U.20) are both players that were part of the teams that won the World Cup, and both have also taken the step to become full internationals. It will also be interesting to follow the progress of Phil Foden, probably the most talked about player in that group of players, not yet taken the step into full international action.
Jadon Sancho is one that has taken the full steps of the football pyramid, being an established player at Borussia Dortmund and also playing regularly for England at full international level. You can say yes he did the right thing jumping at a chance to play in the Bundesliga, but others have also tried, but not yet seen the same results.
As we have seen the paths of those players are really difficult to predict, and it will be interesting to follow, hopefully they will all be great and established players at some level in football, if you like you can follow their progress from this “blog” by clicking on their names.
- Goalkeepers
- U.17
- Josef Bursik, Stoke City
- Curtis Anderson, Manchester City
- William Crellin, Fleetwood
- U.20
- Freddie Woodman, Newcastle United
- Dean Henderson, Manchester United
- Luke Southwood, Reading
- U.17
- Defenders
- U.17
- Joel Latibeaudiere, Manchester City
- Steven Sessegnon, Fulham
- Marc Guehi, Chelsea
- Jonathan Panzo, Chelsea
- Timothy Eyoma, Tottenham Hotspur
- Lewis Gibson, Everton
- U.20
- Jake Clarke-Salter, Bristol Rovers
- Callum Connolly, Wigan Athletic
- Dael Fry, Middlesbrough
- Jonjo Kenny, Everton
- Ezri Konsa, Charlton Athletic
- Fikayo Tomori, Chelsea
- Kyle Walkers-Peters, Tottenham Hotspur
- U.17
- Midfield
- U.17
- George McEachran, Chelsea
- Morgan Gibbs-White, Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Tashan Oakley-Boothe, Tottenham Hotspur
- Emile Smith-Rowe, Arsenal
- Nya Kirby, Crystal Palace
- Angel Gomes, Manchester United
- Conor Gallagher, Chelsea
- U.20
- Lewis Cook, Bournemouth
- Kieran Dowell, Everton
- Ovie Ejaria, Liverpool
- Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Arsenal
- Sheyi Ojo, Liverpool
- U.17
- Forwards
- U.17
- Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chelsea
- Rhian Brewster, Liverpool
- Phil Foden, Manchester City
- Danny Loader, Reading
- U.20
- Dominic Solanke, Chelsea
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Everton
- Harry Chapman, Sheffield United
- Ademola Lookman, Everton
- Joshua Onomah, Tottenham Hotspur
- Adam Armstrong, Barnsley
- U.17
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