PLENO1's footy thoughts

[pleno1]

He was always absolutely rapid. As a centre midfielder he could turn a bad ball into a world class one, ball bouncey.. bouncey... bouncey.... half volley ping into the corner, sighhhhh overhit, oh wait, Theo gained a 20 yard head start on the full back. Good ball Pat, wow, worldy

He was actually good technically and moved up the teams quickly too and played in the under 18 team when he was 15/16. I remember he couldn't do "round the world" but he always finished well and had a good end product. Without doubt though, his pace was his best attribute and always will be.

[Josedinho]

Cheers for the reply. How full on and professional was it at that age? Pretty decent set up I guess as Surman, Best, Walcott & Dyer all scored in the prem this weekend. I remember reading about a striker (can't remember who) going to Darren Campbell for sprint training as he needed to be quicker, was your acceleration ever identified as a weakness and worked on or at that level do they have the numbers to know that one player will have what they need even if they have to keep 4 or 5 players in that position to find him?

[pleno1]

Cheers for the reply. How full on and professional was it at that age? Pretty decent set up I guess as Surman, Best, Walcott & Dyer all scored in the prem this weekend. I remember reading about a striker (can't remember who) going to Darren Campbell for sprint training as he needed to be quicker, was your acceleration ever identified as a weakness and worked on or at that level do they have the numbers to know that one player will have what they need even if they have to keep 4 or 5 players in that position to find him?

It was never really a big deal, I played in a 451 team almost all my life, the problem started at 16 years of age, Southampton started bringing in 3/4 new trialists every week, the best player in the school from here, the best player in the school from there etc. I started being asked to play on the wings as they wanted to see the new guys in their best positions. I played against Watford one horrible horrible Sunday morning. I was playing against some 6ft4 Black guy who looked about 28 and I stood no chance really as they loved their wingers to be attacking, quick and direct. It just wasn't my game. I actually remember Bale scored a free-kick from about 35 yards and we won. But I was abit moody and down in the dumps.

My Dad rang me that night saying Malcolm Alias (head of Saints academy - now at Chelsea I think) had told him that they had concerns about my pace and I didn't look like I could run. Was weird to my Dad because I was county champion and breaking records all the time at school. But it shattered my confidence I think I cried when he hung up the phone and the realisation that I wouldn't be the next Alan Shearer sunk in.

Regarding sprint training, I don't think that is worthwhile at all, I think going to Michael Owen and learning how to steal a yard is a much much better idea.

[pleno1]

Me in the middle - Captaining Newcastle City team in cup final. Top right is Lee Novak who didn't make the squad and currently plays for Huddersfield.

[Raman]

what iyo is the main reason why so many players who have exceptioanal talent @ 16 - 19 fail to make it?

[mondatoo]

what iyo is the main reason why so many players who have exceptioanal talent @ 16 - 19 fail to make it?

Drink, drugs and woman ldo.

[Dubai]

Attitude ainec

Leon Knight was so much better than Defoe when young, one had a good attitude, one had a bad attitude

[pleno1]

what iyo is the main reason why so many players who have exceptioanal talent @ 16 - 19 fail to make it?

Not givien exposure to first team football, however this is more the fault the way football clubs are ran rather than managers not believing in players. Managers are sacked so often/quickly now, I read yesterday QPR have had 11 managers in 10 years?! Just ridiculous.

Every club should have a minimum of a 3 year plan where the managers job is secured/insured massively. Managers are scared to take risks/play young players incase they go on a 3/4 match losing streak. Almost every team in the prem will boo their manager if they lose 4 games on the trot. Its 4 games! LOLVARIANCE!!

When I was 8 I was already starting to play almost 6 nights a week, I went to development schools, school training, NUFC training, Sunday league training. My dad was approached by the head of the NUFC adamey and asked if we could house 2 players in the under 17 team.

In came Stephen Brennan and Joe Kendrick, they were going to leave NUFC and sign for Blackburn because they wern't being looked after and were super homesick. We had a nice big house, I was like a little brother and my parents were exceptional parents to them. It was supposed ot be a 2 month thing before they got a flat, but they begged to stay and were my brothers for almost 5 years!

Stephen won Ireland under 20 player of the year and Joe was a great left footed left back. Neither got even close to being on the bench of the first team even though they were miles better than Andy Griffin and whoever else we had on the full back positions.

Although Stephen was an awesome player and had won prestigious awards he didnt receive ONE offer from anybody in English football and went back to Ireland and played for St Pats. Such a disaster! Luckily Newcastle have Ashley who has a clear 5 year plan and believes and supports Pardew. Pardew may be a little bit of a puppet man but he knows exactly what Ashleys vision is and he does his best to support it (even if he doesn't agree)

One match I went to watch was Newc U18's vs Bolton U18's. Shola Ameobi, a tall, lanky streak was subbed at half time and told by Kenny Wharton never to come back to training. Shola drove off at half time and by Tuesday afternoon Bobby Robson told him he was going to start for the first team on the Saturday against Chelsea and Marcel Dessaily! 10 years+ later, Shola is still here has scored 30 goals in 230 appearances and the guys whom he couldn't tie their shoelaces are stuck in Ireland getting paid pittance per week.

Football is a funny game!

Basically, to answer your question..

what iyo is the main reason why so many players who have exceptioanal talent @ 16 - 19 fail to make it?

LUCK!

[Dubai]

And yeah variance is obviously massive

[pleno1]

Attitude ainec

Leon Knight was so much better than Defoe when young, one had a good attitude, one had a bad attitude

This too, ofc.

Many of these young guys make some ridic mistakes.

One premier league footballer, who will remain anonymous but was bought for over £30m last season was playing 5aside when he was 17 against some absolute animals in the same 5aisde league I played in. He got a really bad tackle to his ankle and was out for 4 months! When asked by the club what happened he replied "I was jogging, doing some extra fitness and fell over a curb"

This same guy was a good friend growing up but never spoke after we turned about 14/15 as we were in different friend groups.

We were both at NUFC when we were 8-11, Man United opened an academy in Newcastle and Andy was asked to go and sign for them, he snap accepted and NUFC got the academy closed. At the time he was a free running, athletic, talented, skillful, tricky, old school winger.

Newcastle United turned him into a defensive left back and drained all his ability out of him. He was without doubt thebest technical kid I played with. In a under 18 match against Man U, they were getting beat 2-1 with 10 minutes to go. Beardsley put Carroll upfront as a target man, he scored 2 goals and the rest is history. He had already been told he was getting released at the end of the season, but after his cameo he played 5 more games and bagged goal after goal.

Funny old game...

[pleno1]

Playing top of the league tonight, they've played 9, won 7 drawn 1. Teams in this league usually bring like 100 fans who get overly excited, my team is all British guys so we have 0 fans, last game got so much stick from their fans after some debatable tackles.

Been raining all morning, sunny now, perfect pitch. Buzzing for it!

[mulhuzz]

Playing top of the league tonight, they've played 9, won 7 drawn 1. Teams in this league usually bring like 100 fans who get overly excited, my team is all British guys so we have 0 fans, last game got so much stick from their fans after some debatable tackles.

Been raining all morning, sunny now, perfect pitch. Buzzing for it!

where is game? i will come support for the sweat!

[pokerfan]

Me in the middle - Captaining Newcastle City team in cup final. Top right is Lee Novak who didn't make the squad and currently plays for Huddersfield.

Novak,
Novak,
Our carpets are dirty,
'Cause we've got Novak...

 

[pleno1]

Playing top of the league tonight, they've played 9, won 7 drawn 1. Teams in this league usually bring like 100 fans who get overly excited, my team is all British guys so we have 0 fans, last game got so much stick from their fans after some debatable tackles.

Been raining all morning, sunny now, perfect pitch. Buzzing for it!

sigh just saw this.

Got beat 2.1 but we battered them, missed a penalty where they keeper got yellow instead of red.

Predicting city smash wigan by 2 or more goals.

where is game? i will come support for the sweat!

[dino1980]

Central defender Patrick of Kirkstone Gardens, High Heaton, Newcastle, said: "I'd love to end up playing for Newcastle.

Hang on, you were a centre-half?