U21s trialist ends up at Peterborough Utd

Seems he is one of a growing number who prefer to be playing in matches rather than sitting on someone's bench.

Will be interesting to see how gets on.

I don't understand that dynamic of the deal but that's Everton all over, lol.

He might go on to be the next big thing or he might not.

I read that he left Chelsea as he wanted to be playing and couldn't see a way in to the first team. The way we operate, I imagine he might not have seen one with us either so prefers to be playing regularly.

It would have been completely rational and understandable to hear Dyche confirm that he is keen to give academy players the opportunity to experience a first-team matchday squad as he knows it will support their development. To hear hiim say that, at Bramall Lane on Saturday, he was happy to give two Under-21s a unique chance to join the first-team squad on the subs bench for the positive contribution to their development.

But no, nothing demonstrates with more clarity the absence of a pathway for U21s to get into the first-team squad, even though the pathway is blindingly obvious, than the nonsense bench at the weekend and the subsequent Dyschespeak justification for not putting a couple of U21s on the bench at Bramhall Lane:

Dyche has insisted he is keen to give academy players the opportunity to experience a first-team matchday squad when possible, believing it will support their development. But he explained that, at Bramall Lane on Saturday, he was reluctant to do this because the reliance upon the Under-21s to fulfil first-team squad and training duties was having an impact on their own development.

I should coco! Of course it would have an impact on their development. It's your job to make sure that impact is a positive and career-building one, your utter numpty!!!

Somehow they seem to play a lot fewer games than the 1st XI.

So a choice of playing every week in League 1 or once every couple of weeks in our U21s. When you left Chelsea U21s because of playing time, it was a no-brain decision not to come here.

You took the job, now get on with it - it's almost like they are looking for the pay-off from this unmanageable, Premier League, job.

If one goalie gets sent off, one goalie sub replaces him. Then if that sub goalie gets injured, 2nd sub goalie replaces that one.

Whilst the above scenario is unlikely, it's entirely possible.

With another 7 spaces available, having 2 goalies does make sense. However, not having the full complement of 9 subs is a bit annoying.

I don't personally agree with there being 5 subs allowed in a match but that's a different story.

On another note, being based down in the London area I was keen to see when we play our Fulham and Chelsea away U21 Premier League 2 matches. I've seen a couple of Fulham vs Everton U21s when Stones played right back. Also saw Grealish playing for Villa U21s a few years back. He looked quality. Not sure what happened to him :)

Couldn't see the fixtures so have just looked up the rules for the new Premier League 2 competition. Seems the rules have changed. The 2 previous leagues are now one League of 26, teams are placed in pots based on previous 3 years performances. Teams play 20 games so don't play all teams. Top 16 then play a knockout competition

For those that have the patience to read through the full details, here's the Link

The squad is woefully thin. It's appalling.

There's no proper keeper if Pickford gets injured or sent off (Virginia?!?!)

Keane and Godfrey are both appalling but they're our back-up to Tarkowski and the inexperienced Brandthwaite

Left back: Young doesn't impress me and we all have misgivings about Mykolenko

Wing: against Sheffield Utd we had to play a centre midfielder at right wing. People talk about when players are back from injury…..as if other players won't get injured in that time!!! It's a stupid thing to say: we'll ALWAYS have injuries/loss of form/suspensions.

So we've played numerous Premier League games already this season without experienced wingers (Dobbin has promise but he's not ready to impact games at this level)

And behind Beto we have Chermiti (another inexperienced striker). Yes obviously we have Calvert-Lewin but, until he can prove he can play a run of 8 consecutive Premier League matches, please don't kid yourself that he fulfils squad depth

But some on here STILL want to kick Dyche??!?!?

Listen, he may not be brilliant or everyone's cup of tea BUT he kept us up with a crap squad last season and deserves a chance this season. This international break gives him a chance to work with the squad he has at least until January so a chance to bed in patterns of play etc.

Give him a chance.

Not sure I buy the explanation for 2 sub keepers… With that irresistible logic, why stop at 2? I mean, what if the second sub then gets concussion and has to go off? You didn't think of that, did you? And then he might also need to be subbed.

After all, with a 9-man bench and a maximum of 5 outfield substitutions, then the other 4 should all be goalkeepers.

As those old and dead Italians might say, reductio ad absurdum.

The squad is woefully thin. It's appalling.

If you'd said "The squad is woefully poor. It's appalling" I'd have no argument. But in terms of raw numbers, we are allowed to name and use only 25 players in the first-team squad (plus unlimited U21s – another excellent reason to put them on the bench whenever possible!).

If you count up who we've got currently, we are at 25 before you add in Dobbin and Onyango, so I'm really not sure what scope there is to thicken up the squad – unless you continue to replace the deadwood with better players. But that opportunity has largely come and gone.

The U21s had a game just previous to ours so not them.

The gap between the Premier League and the next group down is considerable, Hunt, Okoronkwo, Kouyate, Metcalfe are the current most likely contenders. Okoronkwo in particular needs the game time at U21 to show he is developing not sitting on the bench knowing it's a slim chance he gets on.

We didn't have a full bench at U21 last weekend either, and their performances are poor. We really are in need of improvement throughout all levels of the Club. Blaming Dyche for making what I would say are rational decisions for me is wrong. Until we have a proper owner and Chairman, we'll continue to struggle.

Our problem is we don’t have a lot of quality at u18, maybe 4 or 5 capable of playing u21 and the current first year Scholars are not standing out yet.

What do you make of this list:

Sean McAllister
Kyle John
Charlie Whitaker
Mathew Mallon
Eli Campbell
Ed Jones
Jack Tierney

That's seven young players who were all doing pretty well for the U21s last season.

Seven young players who haven't gone out on loan.

Seven players still listed in our U21s squad.

Seven players who between them have made not one single appearance in any of the four U21s games so far this season.

The only explanation can be that they are all out injured. Hopefully this is not the effect of the Dycheball bleep test percolating down through the ranks and crippling players on the way???

Sorry, wasn't familiar with reductio ad absurdum. I had to look it up, understand it now - I thought it might have been an Italian goalkeeper!

Yes, as far as I’ve seen and heard all are injured, you would get an experienced u21 back four out of that. But apart from Whitaker and maybe Tierney I don’t think we’ll see much progress from them - or as we now categorise our youngsters “ be able to get a decent fee when we sell them”.

You’re harsh on Sean ! I quite like the “ bleep test” idea when it’s used effectively: “ Right Gbamin, we can agree to tear up your contract costing us nothing, or you can hang around and we’ll give you a bleep test every week to monitor your fitness.”😉

Whatever or whoever, I don't see leaving the bench short while players are available as doing much for team/club unity, unless of course you expect some unfit rabble rouser to give a speech of unrest to the rest of the bench as the game goes on.

Dyche is clearly making a thing of it, and will be able to trot out that he was managing against the odds - just look at the bench. That's all for him.

Not selecting kids is telling the academy, that despite the crises, none of you are remotely good enough, so don't bother. That's disheartening for the academy, and actually impacts the future sales value of the players. Surely if we are looking to sell these kids on, their value will be impacted by Premier league starts, and match day involvement?

And just maybe, kids surprise you. I don't believe for one second that a kid hasn't played better in the first team than was expected, the same as the star graduates that choke on the big stage. That's just life.

We could, for example, have put the likes of Kouyate, Whitaker and McAllister on the bench against Sheff Utd but they wouldn't have got any minutes - and maybe they are being encouraged to work harder for the honour. I can see the sense in that.

The lack of quality cover on the bench isn't Dyche's doing in any case. We've sold the two best players in the academy Samuels-Smith (Chelsea) and Lawrence (City) in consecutive summers and some of the better prospects are on loan (Warrington, Mills and Welch).

Onyango, Dobbin and possibly Metcalfe are our brightest hopes and the former two already appear to be part of the first team squad. Hopefully Metcalfe will join them once he's properly recovered from injury.

They would have arrived home in the early hours of Saturday morning, around 3:00 am if they were lucky. There was no sense in then asking a couple of them to drag themselves over to Sheffield merely to sit on the bench.

Ask most ex-players what they would do differently if they had the chance to relive their careers, and my guess is that at least 80% of them would say that they would get fitter…