U21, Youth and Ladies 2013/14

[PeterWithesShin]

Brad Watkins is set to Tranmere Rovers on a one-month youth loan, subject to Premier League clearance.

The 19-year-old goalkeeper will get his first taste of senior football by linking up with Ronnie Moore's side in League One.

Academy graduate Watkins has featured for Villa at U18 and U21 level.

He starred in last season's NextGen Series finals weekend in Lake Como, Italy as Villa triumphed over Sporting Lisbon and Chelsea to lift the prestigious European crown.

[Mister E]

Brad Watkins is set to Tranmere Rovers on a one-month youth loan, subject to Premier League clearance.

The 19-year-old goalkeeper will get his first taste of senior football by linking up with Ronnie Moore's side in League One.

Academy graduate Watkins has featured for Villa at U18 and U21 level.

He starred in last season's NextGen Series finals weekend in Lake Como, Italy as Villa triumphed over Sporting Lisbon and Chelsea to lift the prestigious European crown.

I thought Watkins looked really good in the NextGen - good move to go off to the L1 environment.

[OCD]

I'm surprised Siegrist didn't go out on loan. He was very highly regarded but again he doesn't seem to be stepping up.

[Matt Collins]

I'm sure Gardner will be given a chance to prove himself given the esteem he's been held in.

Siegrist seems to make quite a few errors to me

Is donacien old enough to go on loan yet. Bit nervous about having three centre backs all the rest of the season so good to see what he's like.

What about drennan and Robinson? No loans for them yet

[Dante Lavelli]

Delph has been lucky. He's been afforded more time and second chances than most young players get at this level. It would be unlikely to happen again for Gardner. 

I wonder how much of that was because his wages (as a 6m signing, a mon one too, so probably big bunce) meant he was not an attractive signing for other clubs.  Turned out well for us as he'd been magnificent for 6 months now, but it possible it was more luck that design.

With regards to Gardner, we should write off this season (in a Villa shirt) and send him on loan.  Not for a few months but for the rest of the year.  Get some proper games under his belt.

Ditto the young CB Doncienne (of however it is spelt).

[peter w]

You could argue Delph was lucky. you could also argue that if you give good young players time they can develop into very good players. Without doubt he's now one of the first names on the team sheet.

[Matt Collins]

Yes. I'd argue we ditched Craig Gardner and Cahill too early rather than gave Delph a lucky break. There's a huge myth that players will have developed by 21. Many don't really come good till later on and they've got a good number of games under their belt.  Look at the England squad: Cahill, Barnes, cole, jagielka. I'd tend to give people till23 though it's got to be judged case by case.

[Dante Lavelli]

Yes. I'd argue we ditched Craig Gardner and Cahill too early rather than gave Delph a lucky break. There's a huge myth that players will have developed by 21. Many don't really come good till later on and they've got a good number of games under their belt.  Look at the England squad: Cahill, Barnes, cole, jagielka. I'd tend to give people till23 though it's got to be judged case by case.

Double edged sword in many ways as Cahill and Gardner probably improved as a result of matches as much as age/maturity.  We need to use the loan system better and now we have a bigger squad this should be more easy to do.

[OCD]

We could have given Cahill a run in the team to develop his game but instead we chose to spend about £15m on Davies and Knight.

[Matt Collins]

We could have put Cahill and Gardner out on loan to a premier league side for a whole season. We were in no danger of relegation. I don't think we can put out a kid to a rival now though. But would be good to see some of them at a good championship side. If they're not good enough for that then it's hard to see that they'd be good enough for us.

Interesting to see if Gardner or albrighton or Bennett or Bowery gets loaned out to a top 8 championship side. When bannan, delfouneso, Delph went out to those sort of side they didn't really do too well.

[peter w]

Cahill turned down the chance of that very said season long loan as he wanted to play in the Prem in the first team.

[OCD]

We still chose to buy someone who was known for making mistakes and another who described himself as a pub player. Cahill had already really impressed on loan at Burnley and we would have been better off developing him.

[paul_e]

We still chose to buy someone who was known for making mistakes and another who described himself as a pub player. Cahill had already really impressed on loan at Burnley and we would have been better off developing him.

No one will ever convince me that buying Davies for ~£10m and selling Cahill for half that on the basis of their form up until that point was anything other than stupidity.  Cahill looked a top prospect but with some small flaws to his game (which are still there to be fair) and Davies looked like a good prospect with some slightly bigger flaws to his game.  I have less of a problem with Knight because, whilst he had his limitations, he did add a bit of experience which we needed (with Mellberg playing at right back and Laursen's fitness being questionable).

[Gareth]

Notts County just sacked Kiwomya - Jack Grealish's new temporary boss is none other than Mr Hodge :-)

[ADVILLAFAN]

I saw that, hope he does well but they get relegated then.