Academy & U21s

[BlackburnEnd75]

2 hours ago, rigger said:

 

I think he played the first half for the U18s against liverpool on Saturday.  Looks like he is coming back from an injury.

Hes had a few injuries now hasn't he. A bit concerning

[rigger]

2 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

Hes had a few injuries now hasn't he. A bit concerning

That's the point, nobody knows, as there hasn't been any word on Phillips from the Rovers.

[bluebruce]

9 hours ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Brett ormrod could be thrown into the arguement. Had a decent career with Blackpool 

Considered him, as I remembered him being a steady Prem forward at one point. Looking at his goals record though, I think it was much more about him being Beattie's partner...has to go behind Derbs and Gally but maybe ahead of Joe Garner.

7 hours ago, briansol said:

Jon Walters is also someone for the list, who had a decent career. Was very prolific for the youth teams and rated by Souness.  Always bugged me how Walters ruined his Rovers stay. Why on earth would you steal from your team-mates? 

Anthony Pilkington too...in fact in my head it was him that got done for stealing, but now you mention Walters that seems like the right one. Pilkington more of a winger though perhaps? But pretty good goal record for a winger.

[riverholmes]

I wonder what people feel about retaining or releasing Connor McBride, whose contract, as far as I know, expires this summer. After not being allowed to go on loan pre-season, there were rumours of a loan move to Charlton Athletic and Crewe Alex in January but a surprise move to Queen's Park materialised, in the third tier of Scottish football. He's not scored a goal yet there, I think, and has mainly been a sub.

His apparent lack of success on loan has come as a surprise to me after his stellar PL2 season last campaign, under the management of Billy Barr, when he finished as our top scorer, albeit, with several penalties, and was nominated for player of the season, alongside Man City stars, such as Palmer, McAtee and Delap.

After a goal for the first team in pre-season, when he scored a deflected free-kick against, I think, Leeds, his form for the struggling PL2 side fell away - though the whole team has often been poor. He was in and out of the side and now is potentially heading out of the club.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that it would be a fair gamble to, like Burns, be given another year and some first team opportunity in pre-season to show his worth. Last campaign, for the U23s, he looked superb, not only scoring goals but, also, creating a lot of the ones scored by Burns. However, it looks like the club are persevering with Vale and Burns and with U18s forwards coming through and the first team new signings such as Hedges and Markanday, it might be that the club decide that they have the numbers and will let him go.

Edited May 6, 2022 by riverholmes

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, riverholmes said:

I wonder what people feel about retaining or releasing Connor McBride, whose contract, as far as I know, expires this summer. After not being allowed to go on loan pre-season, there were rumours of a loan move to Charlton Athletic and Crewe Alex in January but a surprise move to Queen's Park materialised, in the third tier of Scottish football. He's not scored a goal yet there, I think, and has mainly been a sub.

His apparent lack of success on loan has come as a surprise to me after his stellar PL2 season last campaign, under the management of Billy Barr, when he finished as our top scorer, albeit, with several penalties, and was nominated for player of the season, alongside Man City stars, such as Palmer, McAtee and Delap.

After a goal for the first team in pre-season, when he scored a deflected free-kick against, I think, Leeds, his form for the struggling PL2 side fell away - though the whole team has often been poor. He was in and out of the side and now is potentially heading out of the club.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that it would be a fair gamble to, like Burns, be given another year and some first team opportunity in pre-season to show his worth. Last campaign, for the U23s, he looked superb, not only scoring goals but, also, creating a lot of the ones scored by Burns. However, it looks like the club are persevering with Vale and Burns and with U18s forwards coming through and the first team new signings such as Hedges and Markanday, it might be that the club decide that they have the numbers and will let him go.

I'm fairly indifferent, but on balance I'd probably release him. He's probably lost momentum and motivation after not being given the loan he should have had, when he should have had it. But his failure in the third Scottish tier at 21 tells me he isn't going to make the grade. If he were someone else's 21 year old player we'd be saying no thanks after that.

[rigger]

4 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I'm fairly indifferent, but on balance I'd probably release him. He's probably lost momentum and motivation after not being given the loan he should have had, when he should have had it. But his failure in the third Scottish tier at 21 tells me he isn't going to make the grade. If he were someone else's 21 year old player we'd be saying no thanks after that.

From what I saw of McBride, he is a very poor mans Jordan Rhodes. He gets himself into the box and scores. But he contributes very little else to the team 

[riverholmes]

Not sure about the Rhodes comparison, as McBride was often playing in a deeper role, sometimes, as the wide forward, and it was reported that in the PL2 20/21 season he got 12 goals and 6 assists in 20 appearances - albeit, as mentioned, he did get a number of penalties.

I do agree that there are question marks, as the PL2 is a lesser standard and he didn't do much on loan at Stenhousemuir as a Celtic player, nor, now at Queen's Park. Though, to be fair, neither Burns nor Vale did brilliantly in their most recent lower league/non-league spells.

I think the time to have tested him out at Rovers was definitely after he scored that friendly game goal for the first team against Leeds, when a few other U23s impressed. However, his career has seemingly stalled. It will be interesting to see if he can revive it.

Edited May 6, 2022 by riverholmes

[rigger]

28 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

Not sure about the Rhodes comparison, as McBride was often playing in a deeper role, sometimes, as the wide forward, and it was reported that in the PL2 20/21 season he got 12 goals and 6 assists in 20 appearances - albeit, as mentioned, he did get a number of penalties.

I do agree that there are question marks, as the PL2 is a lesser standard and he didn't do much on loan at Stenhousemuir as a Celtic player, nor, now at Queen's Park. Though, to be fair, neither Burns nor Vale did brilliantly in their most recent lower league/non-league spells.

I think the time to have tested him out at Rovers was definitely after he scored that friendly game goal for the first team against Leeds, when a few other U23s impressed. However, his career has seemingly stalled. It will be interesting to see if he can revive it.

Rhodes, scored goals contributed little else . McBride, scored goals contributed little else. I can see a comparison.

[Sparks Rover]

Nobbers have released their retained list today....with our academy coaches having links I wonder if any will find their way over to Brockall....another Dolan maybe (who I don't rate)

[bluebruce]

5 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

Nobbers have released their retained list today....with our academy coaches having links I wonder if any will find their way over to Brockall....another Dolan maybe (who I don't rate)

Whether you rate Dolan or not (and you're wrong) you have to admit we got a good deal there. Young player with room to improve, pace, able to compete at this level when on form...for free, and tiny wages.

You tend to know the Preston youth setup pretty well, any on the released list that you do rate?

[Sparks Rover]

17 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Whether you rate Dolan or not (and you're wrong) you have to admit we got a good deal there. Young player with room to improve, pace, able to compete at this level when on form...for free, and tiny wages.

You tend to know the Preston youth setup pretty well, any on the released list that you do rate?

Jacob HW is a good player, Jack Baxter is technically gifted.  Joe Rodwell needs a couple more years to grow into his body so maybe our 23s might help...we do have a lot of their ex coaches here...

They only kept 1 pro and that's young left back Coulton...top player that lad.

[roverandout]

On 03/05/2022 at 11:36, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That was Roy Boy, he hadn’t got a clue. The only good signing he made was Henchoz, the rest were bobbins. He paid £5.25 million for Christian Bloody Dailly ! What would that be today ?

I think when we signed Martin dahlin we all expected him to be a hit. Sebastian perez hated it in England.  Nathan Blake proved to be a good championship striker. Daily was awful.  

[riverholmes]

On 03/05/2022 at 18:30, blondie said:

Durrant has had a trial game at Sheffield Wednesday.

Apparently, he scored for their U23s recently, as a trialist, so a good start for him in trying to get a contract. Sheff Wed would be a great move, if he can get it. He has the potential to be a decent player, I guess, based on my very limited viewing, as he seemed very disciplined defensively, quick and decent on the ball. I would have thought he'd try to get a loan move away whilst he was here. Joe Nolan got on the bench ahead of him in pre-season for the firsts, in the game against Leeds, so, unless he was injured at the time, the writing was on the wall.

Edited May 9, 2022 by riverholmes

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

10 hours ago, roverandout said:

I think when we signed Martin dahlin we all expected him to be a hit. Sebastian perez hated it in England.  Nathan Blake proved to be a good championship striker. Daily was awful.  

Not forgetting Darren Peacock, Anders Andersen, Tore Pedersen, Callum Davidson, Alan Fettis,Kevin Davies,  Dario Marcolin.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Devon Rover]

56 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Not forgetting Darren Peacock, Anders Andersen, Tore Pedersen, Callum Davidson, Alan Fettis,Kevin Davies,  Dario Marcolin.

NO! Please don't make me go back there in my mind! Such a dark place.

Yet, in many ways, it was so much better than where the club is now. The good old days of Peacock and Dailly, eh?! 😆😪

[bluebruce]

Am I imagining things or do we seem to get a disproportionate amount of injuries all through the club, even at youth levels, which I thought would be rarer?

Maybe it's just more common for young players than I think, or it's actually not happening here as much as I think, but I know until I was 19 I never had a single injury (then I became a total Vince Grella ever since lol) and not many of my teammates would either, especially longer term stuff. Granted these lads will put their bodies under more strain than we did, but it seems a lot for young lads who have been used to a fair bit of training for years.

We've had 16 year old Ash Phillips miss seemingly about half this season, Butterworth and JRC both had a lot of serious injury issues when they were in the youth team, and it was reading the LT article just now about how Whitehall (who I've considered promising in the past) and Saadi are being offered new deals but due to injury made 0 and 16 appearances respectively for the u23s this season.

Obviously the first team had a lot of issues too in recent years. Obviously some injuries will always happen, I just wonder if there is something in our training methods or facilities that is contributing to the frequency of it.

[rigger]

20 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Am I imagining things or do we seem to get a disproportionate amount of injuries all through the club, even at youth levels, which I thought would be rarer?

Maybe it's just more common for young players than I think, or it's actually not happening here as much as I think, but I know until I was 19 I never had a single injury (then I became a total Vince Grella ever since lol) and not many of my teammates would either, especially longer term stuff. Granted these lads will put their bodies under more strain than we did, but it seems a lot for young lads who have been used to a fair bit of training for years.

We've had 16 year old Ash Phillips miss seemingly about half this season, Butterworth and JRC both had a lot of serious injury issues when they were in the youth team, and it was reading the LT article just now about how Whitehall (who I've considered promising in the past) and Saadi are being offered new deals but due to injury made 0 and 16 appearances respectively for the u23s this season.

Obviously the first team had a lot of issues too in recent years. Obviously some injuries will always happen, I just wonder if there is something in our training methods or facilities that is contributing to the frequency of it.

We do seem to have a lot of prolonged soft tissue injuries.

[bluebruce]

18 minutes ago, rigger said:

We do seem to have a lot of prolonged soft tissue injuries.

Feels like back injuries have been unusually common too?

[bluebruce]

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-transfer-news-heddow-24033523

Jake Haddow supposedly on the radar of clubs in the Prem, Championship and on the continent.

[rigger]

7 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-transfer-news-heddow-24033523

Jake Haddow supposedly on the radar of clubs in the Prem, Championship and on the continent.

I personally think Batty is a better prospect.

[joey_big_nose]

We do seem to have a lot of really promising young players coming through. Whoever is leading the strategy at the academy is doing a very good job. Who ultimately leads that over the long term as the U23 and U19 coaches come and go?

Edit - just realised Damian Johnson has been in role since 2015 (didn't think it was that long) so it must really be him I suppose?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, joey_big_nose said:

We do seem to have a lot of really promising young players coming through. Whoever is leading the strategy at the academy is doing a very good job. Who ultimately leads that over the long term as the U23 and U19 coaches come and go?

Edit - just realised Damian Johnson has been in role since 2015 (didn't think it was that long) so it must really be him I suppose?

I think if we're going to chat credit for the youth development then yeah Damien deserves a lot of recognition.

[riverholmes]

Billy Barr released by Salford, where he was assistant manager. He did well with the U23 job here, would anyone want him back in some capacity? Presumably, now he's had a taste of a more senior role, albeit League 2, he'll be looking for something comparable. I don't know anything about his time at Salford and how good a coach he is or isn't, so would be interested to know views from those who might do.

Edited May 25, 2022 by riverholmes

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

 

[Mike E]

13 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

 

 

Nearly had a heart attack!