| Young Guns Blog by John Jones | page updated: Fri, 30 Apr 21 : 07:30 : refresh for updates [ scroll down to post your comments ]
To read all last season blog posts scroll through posts on the young guns page
Luis Bates and Connor Graham (Newport County) born 2002, Defenders, Louis Cirotto (Newport County) born 2003, Goalkeeper. All three of these young men are second year scholars with Newport and have played in some games for the club’s U-18 team during the last two seasons. Louis Bates was previously a member of the Swansea academy as a schoolboy before his move to Newport prior to the start of last season.
James Crole (Cardiff City) born 2003, Forward. - corrected (2004) James is in his first season as a scholar with Cardiff after previously being a schoolboy associate with the club. He made a half dozen appearances off the bench as well as one start for the U-18 team last season and managed to score a couple of goals. This season he continued his goalscoring prowess and is by some margin the leading scorer for the team, his tally so far well into double figures. Certainly an eye catching statistic and his quest will be to maintain that good rate when he gets challenged in higher levels of football.
++Aidan Dowling (Blackburn Rovers) born 2002, Goalkeeper. Aidan is a second year scholar with Blackburn and after playing a few times for the U-18 team last season has appeared in around half of the team’s games this season. He seems to have established himself as the regular choice for the team during the last couple of months and so must be performing capably in the opinion of the coaching staff. Aidan is a player that Neil added to his list of young Welsh players part way through the season and I have a notation in the same fashion as he does that eligibility requires verification. I am sure that there is every confidence that he is, it must however be carried out in an official manner in order to satisfy the rule requirements.
Jamie Egan (Bristol Rovers) born 2003, Defender. Jamie was selected as a squad member for a Wales U-16 team in the latter part of the 2018/19 season. At that time, he was a player affiliated with the Irish team Cabinteely. He joined Bristol Rovers at the start of this season and is a first year scholar with them. He has recently made appearances for their U-18 team.
Harvey Miles (Newport County) born 2003, Defeder, Kian Pritchard (Newport County) born 2003, Midfielder. Both Harvey and Kian are first year scholars at Newport and are members of the U-18 squad at the club. Harvey represented Wales at U-17 level last season and was selected in the squad for the European qualifiers but unfortunately had to withdraw. Kian has been involved with Wales squads as a schoolboy and took part in the 2017 Cymru Cup matches.
Ethan O’Toole (Shrewsbury Town) born 2002, Midfielder. I am not sure if I am correct in assigning 2002 as Ethan’s birth year, I have not been able to find any information to verify the assumption I have made. Ethan has been playing regularly for the Shrewsbury U-18 team this season and I think he did so during the last one as well. It seems that he is a second year scholar with the club.
Dylan Perkins (Swansea City) born 2003, Midfielder. Dylan is another player who was involved in the 2017 Cymru Cup matches when he was a young schoolboy. He is one of the group new scholars who started their time in that capacity at the start of this season. As mentioned in previous weeks, information about the composition of the Swansea U-18 team for this season has only been partial and so the best I can say is in the lists I am aware of Dylan has not had a lot of match time in the team.
Omar Taylor-Clarke (Bristol City) born 2003, Forward. In his first season as a scholar with City, Omar seems to have become a regular member of the U-18 team. It is another situation where very few matchday line-ups are available but judging from the information that he has been involved in all three of their FA Youth Cup ties then I am assuming he has done so in many of their league games. Omar was a member of last season’s Wales U-17 squad that did well in the UEFA competition for their age group.
Ryan Viggars (Sheffield United) born 2003, Forward. It has already been announced that Ryan’s association with United will not be extended beyond the end of this season and as a result he did spend a couple of weeks at Burnley playing a couple of games for their U-23 team. Although he apparently did reasonably well, the trial did not convince the Burnley staff to offer him a contract and so he will now be hoping to get situated with a club over the summer months. Ryan was recently in the group of players selected for the Wales U-18 team and the subsequent friendly match. This continued an association with Wales teams from his time as a schoolboy and then at U-17 level.
++ to be confirmed if eligible for Wales
page posted: Fri, 30 Apr 21 : 07:30 : refresh for updates [ scroll down to post your comments ]
[ photo embedded from FAW cymru ] |
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