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Tom James is playing right back for Yeovil tonight.
Lee Johnson looks like Dan Walker’s little boy
To be fair the Cardiff lad looks half decent , Rashford is so quick.
Sanchez does not stop running
‘Er indoors watched the first-half tonight. During the build-up Lineker said something like ‘Mourinho’s bought himself a present....Alexis”. She quipped in response ‘Oh, that’s nice’. Surprised she knew much about their new signing I asked what she meant and she replied ‘Their manager has bought himself a nice new Lexus.’
Something similar happened with me back in the day. We were watching a game at Ninian Park and it was live on TV. Probably the Welsh Cup. My old man said "That's Eddie Niedzwicki in the studio" - I disagreed but called my mam and asked her. She said she missed it.
We got home and thought nothing more about it for a few days until my mother piped up a few days later "Oh, I meant to say - it was nice of them to give Eddie May a bottle of whisky". "What are you on about mam?" - after a bit of a confused chat, she said "Well, when you phoned, you asked me if I saw Eddie May's Whisky".
.
Nice little preview of Sunday's game at half-time. Looking back at our cup win. Blakey likes to big up the NP atmosphere too.
Tom James blundered in the first few minutes of a Youth Cup tie against Chelsea in 13/14 and we conceded the first goal on the way to a 2-0 defeat, but the watching Ole was very impressed with the way he reacted to his mistake and singled him out for praise afterwards. That mistake turned out to be a launching pad for James for a journey which took him into the first team within a few months, so perhaps his error last night when Yeovil looked to be getting to half time with the score 0-0 may turn out in his favour. As was remarked by the commentator and all of the pundits on the BBC's broadcast, James was doing so well until then (I thought he was Yeovil's best player up until then and was looking far more accomplished than a Fourth division performer) and I believe he is good enough to be that relatively rare thing, a player who sinks into the lowest level of the Football League from a higher division who gets himself a move back upwards again, but he needs to realise there are times when you just have to whack the ball clear - I like composure in defenders, but there is a time and place for it.
The other week, the Mrs was listening to Owen Money (I know), and he was talking to someone on the phone and she was telling him she was listening to him on her new ALEXIS gadget.
He proceeded to say he'd not heard of it and then said "SO IF I SAY ALEXIS, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN" ???
Everyone listening on ALEXIS had their radio cut off
I was mentioning that Youth Cup game to my eldest last night, it's a good attribute to be able to put mistakes behind you and it's one that Tom hasn't lost by the look of last night. Here of some highlights of that game, a couple of familiar names in the Chelsea side. Ola Aina played against us recently for Hull.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB_eaiVCVEs
It's a good point you make about the error itself. I remember mentioning on here last season that Semi Ajayi had got caught three times, here and at Rotherham, running back towards goal and getting his pocket picked by the onrushing striker leading to a goal. I came to the same conclusion as you about having to whack it clear sometimes. It seems Ajayi made the careless mistake of not paying attention to Loan Watch because he did the same thing again earlier this season which led to a Jack Marriott winner (and a spell on the sidelines for Semi). Hopefully Tom James is smart enough to listen to you.
Joe Jacobson is another local lad who dropped down for a steady career.
Just sums up we've had players in the Academy that have been touted yet unable to get themselves to the level we need, so have to fall back down the league structure to find their natural level.
It's an improvement we've players in the league structure tbh, most end up non-league or in the welsh league.
Tom James has (finally) established himself in the Yeovil team, Deji Oshilaja is playing for AFC Wimbledon, Josh Yorwerth for Crawley and Declan John for Rangers but not too many who've been released in recent years are playing regularly.
David Tutonda is in and out of the starting eleven at Barnet, Tommy O'Sullivan was on the bench for Torquay today on loan from Colchester (Jazzi Barnum-Bobb recently had a loan spell there from Newport), Theo Wharton can't break into the York side and was recently sent back from a loan spell at Tamworth, Ben Nugent has fallen out of favour at Gillingham.
Rollin Menayese came on for Bristol Rovers today and Regan Poole is playing for Northampton on loan from Man Utd. Gethyn Hill scored for Weston-Super-Mare today, Luke Coulson played for Ebbsfleet and Jamie Bird scored for Hereford (against a team managed by Mike Ford). Macauley Southam and Joe Massaro are at Barry. Eli Phipps is on loan at Welling from Colchester. Ashley Baker seems to be making progress at Sheffield Wednesday, he's been on the bench for them recently and Luke O'Reilly is with Spurs.
Plenty more that I've forgotten about or am not aware of. It's early days, time will tell if we held on to some of them for too long or if we released others too soon. Obviously we could do with bringing some more youngsters through here, easier said than done though.
My sources (who are usually completely wrong in these matters) tell me Rabbi Matondo will be leading the Man City attack this afternoon. Aaron Wildig has been playing league football all through this decade (albeit for lowly League Two sides much of the time) and with a full international cap, captaining Bristol Rovers and playing 200 times for them at the age of twenty three, Tom Lockyer is putting together a CV which will have him featuring on the radar of Championship clubs.
It's too easy and a bit simplistic to put the lack of youngsters breaking into our first team squad down solely to the fact they aren't good enough. In my opinion, it's far, far harder for a teenager to break into their club's first team at this level these days, because the default action of managers when they are on the lookout to plug a hole in their first team squad is to spend money, often millions of pounds, on a ready made replacement rather than look at what they have already got.
For example, our manager seems to be interested in bringing in a striker who according to reports I've read, will cost us £4 million - this is despite accusations I've seen about him in the past accusing him of having a dodgy attitude and a questionable work rate. Meanwhile, there is a player already at Cardiff who is on course to score twenty times plus this season - Sion Spence must have scored fifteen times now for our Academy team this season and I maintain that at various times during my time supporting the club when we have been in the second tier that would have earned him a first team chance.
Spence scored again yesterday as the Under 18s won 2-1 at Bristol City (Connor Davies got the other one) to record their fourth consecutive victory since they started playing again following the Christmas break and a couple of goals by Knott helped the Under 16s to a win over the same opposition by the same score after they had trailed at half time.
Finally, good to see Ashley Baker being involved with the first team at Sheffield Wednesday - I was surprised when we let him go.