Ollie Watkins

[Mister E]

Solanke is a pretty mediocre choice. The best back-up (like-for-like) is probably Welbeck, who is still fairly athletic for his age.

[cdbearsfan]

Presumably, though, you wouldn't have seen Shearer, Owen, Rooney or Kane as likely England starters two or three years before they were.

Owen and Rooney definitely.

Owen already had a reputation as a wonder kid and had set records at youth level for England.

Rooney was a PL regular at 16 and starter for England at 17. Had excelled at youth level too.

But they both appeared when we had a top striker in their prime.

Right now we have a 32 year old world class striker and nothing in the youth that we can expect to take over in the same way.

People realised they were going to be good. Nobody expected Owen and Rooney to be brilliant so quickly and starring for England years in advance. And if your criteria is "scored loads of goals at youth level", then Shim Mheuka is probably worth watching.

He might be, Mheuka's record is decent (not as good as Owen's was) but both Owen and Rooney were already established PL regulars at 18. Owen had already won the Golden Boot.

I definitely remember at Mheuka's age, Owen had exploded onto the World Cup and Rooney was being treated as the second coming of Pele.

I wasn't talking about at 18. I said "two or three years before they were likely England starters". In Owen's case, he would have been 15/16, in Rooney's case, 13/14. If you knew enough about youth football to know that they were likely to be England starters within two years of those ages, fair play to you, but I doubt many did.

Anyway, point is, England always have at least one top class striker. They're pretty much bound to have again whether it is some as yet unknown youngster or someone like Delap improving.

[Somniloquism]

Dowman at Gooners and the one Simon Stone was wanking off about the other day are definitely both in the Rooney camp of hype at the moment. Although only the latter is a striker.

[Mellin]

Presumably, though, you wouldn't have seen Shearer, Owen, Rooney or Kane as likely England starters two or three years before they were.

Owen and Rooney definitely.

Owen already had a reputation as a wonder kid and had set records at youth level for England.

Rooney was a PL regular at 16 and starter for England at 17. Had excelled at youth level too.

But they both appeared when we had a top striker in their prime.

Right now we have a 32 year old world class striker and nothing in the youth that we can expect to take over in the same way.

People realised they were going to be good. Nobody expected Owen and Rooney to be brilliant so quickly and starring for England years in advance. And if your criteria is "scored loads of goals at youth level", then Shim Mheuka is probably worth watching.

Every man and his dog knew about Owen and Rooney before they broke into their respective first teams, then they instantly performed once in. I've never heard of that kid you've mentioned. Dowman fits in that category though. He'll likely be a player just based on the buzz around him. Those around football know when someone special is coming through and you hear about it.

To counter that, Kane was perceived as solid rather than special, so can go the other way. I'm too young for Shearer's breakthrough, but he scored a lot of goals early.

[eamonn]

Dowman at Gooners and the one Simon Stone was wanking off about the other day are definitely both in the Rooney camp of hype at the moment. Although only the latter is a striker.

The lad too young to play men's football?

Poor Bryan Madjo amidst all this. What the fuck's he meant to do til next January?

[enigma]

Presumably, though, you wouldn't have seen Shearer, Owen, Rooney or Kane as likely England starters two or three years before they were.

Owen and Rooney definitely.

Owen already had a reputation as a wonder kid and had set records at youth level for England.

Rooney was a PL regular at 16 and starter for England at 17. Had excelled at youth level too.

But they both appeared when we had a top striker in their prime.

Right now we have a 32 year old world class striker and nothing in the youth that we can expect to take over in the same way.

People realised they were going to be good. Nobody expected Owen and Rooney to be brilliant so quickly and starring for England years in advance.

Not sure about Owen but it was always expected of Rooney. He was being hyped way before he made his league debut.

[cdbearsfan]

Again, don't doubt it. But nobody was confidently predicting that he would be an England regular at sixteen, when he was thirteen. Because nobody had ever been an England regular at sixteen before.

[enigma]

Again, don't doubt it. But nobody was confidently predicting that he would be an England regular at sixteen, when he was thirteen. Because nobody had ever been an England regular at sixteen before.

He was being talked of as a generational talent at that age, which I suppose means being an international.

[PeterWithesShin]

Owen must be one of the few players that was outstanding for a while but pretty much all fans of the clubs he played for think he's a twat. Which is impressive as he was never doing much to be thought of as a twat, he just seems one.

[cdbearsfan]

People thought thirteen year old Wayne Rooney was going to be an England regular at sixteen? Yeah, that didn't happen.

[enigma]

I still remember how annoyed I was watching the FA Youth Cup final back then. You'd never guess that Villa won it as the commentators wouldn't stop harping on about Rooney and his bright future. Barely a word about our kids and we won 4-1

[enigma]

People thought thirteen year old Wayne Rooney was going to be an England regular at sixteen? Yeah, that didn't happen.

maybe not at 16 but it was obvious he wasn't going to take long.

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah, we were brilliant. Tbf though, he did stand out as the best player over the two legs and was clearly going to be brilliant. Nobody expected it to happen quite so quickly, though. He was bullying international centre-halves at the age where he should have been doing a paper round. Ridiculous.

[PeterWithesShin]

I think many, certainly within the game. expected 15 year old Rooney to be top class before reaching 20. Mainly because he was the oldest looking 15 year old in history.

[Tony Daleys Shorts]

I think many, certainly within the game. expected 15 year old Rooney to be top class before reaching 20. Mainly because he was the oldest looking 15 year old in history.

Until Luke Littler.