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Alejandro Gomes Rodriguez

trousers

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Ted Bates Statue

Ted Bates Statue

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Got a decent bit of facial hair for someone in his early teens. It would take me a while to cultivate a patch like that.

Reminds me of being at a wedding reception one November's afternoon as a +1 and asking someone on my table what he did for a living. He told me he was studying for his GCSEs the following summer. 🤦‍♂️

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kristian

kristian

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Had 37 goals in his first 16 games at Saints apparently (assume he was playing u14s and was then promoted a couple times), also made apps for u18s now. He's Hampshire Schools 100m and 200m champion and a National finalist, clearly very athletic - especially for his age. 

 

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SuperSAINT

SuperSAINT

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9 minutes ago, Singapore Saint said:

I remember about 15 to 20 years ago, there was a lad playing for us called Harry Ball. He was literally scoring for fun and touted as a huge prospect. I wonder what happened to him, does anyone know?

Nearest I remember was Mark Paul.

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kristian

kristian

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22 minutes ago, Singapore Saint said:

I remember about 15 to 20 years ago, there was a lad playing for us called Harry Ball. He was literally scoring for fun and touted as a huge prospect. I wonder what happened to him, does anyone know?

Don't recall him, but Jamie White, Sam Hoskins and Ryan Seager all followed similar paths breaking academy records and now banging them in at a variety of levels. Difference is that they were all fox in the box types rather than physically advanced or technically good, and back then they weren't playing up age groups as much as Ballard/Dibling/Doyle etc do nowadays.

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Singapore Saint

Singapore Saint

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1 hour ago, Paulwantsapint81 said:

Could he be player to take Walcott record of youngest saints player?

Or the record of youngest Saints player to be sold which is probably held by Tyler Dibling (although that might not count as his sale was cancelled shortly afterwards) and the current holder is the recently departed JJ Morgan or perhaps Theo Walcott or Gareth Bale?

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trousers

trousers

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1 hour ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

Obviously highlights of a 14 year old are useless in predicting ability in the men's game, but if anyone is interested in what the hype is about right now:

 

Thanks for posting that. He certainly looks head and shoulders above everyone else on the field. Explosive pace and excellent composure in front of goal.

p.s. why are most of our youth games seemingly filmed using a potato?

Edited by trousers
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tajjuk

tajjuk

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Yeh I wondered that, surely an Iphone could get a better video quality than that and some of those videos are from the dome at the training ground aren't they? Saying that the England U15 picture quality seems even worse. Maybe these are unofficial videos as there might be some rules about sharing videos of under 16s. 

Interesting that he seems to have come late into the academy set up from Sunday League, maybe was focused on athletics before that? but seems to have very good close control for someone not coming through the academy route, seeing as many of the guys he'd be facing there would have been with academies since they were 7/8. 

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benjii

benjii

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18 hours ago, Singapore Saint said:

I remember about 15 to 20 years ago, there was a lad playing for us called Harry Ball. He was literally scoring for fun and touted as a huge prospect. I wonder what happened to him, does anyone know?

Runs a pub in Marbella with Cosimo Sarli.

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S-Clarke

S-Clarke

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On 23/02/2023 at 19:10, SuperSAINT said:

This.  Will do very well to hold onto him 

If this is how it goes now then we'll never see a Bale, Shaw, Theo, Chamberlain etc in the first team ever again, which kind of makes having an academy pointless.

I agree though, clubs like Chelsea are really aggressive on youth recruitment right now, before players get to any first team, so if they flash the cash to a 15 year old then there's only ever one outcome. That's going to kill academy football as those kids will lose years and years and years of their career and most will never make it, just because they've been blinded by dosh at a young age.

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SuperSAINT

SuperSAINT

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45 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

If this is how it goes now then we'll never see a Bale, Shaw, Theo, Chamberlain etc in the first team ever again, which kind of makes having an academy pointless.

I agree though, clubs like Chelsea are really aggressive on youth recruitment right now, before players get to any first team, so if they flash the cash to a 15 year old then there's only ever one outcome. That's going to kill academy football as those kids will lose years and years and years of their career and most will never make it, just because they've been blinded by dosh at a young age.

Brexit hasn’t helped mate.  The clamour for English kids now is huge.  Loads of kids swapping clubs young now at a very big rate.

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Luke SkyWalker-Peters

Luke SkyWalker-Peters

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9 hours ago, trousers said:

Thanks for posting that. He certainly looks head and shoulders above everyone else on the field. Explosive pace and excellent composure in front of goal.

p.s. why are most of our youth games seemingly filmed using a potato?

 

9 hours ago, tajjuk said:

Yeh I wondered that, surely an Iphone could get a better video quality than that and some of those videos are from the dome at the training ground aren't they? Saying that the England U15 picture quality seems even worse. Maybe these are unofficial videos as there might be some rules about sharing videos of under 16s. 

Interesting that he seems to have come late into the academy set up from Sunday League, maybe was focused on athletics before that? but seems to have very good close control for someone not coming through the academy route, seeing as many of the guys he'd be facing there would have been with academies since they were 7/8. 

On potato quality, I just think that is due to them zooming in on the player when editing, they are usually filming a wide shot, plus the compression when uploading to Youtube.

On Alejandro, I've done a bit of digging and it seems that at some point in the last few years his family has moved to the UK from Venezuala. Often players that were in academies will have to start from the bottom again to get noticed - for instance, Fabio Carvalho, who was at the Benfica academy, after moving from Portugal played for Balham for a while before getting noticed by Fulham. So, he might have been in a decent academy, its hard to tell. Perhaps lost in the shuffle, perhaps more focused on athletics or perhaps just a late bloomer.

Interestingly, he isn't the only striker around that age that we have signed from Sunday league. We have also signed Jack Topley from Hedge End United Youth U14's in Southampton. It looks like we signed him in November 2021 - but hard to guess his age as it is likely he was playing in a higher age group if we were interested. Based on the highlight clips, Jack also looks tall for his age (although currently very lanky), but also seemingly has exceptional pace. This was his last game for them: https://fulltime.thefa.com/displayFixture.html?id=21874215

So, what is interesting to me is that we have a pattern of acquiring Sunday League players at around 13/14 who are physically superior to their peers. I'm assuming with the hopes that they will keep that physical advantage whilst developing the technical and mental side of their game with us. In my opinion it seems like a great idea. A true no.9 is such a rare commodity and while we look to currently be one of the best in the country at developing attacking players from the academy, with Ballard, Doyle, Morgan (even though he's left), Dibling, Robinson and now Gomes all playing games for England from each of the age groups from U18s to the U15s. But, with the exception of Gomes, they all lack elite size or pace and we have seen, quite frankly, with Lukaku that being a freakish athlete can make up for significant technical deficiencies.

It looks like our solution to eternally searching for a striker is to mould them ourselves. Again, I think its great, every manager wants a big, powerful no.9 (even Pep), but there are seemingly none in existence at the required level. I would hope that we also apply this to CB. If we are sticking with our high line, high press style - then we need fast CBs. Obviously that is why we signed Salisu, Lyanco and ABK (as they all have pace for a CB), but to play the same style in the academy we need the same type of players.

 

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Dusic

Dusic

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https://theathletic.com/4805463/2023/08/29/england-youth-transfer-scouts-agents?source=user-shared-article

He is mentioned in this article:

Quote: There is a lot of talk about Alejandro Gomes Rodriguez, who scores England’s goal in the first game. He already has the facial hair of an adult and is the most powerful and the hardest-running player on the pitch. Though he plays for Southampton and has grown up in nearby Eastleigh, he can also represent Venezuela and Portugal.

Overall gist being agents are all over these kids due to the brexit restrictions and also notes that its hard to tell if some are just much more physically capable than others and therefore standout and perhaps get caught up eventually in that regard.

There was another comment about an unnamed player which might have been him...

Quote: There was one England player with a huge reputation. Everyone knows about this boy and most clubs want to sign him. Chelsea, the agent believes, are the front runners but he thinks other players will catch up with him physically – even if he did perform well against Italy, especially in the first game. This view means he won’t be trying to bring him into his stable.

Hopefully we can get him on a scholarship but there will be plenty of offers for him no doubt.

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SuperSAINT

SuperSAINT

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39 minutes ago, Dusic said:

https://theathletic.com/4805463/2023/08/29/england-youth-transfer-scouts-agents?source=user-shared-article

He is mentioned in this article:

Quote: There is a lot of talk about Alejandro Gomes Rodriguez, who scores England’s goal in the first game. He already has the facial hair of an adult and is the most powerful and the hardest-running player on the pitch. Though he plays for Southampton and has grown up in nearby Eastleigh, he can also represent Venezuela and Portugal.

Overall gist being agents are all over these kids due to the brexit restrictions and also notes that its hard to tell if some are just much more physically capable than others and therefore standout and perhaps get caught up eventually in that regard.

There was another comment about an unnamed player which might have been him...

Quote: There was one England player with a huge reputation. Everyone knows about this boy and most clubs want to sign him. Chelsea, the agent believes, are the front runners but he thinks other players will catch up with him physically – even if he did perform well against Italy, especially in the first game. This view means he won’t be trying to bring him into his stable.

Hopefully we can get him on a scholarship but there will be plenty of offers for him no doubt.

I would be very surprised if he signs with us.... But hope he does.

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kristian

kristian

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I must say I've found his social media posts pretty entertaining the past few months. He's been training with Venezuela u16s, playing for England u16s and also being in Portugal u16s training camps. A very busy lad, and in demand both internationally and domestically. He will always grab headlines with his frankly ridiculous goal-scoring record, but the longer we keep quiet about Harrison Miles who is younger, yet plays regularly at u18, the better.

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  • 3 months later...
Dusic

Dusic

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Scored 3 for Eng U16s today. Hard to get too bothered as sure all the big club academies will try to sign him on a scholarship but clearly one of the top talents in the country for his age, along with Harrison Miles who often captains that Eng age group, and was featured on the BBC prog about the academy.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Toussaint

Toussaint

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5 hours ago, trousers said:

He'd be our youngest ever player if he made his debut this season...

 

Screenshot_20240111-101020.png

Screenshot_20240111-100948.png

Crikey, 6/10 have gone on to have, or are having fantastic careers, Meghoma and SAA may well go on to have good careers.  Goes someway to prove that adage "if your good enough your old enough".

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Pwoite

Pwoite

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20 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Crikey, 6/10 have gone on to have, or are having fantastic careers, Meghoma and SAA may well go on to have good careers.  Goes someway to prove that adage "if your good enough your old enough".

Yes, but who was Allen Tankard? I don't remember that name, though Google suggests he carved out a career in the lower leagues. Guess he had Frannie occupying the berth he wanted.

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Toussaint

Toussaint

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40 minutes ago, Pwoite said:

Yes, but who was Allen Tankard? I don't remember that name, though Google suggests he carved out a career in the lower leagues. Guess he had Frannie occupying the berth he wanted.

I remember him, he wasn't a bad player. He wasn't included in the 6/10 https://www.saintsplayers.co.uk/player/allen-tankard/ I thought he played more games than he actually did!

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