Jump to content

Best Youth Product?


Recommended Posts

21 hours ago, lookersstandandy said:

 

That whole era frustrates me even now.... it took me a good 5 years to reset my expectations after being spoilt rotten for much of the decade that preceded it.

 

I still haven't and don't intend to :grin:
 

 

Edited by HarryBosch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, whittles left foot said:

What about Wayne Harrison-always looked a different class? Another who springs to mind is Graham Bell-went to Preston for £80,000 which was a good fee in those days and one of my favourites Darren McDonough.

 

Before my time but, from what I've read and heard, he must have been amongst the most talented we've ever produced.

 

How do you define "Best youth product" though?.

 

There've been those who were destined for, and went onto, bigger and better things (sometimes quickly) and those who stayed longer term and served us well. Chris Taylor in recent years, Milligan and Henry early on in my time as a regular. 

 

It'll be interesting to see if Wellens fulfils his ambition of bringing kids through our youth system and developing cast offs from elsewhere like Tarky...

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, HarryBosch said:

Before my time but, from what I've read and heard, he must have been amongst the most talented we've ever produced.

Used to watch the reserves regularly in those days and he was a mere whip of a boy but he 'had' that something about him. Impossible to define it and he scored goals.

On the flip side of this there was a player called Bob Colville-banged goals in for fun in the reserves but was hopeless in the first team. Joe Royle once said he was his most enquired about player at the time.

Happy Days.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/30/2017 at 9:46 PM, lookersstandandy said:

 

Tarky wasn’t ours from the start.... we only picked him up after B@stard Rovers let him go....

I'm pretty certain that we had Tarky as a 11-12 year old, then Blackburn snapped him up. We then signed him again once he was released...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

Richard Graham was doing ok until injury struck, same with Nick Sinclair, a classy full back.

 

He was a good player Richard Graham and I’m pretty sure he’d have played at a higher level had it not been for his constant injuries.

 

Although I don’t recall him playing for them I’m sure he was on the fringe of the England U21 setup a few times too.

Edited by johnafoafc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dave_Og said:

Didn't really join as a kid though  -aged 16/17

 

Goram didn't play for our youth team as I remember.

Think John Platt did, who was a very good and brave keeper.

Chris Ogden was another good goalkeeper youth product, probably the best on one to ones I've ever seen.

Midfielder Mark Lester oozed class, but just lacked pace.

Keith Hicks was a very solid centre back and centre forward Jim Steel, although not a prolific  goalscorer, was very powerful and strong in the air.

Not sure if John Dungworth was from the youths, but he was IMO an underrated midfielder. 

As for forwards we had Ian Robins, Mike Cecere and Matthew Tipton.

Still baffles me to this day why Andy Sweeney never made the grade, the most exciting  Latics youth prospect in my memory and reckoned by many to be the next George Best.

 

Edited by BP1960
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Andy Barlow

 

At first I thought he was just a squad level player at best, a local lad so cheap and lucky to get so many games in his first few years. With other players like Dennis Irwin around it took me quite a while to even warm to him. It dawned on me so very slowly that he was actually quite good and deserved to be playing premier league alongside the likes of Gunnar Halle! Sad when he left but at over 260 games for us has there arguably been a better youth product that has served our club so well, for so long, at so high a standard?

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, Stagger Lee said:

Andy Barlow

 

At first I thought he was just a squad level player at best, a local lad so cheap and lucky to get so many games in his first few years. With other players like Dennis Irwin around it took me quite a while to even warm to him. It dawned on me so very slowly that he was actually quite good and deserved to be playing premier league alongside the likes of Gunnar Halle! Sad when he left but at over 260 games for us has there arguably been a better youth product that has served our club so well, for so long, at so high a standard?

 

 

 

I saw Ricky Holden say that Barlow was the best player this town had ever produced. He didn't half talk a lot of shite either side of that though 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, leeslover said:

I saw Ricky Holden say that Barlow was the best player this town had ever produced. He didn't half talk a lot of shite either side of that though 

 

David Platt was an England captain though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...