Fly the Nest: what now for the Under-23 stars?

Other players not mentioned...

Calvert-Lewin (played 9, scored 4)
Charsley
Walsh
Gethin Jones
Holgate (played 7)

Out of all of them, we will probably have a good number at the very least making a good career in the Championship. If we plaster sell in clauses with them then it's been worth it.

I reckon there's 9 who should make a career at least in the Championship. That's a phenomenal return for any youth system. (Granted some players were bought as youngsters).

Kenny
Holgate
Pennington
Robinson
Williams
Connolly
Davies
Dowell
Calvert-Lewin.

Joe Williams should also be getting a chance in the squad as back-up.

Dowell maybe making himself into a deep-lying midfielder, back up to Gomes is worth looking at. If it doesn't work, we sell. If it does, we may save ourselves 㿀+million.

Connolly seems a bit of a jack of all trades type. They were more common 10-15 years ago. Now it seems players have to be specialized in their positions, so he should move on.

Evan, and Broadhead too, I wonder if they lack that X-Factor to be top-level players in their positions.

Joao Virginia – but in a couple of years
Morgan Feeney – he should be 4th choice this season
Antony Evans – intriguing player who needs a loan to show he can step up
Anthony Gordon – superb young talent but he's still a young 18
Ellis Simms – discussed on his own thread.

Sadly, I'd forgetten about Beni Baningime. I have no idea where or how it's all gone wrong but it clearly has. He's not played at all this season for us but, at his age, that wouldn't matter. The fact that he's 20 and went out on loan in January and couldn't get a game for a poor Championship side is very worrying. We need to let him slip back down to the U23s quietly and rediscover his mojo and give him time to come again.

The other one after Simms to potentially bypass the U23s is the excellent young Korede Adedoyin. However, there is some reservations over him though. So perhaps he does need to go into the U23s and prove himself at that level.

More I think won't make it unless they come good elsewhere are:

Joe Williams – getting too old now.

Dennis Adeniran – really like this kid but he's now 20 and he needs to be closer to the first team.

Josh Bowler – again 20 now. He's only just younger than Richarlison. That says a lot about his levels. He needs to explode this season or it's never going to happen.

Fraser Hornby – still only 19. But he lacks the finishing skills in the box and still plays like a centre mid playing up front. He's great in the air and he's good from long range, he just lacks the penalty box game of an out-and-out striker.

Con Ouzounidis – 19 years old. He should take Feeney's spot in the U23s and needs to step up a level. He still has time on his side.

Manasse Mampala and Bassala Sambou – neither score enough goals for the U23. They won't make the step up. Sambou is almost 22 now, ie, a year younger than Calvert-Lewin and far behind where Dominic was at this age. Both should be loaned out to clear the pathway for more talented younger players.

There are numerous examples of players breaking through at 21/22 or even later.

Bowler, for me, looks a player.

I know you say there are numerous examples of players breaking through at 21/22 or later, I think this is not quite the case in 2019. I think that you need to be in or around the first team by the age of 21. To be playing in the U23s and nowhere near the first team is a gap too far to bridge. Sure, some at 22 might bridge it, but it requires the explosion I was talking about. Bowler is not good enough, and nowhere near good enough on current ability. He can make it, but he needs to develop a lot this coming season and really that needs to be in first team football and not the U23s. If he has a good season for the U23s and then goes out on loan the season after, then we're talking about a 22-year-old and his time has gone. Really he needs to go on loan now, or in six months time and he needs to be delivering.

Don't forget the lad has struggled to cement a place in the U23s at the age of 20 and has spent a lot of time on the bench watching younger players like Gordon who are clearly better than him, and he only really got a shot when Evans was moved out on loan. Evans is a year older than him.

Let's be clear though Fran, I am not writing Bowler off. As you say, he is a good young player with a bit of trickery about him and after wrestling a place in the side in the latter part of the season he kept it, and then had Gordon watching him. I just think Bowler needs to and has to kick on over the next 12 months. He must make massive strides.

Evans is a player I really like, but as 21 it is now or never for him. And he must show he can break into the first team squad. He is not good enough right now, and so he needs a good loan move and to hit the ground running and show he can step up another level again.

Regarding Anthony Gordon I would putin the same class as Keiran Dowell, bags and bags of skill, makes you sit up and take notice with his dribbling and shooting ability, then when he loses the ball the almost complete lack of fight to win it back, I'm still hoping Dowell will find that fight and will to win, not sure he will or can, just doesn't seem to be in his nature, fear Gordon is made in the same mould.

The hugely acclaimed Foden is a bit-part player at Man City. Alexander-Arnold is the first to break through at Anfield since Gerrard did 20 years ago and the much vaunted Chelsea youth set-up has not produced a regular first-team player since John Terry.

In the old days when players came through the school system, one player out of every two years of England Schoolboys made it to regular First Division, as it was then, status.

Academies produce players, but clubs are reluctant to develop them when they can afford established players from abroad. Most Academy players end up in the Championship or Leagues One and Two. What is wrong is the way they are kept hanging around on the fringes of the club.

I haven't seen nearly as much of the U23s as stalwarts like Steve and Dave, but personally I saw a lot to be excited about in Bowler, and as Dave mentions there are multiple Championship clubs lined up to borrow him... not just Hull but Wednesday, Boro and Derby as well. He's definitely going to get his chance to "explode" this season.

I think Gethin Jones left us around 18 months ago, for Fleetwood Town.

I think maybe some of these youngsters like the prestige of playing for a Premier League club even if it's stunting their careers and turn down the opportunity to move to less prestigious clubs because they think it's a backward step. But sometimes, to make two steps forward, you have to take one step back.

Being thrown into a cup game and expected to perform without a run of games isn't easy. That's a wider criticism I would put to Silva, he doesn't give the youngsters enough chances... but let's not make this thread about him.

The ideal situation would be for Dowell to stay with Sheffield Utd on loan and establish himself a Premier League pedigree.

In this case it appears to mean "being glued to the bench during the final critical run-in to promotion."

Of the Blades' last 11 games, which determined their season, Dowell started three -- and in two of those he was subbed out at half-time, which generally happens only if you're playing poorly. The most he played in any of those 11 games was 63 minutes, and four he sat out completely. So he was hardly critical.

Count me as one of those who has written him off.