Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Hookeysmith on June 05, 2026, 11:48:16 AM
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Not the biggest follower of U23 and youth teams but are there any bright lights that could break through this year we should be monitoring?
Kaden Young and Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba already having successfully made 1st team squad as has Hemmings.
Heard great things about Broggio, Wilson, Barry, Patterson
Any of these have a chance to break into match day squad regularly?
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Without wishing to piss on anyone’s chips, I highly doubt it. We’re a top 4 club competing in the Champions League, any youngster looking to breakthrough into being part of the squad will need to be very special indeed. I think some of those mentioned will in time prove to be very good footballers and who knows with a following wind and good loans, coaching and opportunities may become squad players but at the moment who would any of them displace in the squad let alone the team?
Modern Football eh.
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Odds are very high that none of them will make it with us. Which isn't helped by spending fortunes on players like Guessand and Sancho.
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Maybe not this season but Hemmings will continue to develop and get chances.
Kone will probably go on loan but if it's only half a season it might suggest we want to take a look and I think Cisse who's joing at the end of the month might be involved before too long.
We also have, in my opinion, Burrowes, Meade and Mosquera who would all fit into our way of playing.
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Without wishing to piss on anyone’s chips, I highly doubt it. We’re a top 4 club competing in the Champions League, any youngster looking to breakthrough into being part of the squad will need to be very special indeed. I think some of those mentioned will in time prove to be very good footballers and who knows with a following wind and good loans, coaching and opportunities may become squad players but at the moment who would any of them displace in the squad let alone the team?
Modern Football eh.
Yeah, this is it. Qualifying for the Champions League means the bar will be raised so high for any prospective players that I can't see more than a small trickle actually making an impact in the side.
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I think Jimoh-Aloba has a chance, I've been impressed with how unfazed he's looked in his brief appearances.
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Next season! Give them a break... This season finishes after the World Cup.
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Brian Madjo will start to make an impact. He’s quite a unit
https://xcancel.com/russkyd11/status/2062876082664071491?s=46
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^^ I came here to post that.
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Brian Madjo will start to make an impact. He’s quite a unit
https://xcancel.com/russkyd11/status/2062876082664071491?s=46
And not 18 yet!
Looks like a prospect indeed.
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Hopefully Redmond can stay injury free.
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Triston Rowe has just had a successful season at Annecy; wonder whether he will push Cash for the RB slot next season?
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Hopefully not. We need Óscar Mingueza.
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Refuse to believe Mingueza isn't just Mings in a a sombrero.
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I think JJA should be given chances next season.
I reckon both Hemmings and Broggio will get loaned out to Champs clubs.
NB. Probably not Small Heath.
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Brian Madjo will start to make an impact. He’s quite a unit
https://xcancel.com/russkyd11/status/2062876082664071491?s=46
And not 18 yet!
Looks like a prospect indeed.
He's even got a fish tank on his back in parts of that video.
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I think Burrowes has a chance also, can play wide, has played up top and also played full back for England….expect to see a few of the young guys in pre-season.
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I think Jimoh-Aloba has a chance, I've been impressed with how unfazed he's looked in his brief appearances.
He didn't really shine at Albion though. I think a season long loan is on the cards.
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We should never loan our young lads to WBA. Their shiteness rubs off on them - Iling Jr, Dobbins, Jimoh. They'll never flourish so high above sea-level.
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The only exception I can think of is Graham Fenton.
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We seem unable to progress players regularly from the u18s to first team level. If we can't do that after winning the youth double last season, then it does seem a poor return. Several will make it in the EFL at different levels, but if we undeniably had the best team in that age group I'd be expecting a bit more.
It could just be a perception, but youth players come through more readily at other big clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.
I think Bogarde is the only one in the current squad who has progressed recently.
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is the Madjo deal all fully done now? there was some issue previously, I think...
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We've signed him but can't register him until he's 18, which is in January.
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We seem unable to progress players regularly from the u18s to first team level. If we can't do that after winning the youth double last season, then it does seem a poor return. Several will make it in the EFL at different levels, but if we undeniably had the best team in that age group I'd be expecting a bit more.
It could just be a perception, but youth players come through more readily at other big clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.
I think Bogarde is the only one in the current squad who has progressed recently.
It's even worse - we won the Youth Cup twice in 4 years and all we have is Bogarde so far. But I have hopes for Burrowes in particular, Broggio, who did very well at Falkirk after a serious injury, and Rowe, who looked strong and fast before he went out on loan. A bit soon perhaps for Jack McGrath and Markie Meade but they are very promising.
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it's been a while since one of our own broke through, can't wait for it to happen again, there's just something fulfilling about one of our own making it
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Brian Madjo will start to make an impact. He’s quite a unit
https://xcancel.com/russkyd11/status/2062876082664071491?s=46
And not 18 yet!
Looks like a prospect indeed.
Isn’t there still a dispute regarding signing/registering him ?
Caused by him having been capped by Luxembourg and therefore subject to international transfer restrictions due to his age, which outweighs the fact that he’s from London.
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Barry. Penalty.
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We seem unable to progress players regularly from the u18s to first team level. If we can't do that after winning the youth double last season, then it does seem a poor return. Several will make it in the EFL at different levels, but if we undeniably had the best team in that age group I'd be expecting a bit more.
It could just be a perception, but youth players come through more readily at other big clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.
I think Bogarde is the only one in the current squad who has progressed recently.
It's even worse - we won the Youth Cup twice in 4 years and all we have is Bogarde so far. But I have hopes for Burrowes in particular, Broggio, who did very well at Falkirk after a serious injury, and Rowe, who looked strong and fast before he went out on loan. A bit soon perhaps for Jack McGrath and Markie Meade but they are very promising.
This is slightly misleading.
On current sales we've made over £40m on that team and have 5 of them still on the books, that's not bad going 5 years on from the final, with the entire academy programme from that final until the next effectively self-funded from the sales.
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We seem unable to progress players regularly from the u18s to first team level. If we can't do that after winning the youth double last season, then it does seem a poor return. Several will make it in the EFL at different levels, but if we undeniably had the best team in that age group I'd be expecting a bit more.
It could just be a perception, but youth players come through more readily at other big clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.
I think Bogarde is the only one in the current squad who has progressed recently.
It's even worse - we won the Youth Cup twice in 4 years and all we have is Bogarde so far. But I have hopes for Burrowes in particular, Broggio, who did very well at Falkirk after a serious injury, and Rowe, who looked strong and fast before he went out on loan. A bit soon perhaps for Jack McGrath and Markie Meade but they are very promising.
This is slightly misleading.
On current sales we've made over £40m on that team and have 5 of them still on the books, that's not bad going 5 years on from the final, with the entire academy programme from that final until the next effectively self-funded from the sales.
Of course you are right. Certainly from a financial point of view. It's just that we all love to see one of our own come through and play for the Villa not someone else. Jacob Ramsey was the last one before Bogarde and we had to sell him.
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I don't think players coming through and playing regularly for the first team happens as much as people may think at other clubs towards the top of the table. I can think of the odd one or two. It's hard. That's what makes it so special when it does happen.
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Barry. Penalty.
As in: "Why didn't Brian take the pitch?"
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I don't think players coming through and playing regularly for the first team happens as much as people may think at other clubs towards the top of the table. I can think of the odd one or two. It's hard. That's what makes it so special when it does happen.
Yep, 1 every 3-4 years (which is about where we are) is pretty decent. What we need to be better at though is getting players coming through who can fill out thew squad for a few years when they're 18-23 and then if they're not established we move them on. The players who could do that are the ones we've been selling, which is a little too early for me. Imagine the squad we have now but with players like Chukwumeka, Iroegbunam and Kellyman playing 15-20 games a season on top and how much pressure that could take off some of our harder pressed players.
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Players in the U21's now could have been at the club possibly as long as a decade. Most of the better ones that we've sold, we nicked them off someone else.
It would be a massive boost financially if we could somehow find 3-4 genuine first team / squad players from within.
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Man City - OReilly, Lewis & Foden
Arsenal - Saka, Nwaneri, Lewis Skelly & Dowman
Liverpool - Bradley, Ngumoha, Jones
Our target to stand still: Three or four squad players and one first teamer.
Kane (and Grealish) really were outliers weren't they? "One of our own" and the team's best player.
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Of course that’s the aim but the majority of those were with those clubs since they were 6/7 years old…that was the reason we rebuilt the academy under Harrison and poached so many from WBA because our structure was bad. Will take years to get that right and there will always be poaching ie there are rumours that Man City are nicking one of our young u16s this summer and we will be doing the same elsewhere.
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What happened to Rory Wilson - scoring records smashed at every level then not a lot.
Went on loan in Germany i think but not sure how he has done?
Not a kid either as i think he is 20 now?
Hemmings had a bit of a mare in his home debut which seemingly set him back -shame
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It could just be a perception, but youth players come through more readily at other big clubs like Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal.
The big clubs have the money and attraction to hoover up the talent at a young age from the smaller clubs. We do it on a smaller scale but need to work on becoming more attractive ourselves.
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Seems like Villa are working to try and get it so that Madjo can play for us before he turns 18 in January.
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Seems like Villa are working to try and get it so that Madjo can play for us before he turns 18 in January.
Where do you read that?
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Tanswell said it on a podcast that Villa are 'hopeful' they can sort something out.
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We made around £200M from the sales of Grealish, J. Ramsey, Kellyman, Chukuemeka, and Archer. There are others that i didn't include (Philogene, Iroegbunam, A. Ramsey etc'.)
On that metric alone, the academy is working. They won't all be a success and they wont all stay, so selling on is a big part of developing young players.
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I wonder how good Chukwemeka would have become if he'd stayed with us and got more regular game time (and avoided the bad injury he got). I really thought he had a chance of being something special.
Mind you, I thought that about Delfouneso too.
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I wonder how good Chukwemeka would have become if he'd stayed with us and got more regular game time (and avoided the bad injury he got). I really thought he had a chance of being something special.
He's an important first-team player for one of the biggest teams in the world and is about to play in the World Cup.
He's landed on his feet just fine.
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I wonder how good Chukwemeka would have become if he'd stayed with us and got more regular game time (and avoided the bad injury he got). I really thought he had a chance of being something special.
He's an important first-team player for one of the biggest teams in the world and is about to play in the World Cup.
He's landed on his feet just fine.
Yeah, he's doing OK at Dortmund but i wouldn't say he's that important for them. He gets a few minutes here and there.
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Seems we're still struggling to hold onto the talent we've already got. 16yo Heaven Kilwa is a target for City and he is yet to agree a deal with us.
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That would be very disappointing, he looks a top talent.
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Seems we're still struggling to hold onto the talent we've already got. 16yo Heaven Kilwa is a target for City and he is yet to agree a deal with us.
Probably offering his family their own private island 'off the books'.
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From the official site, we have twenty U21 players loaned out, and seven first team players loaned out, all until the end of June.
That's 27 players returning to BMH on top of our first team squad of 25 and U21 squad of 17.
In total we have a first team squad of 32, an U21 squad of 37 and 31 U18s.
That's 101 players, including Madjo who is not listed in any of the squads.
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Manchester City need to be careful about poaching Kilwa.
If the Prem find something irregular in the deal, they might clamp down hard on them with indecent haste.
Oh, hang on...