A look at everything (or at least most things) Wanderers, youth style
On Monday Night, Bolton`s Under 21 side beat Manchester City 1-0 to win the Manchester Senior Cup. That news went by the wayside to some degree, with Transfer Deadline Day on the immediate horizon. Perhaps this event was more important than our fans might think.
Sure, United and City arguably send out their best young players on loan, meaning our Under 21s didn’t get to face them. But beating the two sides, both 1-0, in the semi finals and final respectively is a great achievement regardless.
Focussing on the development of youth players, and their rise up to the first team has been a philosophy adopted by Bolton in recent years. Ever since Eddie Davies` money stopped arriving into the club`s accounts, this has been the line spewed to the press by our managers. As Dougie illustrated with his perceived neglect of younger players, this is not always put into practice.
Neil Lennon has gone someway to show us that he is serious about bringing through such players, like Zach Clough, and Tom Walker. Though I can`t help but think that he could be doing more. Josh Vela is an example, with seven central midfielders in the squad – though I don’t see Medo or Trotter coming into the fray – it is obviously tough to pick the right midfield pairing. Neil Danns to his credit hasn’t looked poor this season, but many including myself can`t understand his regular selection, that keeps Vela, and Spearing for that matter, out of the side. Both of whom have more natural ability than Danns, and deserve more game time than they’ve been getting. Had we earned 10 points from our first five games then I wouldn’t complain, but we`ve only earned 3 in that period.
My next grudge is related again with youth, specifically about Jamie Thomas. This young man becomes a bigger talking point each and every time we grind out 0-0 draws, or have 14% shot accuracy in a match – MK Dons away in case you were wondering. He bangs in the goals for our Under 21 side on a regular basis, though despite my efforts, I`ve failed to find his goalscoring record online. I assure you it`s a good record, certainly better than Madine`s this season? It wouldn’t have been too unreasonable to put Thomas on the subs bench and give him 15 minutes during any of the last couple of games.
It is worth noting here, that when posed with a similar argument, Marc Iles of The Bolton News said, “The club have a plan for him.” It sounds ominous, but it`s good to know he isn’t being ignored. As far as the Jamie Thomas situation is concerned, I`ll let the club off, for now.
Up next is the sale of Andy Kellett. The immediate reaction to the news seemed pretty much 50/50 from the fans. I was one of those who looked upon the sale in a negative light. My first thought being, can we please stop giving players to Wigan? I don’t have any good reasons for this but I just find it annoying. The silver lining, is of course that they are simply a club of Bolton rejects. That`ll win you most arguments against Wigan fans.
In all seriousness, Kellett was one of those good young players we have coming through. Is it worth giving him up for what probably wasn`t much more than £100,000? I know, and now hope, that this sale was intended to provide the funds for the loan signing of a striker. Though I very much doubt any decent goalscorer will be brought in at such a late stage, with such little money.
Lastly, a comment on a very small column I read from Monday`s Daily Mail. Again related to youth, the piece commented on Fulham reaping the rewards of investing in their academy. Of course, this is mostly based on their sale of little known striker, Patrick Roberts for £12m to Manchester City. Other upcoming attackers Moussa Dembélé – a different player to the ‘Mousa` who plays for Spurs – and Cauley Woodrow, who goes onto be a successful PL striker on Football Manager. Apparently it`s the best source for any in depth knowledge about players according to Sky Sports News and their recent Deadline Day coverage.
This story is a reminder of Wanderers` decision to downgrade their academy just a few months ago. Hopefully the club don’t regret the decision in the future.
Disclaimer: This article is NOT an anti Neil Lennon piece.