Willy Kambwala

[Sideshow Bob]

 

[boothstownred]

Who?

 

[Sideshow Bob]

 

[IDFD]

We’ve been chasing this kid for months. Was originally reported we’d missed out on him.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

 

[SuperRash]

So we’re making all the signings for the youth team so we’ll potentially have a good first team in 5-6 years time.

 

[Cosmic Slop]

2026 is our year.

 

[Berba_God]

2026 is our year.

Made my laugh, maybe in despair

 

[Shoot]

So we’re making all the signings for the youth team so we’ll potentially have a good first team in 5-6 years time.

There has actually been tremendous work going on with our youth set up the last year or two. Clearly some long term planning going on and we shouldnt knock it. We could be seeing great benefits within the next 2 years.

 

[jsp]

Rules changing about signing foreign players after Brexit at the end of the year.

Utd looking to stock the youth teams with top talent from all over Europe before this happens.

 

[Tari]

It seems like actual football people buy for the youth team.

They seems to be bought more for football reasons.

I have more faith in these signings than the first team.

 

[SuperRash]

There has actually been tremendous work going on with our youth set up the last year or two. Clearly some long term planning going on and we shouldnt knock it. We could be seeing great benefits within the next 2 years.

Yeah we definitely have been doing some great work in the youth market. Mejbri and Hoogewerf last season and this season, Jurado, Garnacho and Fernandez. Add in this guy and also Pellestri - if all these guys hit potential we are going to have a special group of players in a few years.

 

[jsp]

It seems like actual football people buy for the youth team.

They seems to be bought more for football reasons.

I have more faith in these signings than the first team.

Think that's a touch harsh for years the youth team was starved of funding in the last 2-3 years the club has once again started searching the world for top youth talent to get them in at 16. This was part of a total overhaul and acceptance that Utd had slipped miles behind our rivals in terms of talent development which actually ended in our relegation from PL1 to PL2 at U23 level which for an academy like ours is embarrassing. The club made a big call to try and put this right and that seems to be happening but we probably won't see the fruits of these changes for 3 or 4 years as these players develop through the age groups into potential first team players.

There's big risks in this though how many 16 year old wonderkids go on to become superstars? There needs to be a much smarter use of the loan market to get these kids ready either for our first team or to be sold on to other clubs for good fees. A big part of this type of model is the money that can be made after you've developed that talent if they're not quite good enough to go to your first team.

 

[Tari]

Think that's a touch harsh for years the youth team was starved of funding

I believe that funding was diverted in latter years of Ferguson's tenure, he realised the glazernomics behind how we are run meant that the money would have to be shifted from elsewhere to delay the rot in the first team.

in the last 2-3 years the club has once again started searching the world for top youth talent to get them in at 16.

This is something we should have never stopped doing, if there was anything that could have been described as the united way - raising our first team players from the academy is definitely it. So we have missed a trick there; we are clearly seeing the effects now with us having to buy to just stand still, and buy big to improve the team.

This was part of a total overhaul and acceptance that Utd had slipped miles behind our rivals in terms of talent development which actually ended in our relegation from PL1 to PL2 at U23 level which for an academy like ours is embarrassing.

Exactly! They put a football person on it, in Nicky Butt, and now it is back on track. Wonder why!?!

The club made a big call to try and put this right and that seems to be happening but we probably won't see the fruits of these changes for 3 or 4 years as these players develop through the age groups into potential first team players.

We are in for some lean seasons unless we can bring in younger players who will be mentally up for the pressures of playing in the first team.

There's big risks in this though how many 16 year old wonderkids go on to become superstars?

This is why we will have to have a well stacked out youth team, and a method to provide route to first team football.

There needs to be a much smarter use of the loan market to get these kids ready either for our first team or to be sold on to other clubs for good fees.

I think we need someone to manage loans, matching players to clubs that will provide ample opportunity for them to practice what they have learnt.

A big part of this type of model is the money that can be made after you've developed that talent if they're not quite good enough to go to your first team.

We will have to get good at selling players first.