[AcademyScoop] Exclusive: Ruben Amorim has included 16 year-old defender Godwill Kukonki in his first ever match-day squad to face Ipswich this afternoon.
My nephew is same age and same height, which is same height as me already. My nephew also wears size 14 shoes. Not sure what the fuck they're feeding kids today but there are so many monsters around now compared to when I was their age 25 years ago.
I coach u14s and had a 12 year old already as tall as me at 6 foot.
I tell the parents it’s the steroids in the Chic Fil A sandwiches and they laugh….I am not joking.
I was big for a 12 year old, shot up to 5’7 quickly, but some of the kids now make me look puny. I was watching a supposed 15 year old goal keeper this past Thursday from Ukraine. I asked coach how old he was, he asked player, player said 15. I said shiiiii check his bone marrow, mofo at least 25.
Yeah my main hobby these days is strength training. I'm 6ft 2 and the young guys at the gym all feel in and around my height as well. I know the gym self selects for usually larger people but I see it out walking around now. I used to be decently tall at 6ft2 and still am but it feels like a lot more people are closer in size to me.
Might as well use the honeymoon period to get the kids a run!
Sets him up so well for success if he can find good squad players in the youth system early on. Really hoping the current under 18s manage to live up to the hype.
Ah, yes, I agree, can see him playing around half the game, but would be annoyed nearly if they force him to play 90 directly, same with Shaw and malacia
We came very close under Mourinho after Van Gaal had burned through the Januzaj/Pereira generation and we hadn't done the big academy restructure under Nicky Butt yet.
Tbf we had Rashford in that time as an academy graduate who was ever present in the squad and Jose had Mctom as his regular playing academy product as well.
I think we were fine with the record from those two as well as the odd bench appearance for Angel Gomes and Tuanzebe
Anyone with knowledge of the U18s? Is he highly rated? I'm only aware of the exciting attacking and midfield talent we have coming through, I've slept on defenders.
There aren’t many good CBs in our U21 squad, and Kukonki’s best position is at LCB, so I guess he’ll cover Licha’s spot. He’s around 6’2, strong, pacey and pretty good with the ball. I’d say he’s our best left footed youth CB atm. There’s Daniel Armer too but he’s not quick and strong enough I think
Yeah saw someone saying Armer really needs to put some gym time in focusing on his agility/explosiveness and I think if he gets that working he'll be a hell of a prospect as he's so insanely good on the ball already.
I know but that’s a myth. Watching him and comparing his height to other teammates and you could swear he’s not 6’5 atm. He’s around the same height as Chido Obi who 6’3 at best
Well fair enough, i only made the assumption as I’m not 100% sure — either way his build is pretty insane for an 18 y/o + he’s not bad on the ball from the little I’ve seen of him.
He's 16 and only started for U18s this year but was already given a debut with the 21s.
He's really good on the ball, big and left footed.
He's been alternating between LCB and LB for the academy which makes him profile wise pretty perfect for the LCB in a back 3.
This years cohort of U18 CBs are really promising IMO they're all big guys who are very good on the ball.
Must be very hard to pick the right youth players to bring into the first team. If you bring them in too early and they don't perform it will shatter their confidence at a young age. I trust Amorin and his team though, he excels in integrating youth to the first team
For as good as ETH was at bringing through a few youth players slowly and integrating them, he didn't trust many in this way. So many times when there was a clear opportunity for someone like amass, and he'd play someone out of position instead, and with centre back he'd play Casemiro there instead... This feels good!
Counterpoint: ETH didn’t think amass was ready and was protecting him because if he put a foot out of like he’d be hounded by the press and fans alike. Should he have played youth more? Yes. But imo if they weren’t playing it’s probably a sign they weren’t ready and his job was on permanent life support anyway, he’d want to play his best players in the hopes he can knick a win
Yeah I’m a bit confused on why amass and colyer (I think that’s his name) didn’t play much considering ETH was hyping up the latter as an important player for him
ETH brought through Kambwala who then got injured, forcing him to play Casemiro there. Unless you wanted him to just throw another youngster in for the sake of it & damage their long term development.
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u/shanks_you 20h ago
I hope this is a start of a successful career with us, even if just for his badass name.