Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Chipsticks on February 16, 2013, 11:57:58 AM
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A story on the OS caught my eye this morning.
Jack Grealish will be looking to continue his excellent progress at Villa after scooping a top accolade at international level.
The talented winger received the Republic of Ireland U17 Player of the Year award for his impressive displays during European Championship qualification over the past 12 months.
Grealish scored three goals in six games to help the boys in green reach the Elite Round of the European U17 Championships.
The award caps a terrific year for the Solihull-born winger, who has sparkled for Villa at U18 and U21 level, as well as helping the club reach the knockout stages of the NextGen Series for the second year running.
Grealish, who joined Villa at the age of six, was also named on the bench for the Barclays Premier League game against Chelsea last March and penned his first professional contract back in September.
The 17-year-old attacker was presented with the Ireland U17 Player of the Year award by Wolves striker Kevin Doyle at an FAI ceremony in Dublin last month.
After collecting the prize, he tweeted: "Thank you everyone for your messages.
"It is hard to reply to you all! It was a great achievement for me.
"Life is all about winning things and making your family proud.
"It was a great night and was great to meet the Irish first team!"
Grealish enjoyed a mesmeric rise to Villa's first team squad last season, earning a surprise call-up for the top-flight clash against Chelsea at the age of just 16.
He was handed the No.41 jersey and was an unused substitute for the 4-2 defeat at Villa Park.
Grealish made a string of appearances for Villa in their Barclays Premier Reserve League South title-winning success and in the run to the quarter-finals of the NextGen Series.
In the summer, he also helped the claret and blues reach the final of the Hong Kong International Soccer Sevens.
This season he has been a regular at U21 level and also scored twice for the U18s in a 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
(http://www.avfc.co.uk/javaImages/8/e8/0,,10265~11659272,00.jpg)
Does anyone know much about this kid? I've only ever heard his name a few times last season when our injury problems saw him make the bench. If he's won such an accolade from a country with some good youth systems then he must be half-decent.
Future star to get excited about?
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I think so.
He's a winger, very good close control and vision. He's more of a trickster than a flyer.
He could be exceptional. Jordan Graham is in that category too but unfortunately he's out for the season.
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Looks really promising but not sure how much he'll progress under the current regime in terms of first team squad given Lambert's reluctance to use wide players. Samir Carruthers also looks good when I've seen him but again as a wide player not yet getting much of a look in.
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Compilation video if you don't mind squinting.
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Carruthers is more of a central attacking midfielder. A playmaker, if you like.
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Is life all about winning things? Shit, better get me act together...
Were there some recent rumblings about him being a bit unhappy at Villa with a lot of his team-mates leaving? Could have sworn I read something about that.
Good to see the next crop of Irish lads gradually coming to the fore. Graham Burke made his debut at Bradford (though, in hindsight was the wrong sub to make when we were about to face a barrage of corners) and Mikey Drennan from my town has been banging in the goals for the Elite squad all season.
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Is life all about winning things? Shit, better get me act together...
Were there some recent rumblings about him being a bit unhappy at Villa with a lot of his team-mates leaving? Could have sworn I read something about that.
Good to see the next crop of Irish lads gradually coming to the fore. Graham Burke made his debut at Bradford (though, in hindsight was the wrong sub to make when we were about to face a barrage of corners) and Mikey Drennan from my town has been banging in the goals for the Elite squad all season.
Nice photo for you here, Eamonn:
http://www.astonvillapictures.co.uk/aston_villa_irish_players_2011-12/print/8190499.html
and here:
http://www.astonvillapictures.co.uk/aston_villa_irish_players_2011-12/print/8190533.html
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Is life all about winning things? Shit, better get me act together...
Were there some recent rumblings about him being a bit unhappy at Villa with a lot of his team-mates leaving? Could have sworn I read something about that.
Good to see the next crop of Irish lads gradually coming to the fore. Graham Burke made his debut at Bradford (though, in hindsight was the wrong sub to make when we were about to face a barrage of corners) and Mikey Drennan from my town has been banging in the goals for the Elite squad all season.
I think he just tweeted about him being sad seeing players leaving nothing more.
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I have only seen Jack play once. He came on as a sub in a next gen game. Believe me he is going to as good as Sir Brian.
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Were there some recent rumblings about him being a bit unhappy at Villa with a lot of his team-mates leaving? Could have sworn I read something about that.
Some of these boys have been together at the Academy since they were 10/11 so it's deflating to see few of your team mates not getting contracts and being released at the age of 16/17 but that's life and it will toughen him up to make the most of his own talent.
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We seem to have a healthy Irish contingent in the youth/reserve teams.
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I have only seen Jack play once. He came on as a sub in a next gen game. Believe me he is going to as good as Sir Brian.
No pressure then :)
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I think Burke came in against Tranmere and looked really good but this thread is about Grealish and I may be wrong?!?!
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Hey! A promising youngster! We haven't seen one of those coming through in recent times...
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His little sister is in my daughter's class at school and his cousin is in my little boys class. It is always good to see a local lad doing well.
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I really thought Carruthers would come through this season,looks a talent, hope he doesn't drift away.
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Met his Dad on holiday in Ibiza in August, went to watch the Newcastle game with him in a local bar. Said England were after him too but he chose Ireland. His sisters played with our kids at the airport. Really nice family so I've kept an eye on his progress.
His dad said of McLeish that he was the only Villa boss since Jack was there from the age of 6 to come and watch the youngsters at every level. Villa mad too, had a season ticket since he was 4 and his Dad went to Rotterdam.
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Met his Dad on holiday in Ibiza in August, went to watch the Newcastle game with him in a local bar. Said England were after him too but he chose Ireland. His sisters played with our kids at the airport. Really nice family so I've kept an eye on his progress.
His dad said of McLeish that he was the only Villa boss since Jack was there from the age of 6 to come and watch the youngsters at every level. Villa mad too, had a season ticket since he was 4 and his Dad went to Rotterdam.
Yes, I know his dad. He is as staunch Villa as they come.
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My mate's son was a schoolmate of Jack's. He's very highly rated. McLeish actually had him on the bench for one home game last season and Jack was only 16 at the time. Fingers crossed he makes it.
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Very good technically and an elusive runner -no express pace. He seemed to have outgrown his strength a bit at the start of the season.
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The kid has got a good left foot, positional sense is excellent, tacking back skills above average, has a good work rate and decent stamina, heading ability better than average, a good burst of pace over 10 yards.
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He is probably the latest 'golden' academy kid. Very highly rated by those that watch the youth games. I hope he is given a chance next season as I do believe that inexperience can actually a good thing for a winger. They are quite fearless and are unknown by the opposition. We are crying out for some good proper wide players too.
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Compilation video if you don't mind squinting.
You can play 'spot the ground' on that. On first watch I spotted Boldmere St. Michaels and Chester.
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I wouldn't get too excited. Lets just see how he develops. I can't think of one youngster who has come through in the last 5 years who is anywhere near good enough for the higher reaches of the Prem yet.
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He looks a great little player
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As they all do aged 17. Just urging some caution before we have him as the newest saviour.
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I wouldn't get too excited. Lets just see how he develops. I can't think of one youngster who has come through in the last 5 years who is anywhere near good enough for the higher reaches of the Prem yet.
It'd be nice if they were that good, but in all honesty they do not need to be. If the yoof could provide ten premiership quality players then we'd need to buy less players.
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I wouldn't get too excited. Lets just see how he develops. I can't think of one youngster who has come through in the last 5 years who is anywhere near good enough for the higher reaches of the Prem yet.
It'd be nice if they were that good, but in all honesty they do not need to be. If the yoof could provide ten premiership quality players then we'd need to buy less players.
And this is the key to the academy. If we bring through 1-2 a season like we have done in recent years then even if half of them don't end up making it you're still looking at a third of your squad having been 'free', even if they're the filler around better players who've been paid for they're still an essential part of the squad.
For what it's worth, Clark, Baker, Weimann have all shown they are premier league quality for me, then Bannan, Lichaj, Herd and Albrighton are all filler (as things stand). Add in that Gardner is likely to get a run at some point and Williams, Johnson, Burke and Carruthers have all been around the first team at times and we've still got a healthy amount of youth coming through. Once again, our problem for the last 2-3 years hasn't been due to playing the kids, it's been due to either having to play too many of them at once because of injuries, or because the experienced players alongside them have gone missing. Once we get the balance right with seniors earning their places and we can keep a squad together without a massive injury list the academy players will mostly show that they're good enough to be at a mid-table premier league club, which is fine for the time being.
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I still think Herd is close to prem quality. He (for me) was our most consistent player last season (Way above our supoosed player of the year "Ireland") Still think he has a useful place in our squad.
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I still think Herd is close to prem quality. He (for me) was our most consistent player last season (Way above our supoosed player of the year "Ireland") Still think he has a useful place in our squad.
Herd was pretty good last year though like a lot of our own products he looks like a 'Jack of all trades' type. He scored some important goals last season. That said, i think he's the type of player who'd do better for a McLeish than a Lambert if you get what I mean?
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I still think Herd is close to prem quality. He (for me) was our most consistent player last season (Way above our supoosed player of the year "Ireland") Still think he has a useful place in our squad.
Yep, pity he's had these injury problems.
Interestingly, he's listed on the OS site as a MF player; alongside Westie and the resurgent Delph, he'd be a useful DMF right now.
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I'd prefer Herd in midfield than Sylla or Kea. Has shit for brains though and a fair old chip on his shoulder. At centre half he made James Collins look like Franco Baresi on the ball. If he could cool the red mist definitely an option in midfield and reasonable cover at right back
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Hope he makes it, our youngsters had a hard time over last 2 years and would not have expected Weinmann and Baker currently proofing to be best .
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Great to see Jack make his first team debut today and started. I expect to see a fair bit of him this season or towards the end perhaps.
He's just tweeted: @JackGrealish1: "Best day of my whole life to start on my debut for the club I've supported my whole life! Fans were unreal today! So so so happy #avfc"
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Good lad.
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Herd over sylla?
You've got to be shitting me!
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Matt Collins - to be fair that comment re herd above Sylla was said when not much had been seen of Sylla. Not sure the same answer now lol
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Jack is the best youngster I have seen come through our system since Brian.
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Great to hear that
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I seem to remember him playing really well in the next gen semi
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Jack is the best youngster I have seen come through our system since Brian.
High praise indeed!
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Jack is the best youngster I have seen come through our system since Brian.
High praise indeed!
looking forward to seeing him properly