It'll be interesting to see how the recent explosion of young talent gets on. Could see Dan Neil, Chris Rigg and Matty Young all being in this conversation in 5 years. And there's a few more to keep an eye on. Exciting times
I think Dan Neil has the most potential out of the 3. Matty Young will be a great keeper.
I love Chris Rigg and he has the world at his feet but he needs to be playing regularly in his preferred position to really excel.
Rigg needs a good manager and a few older players who can mentor him to refine that raw talent for sure but I think he has potential higher than any we've seen at the academy previously. Not a knock at Dan either I think Dan could do a Henderson but Rigg is looking at having a Jude Bellingham like explosion if he plays his cards right.
Which is strange really as I remember growing up any one that was any good at school level played for Sunderland rather than us as they were better looked after
Yeah Maddison & Wilson the two main ones for us I think.
McSheffrey, Turner & Christie all went on to play Premier League too.
Bobby Gould if we're going that far back!
Le Tossier
He’s blocked me on Twitter. A couple of months back he tweeted something about how the government were lucky that the weather was good at the start of lockdown. The next day he tweeted complaining that he’d been misrepresented.
I replied (not expecting a response) saying that it was likely to be because he’s mentioned two things are supposedly connected, but he didn’t draw a conclusion. If he’s being misrepresented, he should tell us how he should be represented.
He replied, saying that he did draw a conclusion and that it’s that the government were lucky. I pointed out that isn’t a conclusion and that he’s not clarified anything because it’s not letting us know in what way they were lucky or what relevance it has to anything now.
He then accused me of being disingenuous and when I replied asking him to elaborate on that accusation, he blocked me.
I think he doesn’t like explaining himself.
I think he’s inferring that they were lucky the weather was nice because people didn’t protest at the lockdown too much. If it had been raining people would have possibly been a lot more anti-lockdown.
There’s a great clip from a few weeks ago where he appeared on a conspiracy podcast and the guy was talking about numerology and kruyff and Princess Diana still being alive and you could tell Le Tissier was thinking is this what my life has become?
I think the story includes the fact he had a trial at Newcastle but they tried to play him in goal... Can't remember how Southampton was the next choice though
It's still going, though its future is a little uncertain for various reasons - chief among them the fact that the EFL don't like it. Some of the best players in your current U12-16s came through Bath so the powers that be down at Staplewood should be fighting a little harder to keep it going.
Smith was such a weird player. I remember as a kid thinking he was good, or maybe just assuming he was because Alex Ferguson bought him. In retrospect his stats for a forward are dogshit.
Literally didn't score a goal for Newcastle in the 5 years he was there. Just 1 goal in the near-20 caps he somehow got for England.
Am I being gaslit by stats or was Alan Smith actually good?
If I'm remembering correctly he started up front at Leeds but because he was an aggressive wind up merchant Ferguson moved him in to more of a defensive midfield role. Don't think he played as a striker again although tbh I don't remember him even playing for Newcastle haha
even at leeds he played out wide a bit
and this is old "out wide", the right midfielder in a 4, not like "out wide" now where you're basically playing up front
In recent years, Jamie Vardy - Didn’t even play for us.
After that? Probably Kevin Pressman - we have a shockingly shit academy for a club of our size.
Which is crazy when you think how many players have come through ours and gone on to play at the top level, like Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, Jagielka, DCL, Ramsdale.
>we have a shockingly shit academy for a club of our size
I know way too many Wednesday fans have ended up working for the United scouting or have a kid playing for United that it's just a little bit uncomfortable for Wednesday fans when comparing the clubs.
Tbf the jokes on them atm - we’ve got Cadamarteri’s lads playing for us now.
Bailey is on the fringe of the first team at 18 and his younger brother who’s just turned 14 is getting called up for Englands under 15s.
Always had high hopes for him and Tommy spur. Genuinely thought they had potential to be decent prem defenders with even an outside chance of picking up a few cheeky England caps
Not that I’m remotely old enough to remember him, but Peter Lorimer scored for us aged 15 and still holds most of our goalscoring records.
In the modern era it’s still Milner, who is obviously class, but we’ve had a few who had the potential to surpass him and things just didn’t go their way for various reasons.
Would Eddie Gray be in contention because of the Gray dynasty in Leeds? Kalvin Phillips should also get a mention for the modern era, well, for trophies at least.
Without being sentimental, do you think Kalvin could realistically return to form if he was loaned or signed back to Leeds? He looked a shadow of himself in West Ham. I'm pretty sure it damaged his stock.
We absolutely should not have Phillips back at Leeds. He’ll never be as good as he was under Bielsa again, because he’ll never play football under Bielsa again. It would just tarnish his legacy at the club. He left, move on.
Sadly tend to agree. I just don’t even know what his level is now. He was starting every game at the Euros three years ago, looking natural alongside Declan Rice and deservedly being named England player of the year. Everything I’ve seen of him since he left Leeds is like a different player. No composure, no engine, just a lost little boy. Would love to imagine he could come back to Leeds and find his old self, but it’s a big risk to take. How many players have lost it like that and then got it back again?
I know he's been very well paid while he's been at City, and "won" some trophies, but I dare say it was still a huge mistake for what it's done to his playing career. As you say, where does he even go from here? He needs a manager who will try and do with him what Bielsa did, as a kind of deep lying playmaker/disruptive defensive mid, and give him plenty of time to get going. Trouble is, I doubt anyone in the Prem would take the punt, and I doubt many sides in the Championship would play the requisite style of football. Might be time for him to venture abroad for a couple of seasons.
You guys weren't wrong about him, I've seen a bit more of him after he moved to Palace and now he bloody starts for them.
Love his style of play. Casual playmaker.
Yep! Nicked out of our academy for peanuts when he was 16 or something. Next one is Harry Amass at United. They took him last year and he’s been on the bench for them this year
I went on a deep dive through our history to realise what I already knew, we never really produced outstanding players, Vardy is probably clear and away in that sense
Not the best in terms of ability but as far as longevity/loyalty Liam Palmer should be held in a high regard for us. I agree though it's a sad state of affairs for a club our size.
Jarrod Bowen just about scrapes it as an academy player for us as we signed him at 18 but he played through the levels.
If that doesn’t count you have to look at Jacob Greaves as he’s not yet the finished product and he’ll go to a top-half premier league team soon.
I suppose Dean Windass also counts but we released him at 17 and re-signed him at 21 so he didn’t actually “graduate” in the traditional sense
For modern players Tom Cairney got to be worth a shout, apparently released by Leeds at 16 because he was too short but played in the Premier League for both us and Fulham.
TC’s elite, he’s our captain and still starts a good % of games, his legs are going but absolutely a top passer. I think if he dropped to Champ level in the next few years (and you were still there) he’d be a great option.
I know Stuart Watkiss who was your Development/Reserve coach around 2010ish for 4/5 years. He said TC is the best kid he’s ever worked with for what it’s worth.
Completely forgot about Cairney. Bruce made a massive mistake letting him go.
When you look at some of the players we’ve had over the last 15years, it’s mad how unsuccessful we’ve been 😂
KLP might eventually reach the same levels too and he's a true academy product. Still not convinced that Brentford move happened at the right time for him.
Great player but academies didn't really exist in the 80s. As per Wikipedia:
"His footballing career started at non-league Billingham Town. At the age of 19 he joined his boyhood club, Middlesbrough"
Signed as a trainee from Ireland and he went into our youth set up. Not like we signed him from the likes of United and he was a first team regular instantly
Sorry 😢
When does the new season count then for the sub?
First game?
Last play off?
Us newbies need to know as last time we were in the championship Gangnam Style was number 1!
Sir Stan. Didn't come through our academy per-say (Academy's didn't exist back then) but we signed him when he was only 15, and made his senior debut for us
There’s been a few that spring to my mind but it should have been Phil Jones he was absolutely exceptional when he first broke through, touted as a future England captain. However it will go on to be Adam Wharton, even I’ve been surprised how quickly he’s adapted and how fantasticly he’s playing in the Premier League. A truly generational talent
In terms of best players, it's probably Stewart Downing.
What our academy does seem to be very good at doing is producing professional footballers (which sounds stupid, but I hope you know what I mean!)
There's ex Boro academy players playing all over from Prem to National League
Preston have a crap academy. So assuming we're not going as far back as Finney, it's probably like... Paul McKenna? Andy Lonergan? Ben Davies more recently? It's really slim pickings. We got Josh Brownhill at like 16 if that counts?
Will Hughes would be the one if he didn’t get an ACL at the wrong time. He could have achieved so much.
We had Jeff Hendrick who did a bit. Max Lowe and Jayden Bogle did alright. More recently, our academy has gotten pillaged with administration so some of these may do something over the coming years - Festy Ebosele, Liam Delap, Kaide Gordon, Dylan Williams and plenty more lesser/younger names ended up at the likes of Man Utd.
Agree with that as a statement, although remember we've had players like Dan Gosling or Mickey Evans play at a higher level to various degrees.
Having said that I wouldn't be surprised to see Cooper play at PL level one day. He really is a top keeper with few if any weaknesses. Hope injuries don't hold him back.
I didn't realize that Gosling was one of ours.
I had him at Bournemouth as part of my default squad, on some back editions of FIFA, back when Bournemouth were a newly promoted side with people like Steve Cook.
Kevin Beattie - described by Bobby Robson as the best England player had ever seen. If he wasn’t so injury prone it’s not an exaggeration to suggest Ipswich would have many more trophies.
Probably Darren Anderton but I don’t think we had an actual academy as such. We’ve missed out on a lot though. Oxlade, James ward prowse and mason mount to name a few.
Ooh Anderton, there's a classic. My brother had an Anderton England jersey (because it was the only one in his size in the shop in the Netherlands, but still!)
Recent memory and for just a few short years, Saido Berahino. Kid had it, the talent and skills to go far and showed it week in week out for Albion and then agent's got to him, convinced him he was bigger than the club, he was a star, and he lost it all.
Phil Jones in terms of raw potential, at least in my lifetime. He was immense in his breakout season with us. Was sure he would go onto bigger and better things. It's a real shame that injuries ruined him. More recently, of course, there is also Adam Wharton. He's really stepped up at Palace, and I'm happy for him. Almost makes me angry we didn't hang onto him for half a season, but by all accounts, we were desperate for cash. Will be interesting if Palace can hold onto him this summer.
Older players would have to be Damien Duff and David Dunn. Both were immense for us in the early 00s. Only Duff would go on to fulfil his potential, although Dunn was still an important player when he returned to us, and I'll always love him for his winning goal at Ewood against the Dingles. He does get meme'd on a bit, especially for his spectacular failed rabona at Birmingham - but if he didn't have the habit of a cheeky drink and looked after himself he could have had a much better career.
There are just so many candidates for us. Our academy was so strong at one point.
Bale, Lallana, JWP, etc. on a global fame and achievement basis, it’s probably Gareth Bale.
Kyle walker is the obvious one. Iliman Ndiaye produced the best moments I've seen from a United player and could go on to great things too. Phil Jagielka, Harry McGuire, Aaron Ramsdale and Dominic Calvert-Lewin aren't too shabby either. Oliver Arblaster is probably the next one...
Stuart Downing or Jonathan Woodgate, I'd say Jason Steele and Tavernier are solid in the Prem currently too. Not gonna name Adam Johnson for two reasons.
Probably Downing, but there are the likes of James Morrison or Chris Brunt, both of whom I'll always remember fondly. Honorable mention for my man Marcus Tavernier, who I still think has plenty of potential.
In terms of honours/trophies it has to be Jordan Henderson. We also produced Jordan Pickford too.
It'll be interesting to see how the recent explosion of young talent gets on. Could see Dan Neil, Chris Rigg and Matty Young all being in this conversation in 5 years. And there's a few more to keep an eye on. Exciting times
I think Dan Neil has the most potential out of the 3. Matty Young will be a great keeper. I love Chris Rigg and he has the world at his feet but he needs to be playing regularly in his preferred position to really excel.
Rigg needs a good manager and a few older players who can mentor him to refine that raw talent for sure but I think he has potential higher than any we've seen at the academy previously. Not a knock at Dan either I think Dan could do a Henderson but Rigg is looking at having a Jude Bellingham like explosion if he plays his cards right.
Big gulf in quality after that, with Micky Gray and Micky Bridges. Not quite England quality, though Bridges had potential.
Which is strange really as I remember growing up any one that was any good at school level played for Sunderland rather than us as they were better looked after
There was a time in the 00's when Boro were producing good players too.
Before his ankle injury he was brilliant. Definitely would have played for England if he stayed fit
James Maddison has to be it for us that I can remember, shame we didn't see more of him in sky blue.
Honorary mention to Callum Wilson, who most fans were robbed of seeing because we were playing in fucking Northampton
Yeah Maddison & Wilson the two main ones for us I think. McSheffrey, Turner & Christie all went on to play Premier League too. Bobby Gould if we're going that far back!
The streets will never forget McSheffrey. FM legend.
Also Daniel Sturridge would be up there, though he left us before making his senior debut
Chris Kirkland too. Went on to make an England appearance
Gareth Bale or Alan Shearer probably
Crazy that you have such a good academy you don’t even have to mention le tissier. Just two of the greatest British players ever.
The less that brain worm riddled bellend is mentioned the better. Absolute fucking weapon.
Matt Le Twat
Le Tossier He’s blocked me on Twitter. A couple of months back he tweeted something about how the government were lucky that the weather was good at the start of lockdown. The next day he tweeted complaining that he’d been misrepresented. I replied (not expecting a response) saying that it was likely to be because he’s mentioned two things are supposedly connected, but he didn’t draw a conclusion. If he’s being misrepresented, he should tell us how he should be represented. He replied, saying that he did draw a conclusion and that it’s that the government were lucky. I pointed out that isn’t a conclusion and that he’s not clarified anything because it’s not letting us know in what way they were lucky or what relevance it has to anything now. He then accused me of being disingenuous and when I replied asking him to elaborate on that accusation, he blocked me. I think he doesn’t like explaining himself.
Spoiler alert: none of them do
I think he’s inferring that they were lucky the weather was nice because people didn’t protest at the lockdown too much. If it had been raining people would have possibly been a lot more anti-lockdown. There’s a great clip from a few weeks ago where he appeared on a conspiracy podcast and the guy was talking about numerology and kruyff and Princess Diana still being alive and you could tell Le Tissier was thinking is this what my life has become?
Which one? Rishi or Le Twat?
It’s also a sign of great youth scouting that neither of them are from anywhere near Southampton!
Shearer has always been such a strange one, like how did he end up so far away??
I think the story includes the fact he had a trial at Newcastle but they tried to play him in goal... Can't remember how Southampton was the next choice though
Not sure about Shearer, but we used to have a youth campus in Wales iirc, which is how we got Bale
No, it was the Bath centre (which is still there) that enabled you to get Bale.
Huh, for some reason I seemed to remember that it had shut during Covid. Must have been mistaken
It's still going, though its future is a little uncertain for various reasons - chief among them the fact that the EFL don't like it. Some of the best players in your current U12-16s came through Bath so the powers that be down at Staplewood should be fighting a little harder to keep it going.
I had a scroll through the Wikipedia list of your graduates and Kevin Phillips stands out for me
They did insist he was a right back and then release him mind, not so much produced more a happy coincidence
In recent memory, James Milner probably
We should probably limit answers to post-war players only
Can’t be sure that Milner started his career after WW2 tbh
Alan Smith has to be up there as well if we're talking the last couple decades
Smith was such a weird player. I remember as a kid thinking he was good, or maybe just assuming he was because Alex Ferguson bought him. In retrospect his stats for a forward are dogshit. Literally didn't score a goal for Newcastle in the 5 years he was there. Just 1 goal in the near-20 caps he somehow got for England. Am I being gaslit by stats or was Alan Smith actually good?
If I'm remembering correctly he started up front at Leeds but because he was an aggressive wind up merchant Ferguson moved him in to more of a defensive midfield role. Don't think he played as a striker again although tbh I don't remember him even playing for Newcastle haha
even at leeds he played out wide a bit and this is old "out wide", the right midfielder in a 4, not like "out wide" now where you're basically playing up front
SAF moved him to CM.
In recent years, Jamie Vardy - Didn’t even play for us. After that? Probably Kevin Pressman - we have a shockingly shit academy for a club of our size.
Which is crazy when you think how many players have come through ours and gone on to play at the top level, like Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire, Jagielka, DCL, Ramsdale.
You've pumped a lot more money in to your facilities than we have, it's no surprise at all kids would choose you over us.
>we have a shockingly shit academy for a club of our size I know way too many Wednesday fans have ended up working for the United scouting or have a kid playing for United that it's just a little bit uncomfortable for Wednesday fans when comparing the clubs.
Tbf the jokes on them atm - we’ve got Cadamarteri’s lads playing for us now. Bailey is on the fringe of the first team at 18 and his younger brother who’s just turned 14 is getting called up for Englands under 15s.
It's the Quinn brothers all over again.
Yeah cheers for Vardy
Mark Beevers
Always had high hopes for him and Tommy spur. Genuinely thought they had potential to be decent prem defenders with even an outside chance of picking up a few cheeky England caps
Its Bellingham vs Francis isn't it?
Bellingham*s*
yep
Not that I’m remotely old enough to remember him, but Peter Lorimer scored for us aged 15 and still holds most of our goalscoring records. In the modern era it’s still Milner, who is obviously class, but we’ve had a few who had the potential to surpass him and things just didn’t go their way for various reasons.
Would Eddie Gray be in contention because of the Gray dynasty in Leeds? Kalvin Phillips should also get a mention for the modern era, well, for trophies at least.
Poor Kalvin 😢
Without being sentimental, do you think Kalvin could realistically return to form if he was loaned or signed back to Leeds? He looked a shadow of himself in West Ham. I'm pretty sure it damaged his stock.
We absolutely should not have Phillips back at Leeds. He’ll never be as good as he was under Bielsa again, because he’ll never play football under Bielsa again. It would just tarnish his legacy at the club. He left, move on.
Sadly tend to agree. I just don’t even know what his level is now. He was starting every game at the Euros three years ago, looking natural alongside Declan Rice and deservedly being named England player of the year. Everything I’ve seen of him since he left Leeds is like a different player. No composure, no engine, just a lost little boy. Would love to imagine he could come back to Leeds and find his old self, but it’s a big risk to take. How many players have lost it like that and then got it back again?
I know he's been very well paid while he's been at City, and "won" some trophies, but I dare say it was still a huge mistake for what it's done to his playing career. As you say, where does he even go from here? He needs a manager who will try and do with him what Bielsa did, as a kind of deep lying playmaker/disruptive defensive mid, and give him plenty of time to get going. Trouble is, I doubt anyone in the Prem would take the punt, and I doubt many sides in the Championship would play the requisite style of football. Might be time for him to venture abroad for a couple of seasons.
David seaman gets a shout aswell I reckon
Famously loves a shout, big Dave.
Kyle Walker, honourable mention to Harry Maguire
And Phil Jagielka, although he only moved to us when he was 15 so might not count.
Championship all time top goal scorer also needs a mention even though he didn't do it in the prem.
Bryan Robson would be my vote
Would have to agree
Peter Shilton, Gary Lineker, and Andy King are probably our best. If based on transfer profit alone, Ben Chilwell lol.
You leaving Emile out of that on purpose?
Not intentionally! Forgot he was an academy player 🤦🏻♂️
Anyway shush they'll realise we're still here
Garn....git!! Back to /Other14 now, y'hear!
Aaron Ramsey
He’s still only 20 years old but I think Adam Wharton has a massive future and can achieve big things. Unbelievable player.
In the meantime it’s probably Damien Duff Phil Jones, David Dunn, David Raya, James Beattie, Jason Wilcox honourable mentions
Wilcox is the technical director for Man United now!
Agree with this. I think it’s a shame he likely can’t go to the Euros but I think he will be in the first time at the next World Cup.
Future international for sure. His weight of passing is so perfect.
You guys weren't wrong about him, I've seen a bit more of him after he moved to Palace and now he bloody starts for them. Love his style of play. Casual playmaker.
Ashley Young, David James or Jadon Sancho
TIL Sancho came from Watford
Yep! Nicked out of our academy for peanuts when he was 16 or something. Next one is Harry Amass at United. They took him last year and he’s been on the bench for them this year
Will Hughes and Tom Huddlestone.
pretty obvious
Trevor Francis. You don’t belong on this sub anymore though
until we have a new league position (1st) i’m not going 🥰
Hate to break it to you, but Barnsley have stolen that
let me be delusional
shhh we aren’t welcome here
Alex Scott for sure he'll go on to big things, albeit he technically came from Guernsey FC but he developed here.
Bobby reid
Lloyd Kelly worth a shout?
Or Semenyo. Dude played at the World Cup
I went on a deep dive through our history to realise what I already knew, we never really produced outstanding players, Vardy is probably clear and away in that sense
Not the best in terms of ability but as far as longevity/loyalty Liam Palmer should be held in a high regard for us. I agree though it's a sad state of affairs for a club our size.
Liam palmer will go down as one of those players we hold as an icon of a time in our history but no other fan will even know existed
Jarrod Bowen just about scrapes it as an academy player for us as we signed him at 18 but he played through the levels. If that doesn’t count you have to look at Jacob Greaves as he’s not yet the finished product and he’ll go to a top-half premier league team soon. I suppose Dean Windass also counts but we released him at 17 and re-signed him at 21 so he didn’t actually “graduate” in the traditional sense
For modern players Tom Cairney got to be worth a shout, apparently released by Leeds at 16 because he was too short but played in the Premier League for both us and Fulham.
TC’s elite, he’s our captain and still starts a good % of games, his legs are going but absolutely a top passer. I think if he dropped to Champ level in the next few years (and you were still there) he’d be a great option.
I know Stuart Watkiss who was your Development/Reserve coach around 2010ish for 4/5 years. He said TC is the best kid he’s ever worked with for what it’s worth.
Completely forgot about Cairney. Bruce made a massive mistake letting him go. When you look at some of the players we’ve had over the last 15years, it’s mad how unsuccessful we’ve been 😂
KLP might eventually reach the same levels too and he's a true academy product. Still not convinced that Brentford move happened at the right time for him.
Jarrod Bowen played senior football for Hereford so not really your academy product.
Lee Dixon for us.
Stewart Downing or A*** ******n
We just produced absolutely loads of decent players, people like James Morrison and David Wheater just all over the 92
Must admit,David Wheater was a really good centre back when he was with us. Such a shame he left because of K** A******n
Robbed of an England cap cos they changed the subs rules for friendlies whilst he was in Trinidad lmao, insanely bad luck.
Such a sad end to his career. Messed around by us then again at Oldham. Him and Beevers were heading machines in our league 1 promotion year.
Don't leave out Jonathan Woodgate, the man went to Real Madrid at one point.
Surely Pallister, how many league titles did he go on to win?
Great player but academies didn't really exist in the 80s. As per Wikipedia: "His footballing career started at non-league Billingham Town. At the age of 19 he joined his boyhood club, Middlesbrough"
Phil Stamp Honestly though, Mogga.
Maurice Norman, England captain for the 62 world cup playing at CB with Bobby Moore and captained Spurs to the cup and league double.
Joe Gomez probably given what he's achieved with Liverpool Although Scott Parker went on to Captain England for a few games
Gerry Francis or Raheem Sterling.
Also for consideration: Alan McDonald, Peter Crouch (1 year — still counts in my book), and Clive Allen
Crouch is a bit of a stretch (see what I did there?)
Damien Duff in my eyes! He was unreal
Phil jones, Wilcox, David Raya
Great player. I think Adam Wharton could surpass him but obviously that is to be seen.
Duff was signed at 17, I wouldn't call that an academy product really
Signed as a trainee from Ireland and he went into our youth set up. Not like we signed him from the likes of United and he was a first team regular instantly
Conor chaplin
Get off this sub until the next season starts you cheeky bugger
Sorry 😢 When does the new season count then for the sub? First game? Last play off? Us newbies need to know as last time we were in the championship Gangnam Style was number 1!
Denis Law
Without a doubt. To top it off, he played under Bill Shankly when he was at Town. We seem to have a habit of birthing other clubs’ legends!
Imagine if the board backed Shankly and he never went to Liverpool… where would we be now
Sir Stan. Didn't come through our academy per-say (Academy's didn't exist back then) but we signed him when he was only 15, and made his senior debut for us
There’s been a few that spring to my mind but it should have been Phil Jones he was absolutely exceptional when he first broke through, touted as a future England captain. However it will go on to be Adam Wharton, even I’ve been surprised how quickly he’s adapted and how fantasticly he’s playing in the Premier League. A truly generational talent
In terms of best players, it's probably Stewart Downing. What our academy does seem to be very good at doing is producing professional footballers (which sounds stupid, but I hope you know what I mean!) There's ex Boro academy players playing all over from Prem to National League
Yeah, we produce a lot of decent, if unspectacular players. I'm glad to see the likes of Steele and Tavernier doing well in the Prem though
Joe Allen, Ben Davies, Dan James.
Preston have a crap academy. So assuming we're not going as far back as Finney, it's probably like... Paul McKenna? Andy Lonergan? Ben Davies more recently? It's really slim pickings. We got Josh Brownhill at like 16 if that counts?
Kevin Kilbane's another one
Good shout, forgot about him.
Nile Ranger probably
Will Hughes would be the one if he didn’t get an ACL at the wrong time. He could have achieved so much. We had Jeff Hendrick who did a bit. Max Lowe and Jayden Bogle did alright. More recently, our academy has gotten pillaged with administration so some of these may do something over the coming years - Festy Ebosele, Liam Delap, Kaide Gordon, Dylan Williams and plenty more lesser/younger names ended up at the likes of Man Utd.
Probably Michael Cooper or Adam Randell for me both phenomenal in their position and fight for the shirt everytime
Agree with that as a statement, although remember we've had players like Dan Gosling or Mickey Evans play at a higher level to various degrees. Having said that I wouldn't be surprised to see Cooper play at PL level one day. He really is a top keeper with few if any weaknesses. Hope injuries don't hold him back.
I didn't realize that Gosling was one of ours. I had him at Bournemouth as part of my default squad, on some back editions of FIFA, back when Bournemouth were a newly promoted side with people like Steve Cook.
He was at Everton before Bournemouth lol
John stones
Olise. Don't like him as a person but as a player he was magnificent
Same goes for Sigurdsson, for different reasons.
Wasn’t Sigurdsson exonerated? Met a girl in a club who lied about her age if I’m remembering correctly.
Isn’t a nonce at least but still cheated on his wife and kids
Fair enough. Probably applies to a lot of footballers, but still not good.
What am I missing with Olise?
Readings academy was stupidly good.
Kevin Beattie - described by Bobby Robson as the best England player had ever seen. If he wasn’t so injury prone it’s not an exaggeration to suggest Ipswich would have many more trophies.
Aaron Ramsey. Some notable championship/prem names would be Chris Gunter, Joe Ledley, Robbie Earnshaw, James Collins, and Joe Ralls
Chris Sutton
Craig Bellamy? In terms of recents I think Jacob Murphy is the one playing at the highest level with being a regular in a Newcastle first team
John Hartson or (more recently) James Justin
Ashley Young
Probably Darren Anderton but I don’t think we had an actual academy as such. We’ve missed out on a lot though. Oxlade, James ward prowse and mason mount to name a few.
Ooh Anderton, there's a classic. My brother had an Anderton England jersey (because it was the only one in his size in the shop in the Netherlands, but still!)
What about Gentleman Jim?
Legend but doubt anyone but us will get it, I mean Conor Chaplin has more upvotes than Darren Anderton so imagine how little jimmy would get
Maddison or Cal Wilson.. Chris Kirkland also was a decent keeper
Bryan Robson
gareth barry or lewis dunk
As much as I love Dunk, Barry holds the PL appearance record for a reason.
Recent memory and for just a few short years, Saido Berahino. Kid had it, the talent and skills to go far and showed it week in week out for Albion and then agent's got to him, convinced him he was bigger than the club, he was a star, and he lost it all.
Ben wiles or Jerry Yates 😭
Michael Dennis Mills MBE
Phil Jones in terms of raw potential, at least in my lifetime. He was immense in his breakout season with us. Was sure he would go onto bigger and better things. It's a real shame that injuries ruined him. More recently, of course, there is also Adam Wharton. He's really stepped up at Palace, and I'm happy for him. Almost makes me angry we didn't hang onto him for half a season, but by all accounts, we were desperate for cash. Will be interesting if Palace can hold onto him this summer. Older players would have to be Damien Duff and David Dunn. Both were immense for us in the early 00s. Only Duff would go on to fulfil his potential, although Dunn was still an important player when he returned to us, and I'll always love him for his winning goal at Ewood against the Dingles. He does get meme'd on a bit, especially for his spectacular failed rabona at Birmingham - but if he didn't have the habit of a cheeky drink and looked after himself he could have had a much better career.
Bellingham (Jobe)
Kyle walker? Billy sharp?
David Dunn, king of the rabona
There are just so many candidates for us. Our academy was so strong at one point. Bale, Lallana, JWP, etc. on a global fame and achievement basis, it’s probably Gareth Bale.
Tough one honestly, very few choices so most certainly Eberechi Eze if you can count him
Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, and others, but Bale was a stellar talent.
A lot of people would say Bale but I would personally go Shearer
Titus Bramble.
Darren Bent?
Probably Keiron Dyer?
Idk who yours definitely is but Terry Butcher is miles ahead of Dyer. He captained England if you don't know.
It's one of beattie, butcher or wark
A mention also for George Burley, Russell Osman, Eric Gates, Alan Brazil and Brian Talbot.
Jason Dozzell has gotta be a shout
Lee Dixon
Probs Gary Lineker from what I know. Harvey Barnes in recent times probably.
Peter Beardsley, gazza, Chris waddle, Shola Ameobi
Big Kevin Pressman. Over 400 games and reliable when he felt like it...
Deano. Nicky Barmby was Lilleshall then Spurs.
Kyle walker is the obvious one. Iliman Ndiaye produced the best moments I've seen from a United player and could go on to great things too. Phil Jagielka, Harry McGuire, Aaron Ramsdale and Dominic Calvert-Lewin aren't too shabby either. Oliver Arblaster is probably the next one...
Stuart Downing or Jonathan Woodgate, I'd say Jason Steele and Tavernier are solid in the Prem currently too. Not gonna name Adam Johnson for two reasons.
James Milner . No question in my mind. Phenomenal career
Probably Downing, but there are the likes of James Morrison or Chris Brunt, both of whom I'll always remember fondly. Honorable mention for my man Marcus Tavernier, who I still think has plenty of potential.
Aaron Ramsey
Brian Robson
Gary Lineker
Aaron Ramsey
In my time, got to be Jamie Vardy. Unfortunately he was apparently released for being too small.
Jimmy Johnstone or Kenny Dalglish.
Lee Dixon was the most successful. Dwight McNeil might end up the best.
Souttar or cam bell
Not many to choose from, Mark Wright's the biggest name I can think of.