| Young Guns Blog by John Jones | page updated: Fri, 14 Jan 22 : 07:35 refresh for updates
To read all last season blog posts scroll through posts on the young guns page
Josh Edwards (Swansea City) born 2003, Midfielder. After making his first appearance for the Swansea U-18 team when coming off the bench in the 2017/18 season, Josh played a further seven times during the following season as he came to the end of his time as a schoolboy associate at the club. Signing up to begin his time as a scholar prior to the start of last season, it was surprising that he only played twice for the team. Although I cannot find information to verify it, my suspicion is that injury issues made him unavailable for selection. This season, Josh has played in all but two of their games and once again is seemingly a valued member of the squad. He will be hoping to continue playing regularly and do well enough to earn an opportunity to play in some games for the U-23 team as well. He has previously played for the U-23 team, making three appearances off the bench two seasons ago as well as a solitary one last season. Over the years, Josh has collected quite a few Wales caps, doing so as an U-15 schoolboy and then as a member of the Victory Shield squad in 2017/18. He was also selected for the U-17 team in 2019/20 and was in the squad that successfully qualified for the eventually cancelled elite round of that season’s European Championships for that age group.
Ryan Hillier (Newport County) born 2003, Forward. Ryan completed his time as a scholar with Newport at the end of last season, doing well enough during that time to be offered a contract to remain at the club. He is therefore a first year professional this season and has been mainly playing for their development team. In his time as a scholar, he played regularly for the U-18 team and captained the side last season. He also made his first team debut when playing for the club’s Papa John’s Trophy team in the 2019/20 season and has by this time accumulated a total of seven appearances in that competition. He has not made any appearances in other competitions but was included on the bench for the Carabao Cup first round match this season. Newport have been continually upgrading their development programme in recent seasons as they wisely try to supplement their first team squad with good young players. Ryan will be aiming to become a regular member of future first team matchday squads.
Luke Mariette (Blackpool) born 2003, Midfielder. As a schoolboy, Luke was associated with the Wigan Athletic academy teams but moved to Blackpool at the start of last season to become a scholar at the club. He quickly made a good impression playing for the youth team at his new club and was given an exposure to first team football when included on the bench for a Papa John’s Trophy match in late 2020. He then made the bench for the first team for an FA Cup game and a few days later a league game in January last year. He has again been on the bench recently, in a league game just before the end of the year and then for the FA Cup tie last week, with a mention of it being deserved as a result of his strong performances in development football. I am sure Luke will want to continue being considered on more occasions and will be pushing hard hoping that management will find an opportunity to give him his first team debut before the end of the season. Luke was involved with Wales teams as a schoolboy, playing in the 2017 Cymru Cup games and attending training camps. Last season he received his first national cap when playing in the spring friendly game for the U-18 team.
Joshua Rippon (Cardiff City) born 2003, Defender. Joshua first played for the Cardiff U-18 team in the 2019/20 season and accumulated one short of double digit appearances in what was his last season as a schoolboy affiliate of the club’s academy. Last season, he began his time as a scholar with Cardiff and continued playing for the U-18’s, doing so in about two thirds of their games. This season, he has played in all sixteen games played so far by the team and has also been captaining the side. He has certainly demonstrated that he is a very capable player at U-18 level and his aim now will be to convince the coaching staff that he can also do so with the U-23’s. It is most likely that he will get some assignments with the older development team during the second half of the season as the management team ponder decisions about which second year scholars they will offer contracts to remain at the club beyond the end of this season.
Connor Salisbury (Crewe Alexandra) born 2003, Forward. Connor has been associated with Crewe teams for quite a few years and after playing for their academy sides moved on to become a scholar at the club at the beginning of last season. He has not only played regularly for the U-18 team but has also played for the U-23 side during both seasons. An indication of how he has been progressing was provided last week when he was included on the bench for a Papa John’s Trophy match and was given his first team debut when introduced into the game as a late substitute. He will now be aiming to convince the management team that he is worthy of being considered for further first team duty in the future and secure a contract that will keep him at the club beyond the end of this season. As a schoolboy, Connor participated in the 2017 Cymru Cup games and also played for the U-16 team in a friendly match, as the national coaching staff prepared the group for the transition into U-17 football the following season. Last season, Connor played for the U-18 team in a friendly match. This week, Connor was selected to be on the bench for the Crewe first team that played a league match.
page posted Fri, 14 Jan 22 : 07:35 : refresh for updates
[ photo embedded from FAW cymru ] |
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