Spotting of talent at a very young age 08:51 - Jul 26 with 1605 views | numptydumpty | Sorry to put this up here, but saw this posted on social media. And can't clarify obviously, it's bona fide, one hundred percent correct but if true hopefully our new head of methodology can achieve this. Also it's from the Chelsea academy, but listing the Chelsea academy players who joined between ages 6 and 8. Age when they joined Chelsea academy: Mason Mount - 6 Declan Rice - 7 Ruben Loftus-Cheek - 8 Reece James - 6 Tammy Abraham - 8 Marc Guehi - 7 Fikayo Tomori - 8 Callum Hudson-Odoi - 7 Conor Gallagher - 8 Samuel Iling-Junior - 8 Tino Livramento - 7 Jamal Musiala - 8 Dominic Solanke - 7 Trevoh Chalobah - 8 Tariq Lamptey - 8 Lewis Hall - 8 Michael Olise - 8 Dujon Sterling - 8 Armando Broja - 8 Levi Colwill - 8 | ![](/images/avatars/9720.gif) |
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 08:55 - Jul 26 with 1572 views | GaryBannister86 | Doesn't matter though, does it? If we spot them, they just get taken at a very young age like Harvey Elliott. | ![](/images/avatars/30181.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 08:58 - Jul 26 with 1546 views | numptydumpty |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 08:55 - Jul 26 by GaryBannister86 | Doesn't matter though, does it? If we spot them, they just get taken at a very young age like Harvey Elliott. |
Good point Guess even at a young age, we could put a release clause on certain players, if they improve a great deal. | ![](/images/avatars/9720.gif) |
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 09:01 - Jul 26 with 1531 views | numptydumpty | All three Willock brothers started at Arsenal academy around this age Guess a pushy parent is always going to want their boy to go to a high ranking Premier League outfit over a championship team, even if they not the one hundred percent best. [Post edited 26 Jul 9:03]
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 09:19 - Jul 26 with 1466 views | Dorse | Fair enough, that's a pretty darn good list of players. I suppose we'd only be able to properly assess it by looking at the weight of numbers that didn't make it. I mean, City, Arsenal, Utd, the Scum etc have ma-hooosive Academies with budgets to match. My bet is that their hit rate (percentage-wise) is probably very small but it is still better than most. Look at Arsenal - probably selling Nketia and Smith Rowe this summer for a combined £60m(ish) justifies the misses. Same as a single part-worn Eze does for us: the numbers aren't comparable but the outcome more than justifies yhe expense and the low hit rate. | ![](/images/avatars/17282.gif) |
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 10:00 - Jul 26 with 1368 views | stevec | For a club like ours, it’s got to make more sense to give up on anything below under 16’s, have a single scout, maybe a couple of them, employed to keep a forensic eye on all these kids with a view to pick a few off that aren’t at the top of the food chain. We can’t compete in that pool and the days of a Raheem Sterling scenario are long gone. | ![](/images/avatars/6823.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 11:01 - Jul 26 with 1269 views | Antti_Heinola | How many do they have at that stage though? I'd suggest hundreds? | ![](/images/avatars/5743.gif) |
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 11:06 - Jul 26 with 1252 views | MedwayR |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 10:00 - Jul 26 by stevec | For a club like ours, it’s got to make more sense to give up on anything below under 16’s, have a single scout, maybe a couple of them, employed to keep a forensic eye on all these kids with a view to pick a few off that aren’t at the top of the food chain. We can’t compete in that pool and the days of a Raheem Sterling scenario are long gone. |
I get your point but Charlton and Palace amongst others are in the same boat and it hasn't stopped them producing good players. I suspect some of the players we've lost over the years might have been tempted to stay if we had better facilities (which we now have) and could see a clear pathway to the first team (which is sort of there). | ![](/images/avatars/3276.gif) |
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 11:29 - Jul 26 with 1176 views | Wilkinswatercarrier | 7 and 8 is not full academy. I think they get invited along a couple of times a week, plus there will hundreds of kids. They then whittle them down to join the full academy at 9. Kiss enough frogs......... | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) | Login to get fewer ads
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 11:37 - Jul 26 with 1161 views | Juzzie |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 11:01 - Jul 26 by Antti_Heinola | How many do they have at that stage though? I'd suggest hundreds? |
Was just going to say the same. It's a meat grinder process and very few come out the other end. My son plays youth football and quite frankly has bossed it the last 2 1/2 years. Has won multiple awards, played in literally every position (inc. goal keeper) and always gives 110% and has very often been involved in match deciding moments, at either end. So, a month or so ago the coach suggested putting him up for a trial at the local Star Player team as he felt he'd pass no problem. We went along to both sessions and he was just as good as everyone else that turned up. Did not get selected. I'm not sure what these coaches are looking out for? All the tests were tikky-takky close ball control stuff. Yeah, all very well but not much good when an opposition player barrels towards you. Some freeze, others deal with it. There was no real-world testing. Where were the defensive tests? What about the long pass or observing the game and making decisons? All very well being able to pass to someone 10ft away from you but the players should be able to do a long pass at this stage/age. Why wasn't there a 10 minute match set up to see how they all performed in an actual game? Oh well. [Post edited 26 Jul 11:42]
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Spotting of talent at a very young age on 12:04 - Jul 26 with 1082 views | BostonR | I’ll wager, that every one of those listed, there were better technical players who didn’t make it. A lot is not based on football ability, but on a coaches preference as they may take to a boy and his family who have the right attitude etc. I now watch a lot of non-league football. Right now the academies have dumped a huge amount of boys onto the scrap heap. Some want to play and will drift into different leagues and clubs from national league to step 5/6. Those boys generally have a great attitude and want to keep playing. A lot turn up and because they been pampered on brilliant pitches and facilities they don’t have the bollocks to drop down and drift off into oblivion. It’s a grinder, but fair play to the non-league pyramid who are a brilliant resource for some of these lads. | ![](/images/avatars/5402.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 14:01 - Jul 26 with 922 views | stevec |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 11:37 - Jul 26 by Juzzie | Was just going to say the same. It's a meat grinder process and very few come out the other end. My son plays youth football and quite frankly has bossed it the last 2 1/2 years. Has won multiple awards, played in literally every position (inc. goal keeper) and always gives 110% and has very often been involved in match deciding moments, at either end. So, a month or so ago the coach suggested putting him up for a trial at the local Star Player team as he felt he'd pass no problem. We went along to both sessions and he was just as good as everyone else that turned up. Did not get selected. I'm not sure what these coaches are looking out for? All the tests were tikky-takky close ball control stuff. Yeah, all very well but not much good when an opposition player barrels towards you. Some freeze, others deal with it. There was no real-world testing. Where were the defensive tests? What about the long pass or observing the game and making decisons? All very well being able to pass to someone 10ft away from you but the players should be able to do a long pass at this stage/age. Why wasn't there a 10 minute match set up to see how they all performed in an actual game? Oh well. [Post edited 26 Jul 11:42]
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The English coaching system seems to be steeped in what I’d call Chuckle Brothers football. Probably why Eze got rejected time and again, coaches probably wondered what the hell was going on when we went on a run. That said, looked like Southgate and JFH have beaten that out of him over the summer. | ![](/images/avatars/6823.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 14:15 - Jul 26 with 870 views | LazyFan |
Spotting of talent at a very young age on 09:01 - Jul 26 by numptydumpty | All three Willock brothers started at Arsenal academy around this age Guess a pushy parent is always going to want their boy to go to a high ranking Premier League outfit over a championship team, even if they not the one hundred percent best. [Post edited 26 Jul 9:03]
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That's why an Academy and now we have them the top-notch facilities are a must. When little Kevin gets kicked out by the Scum but is still a top talent (Eze), and their parents look around, we show them we are just down the road and have all the support they got from Premshites. More than that, our players get a chance to play. We can show off Armstrong, Kohli, EDB, Walsh, BoS, Eze and more. If your kid improves, they will get their chance. And then it's up to them to want it. Llyod clearly wanted in the friendly against the spuds. He should be given another go. | ![](/images/avatars/1596.gif) |
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