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The lesser known lower league potential gems thread

F

Finney Is Back

Luka Modric
Thought I would start a thread for people to post info about some good potential signings to be made for now and the future.

Would be good if we can keep this thread to be exclusively for young (or at least youngish) talents playing in the lower leagues in England as opposed to those already at PL clubs or playing overseas.

Players on loan to lower league clubs from clubs in the PL don't count (these should be players that it would be relatively easy for THFC to sign if we so desired).
 
I'll start with a few....

Alex Scott.
Age 19 , attacking midfield, Bristol City.
One that I mentioned on here more than a year ago as a player to watch. Has so much class in his movement, balance, control and on the ball ability. Is already able to play a big part in games at Championship level at only 19. The opposition see him as Britol City's main threat and give him the sort of treatment one gets in the Championship when that is the case, yet he still constantly gets on the ball and makes things happen. If he keeps his feet on the ground then he is desinted to be a real star I think. £20 million (maybe plus add ons) probably gets him and I think he'll go to a PL team this summer so this will be our last chance to get him before he becomes too expensive for us. I would expect him to be a Dele Ali type signing for us that one expects to get into the team in a year or two but just comes straight in and plays from then on.

Joao Pedro.
Age 21, support striker Watford.
A young Brazilian who has absolutely everything to make it in the PL (or anywhere else). Control, balance, a lovely dribbler of the ball and lots of confidence. Would be an asset for anyone in the PL. I think he'll end up playing a little deeper as a number 10 type attacking midfielder or might even move out as a left sided wide forward but am convinced he'll be playing for one of the World's big clubs within 4 years. Again, this summer is probably the last real chance we'd have to sign him, though think he'll already be £25m plus.

Viktor Gyökeres,
centre forward, age 24, Coventry City.
He is a Swedish International that I think could be something of a late bloomer in terms of realising his potential. 18 goals last season and 18 goals and 8 assists already this season in the Championship for a pretty average Coventry team. Somehow Coventry paid Brighton only £1m for him, which is a real bargain. He'd probably cost well under £10m. I think he'll be playing PL football for someone next season.
 
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and two more....

Dan Neil
age 21, centre midfield, Sunderland.
A proper centre midfield player who can do a bit of everything. Really calm on the ball, is a good passer but also dribbles well. Came up to the Championship from league 2 with Sunderland, who are his local team. He's not ready to play PL football yet but is the sort of signing that one of the well run clubs in the PL are likely to sign this summer and then loan back to Sunderland for the whole of next season (and maybe even one more beyond). Gettable for considerably less than £20m I think.

Jacob Greaves
age 22, centre back, Hull City.
A left footed centre back who is tall, brave, strong in the tackle and also good in possession of the ball both in terms of long range passing but also with some of his play in triangles and through balls if he moves up the pitch. Has a good knack of sensing danger and getting himself into a position to quell that danger (kind of the reverse of Eric Dier here). Still goes to ground a little bit too often in the tackle but has loads to work with. I suspect that less than £15m gets him from Hull. Might be a player to sign and loan back to get another year's experience in the Championship where he is a first choice player for them. He can also play as a left back which would make him a good candidate for either a back 3 formation or a Poch type formation where he plays in a back 2 but has to fan out to defend the wide forward while a holding midfielder drops in to the centre if we lose possession when attacking with high fullbacks.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Alex Scott at Bristol City absolutely. Could become our new Eriksen.

Also Ronnie Edwards, the Peterborough CB.
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Have you watched Edwards much? I think he has potential but that Greaves is quite a bit further advanced than Edwards at present (though admittedly 18 months' older).
Edwards hasn't had a great season this year, I think he needs at least another 3 years before being ready to play for a top 8 PL team. He also isn't particularly tall for a centre back. I would be guarded above paying any more than just a few million for Edwards at present and I think Peterborough are looking for upwards of £10m due to the hype.
 
Finney Is Back said:
I'll start with a few....

Alex Scott.
Age 19 , attacking midfield, Bristol City.
One that I mentioned on here more than a year ago as a player to watch. Has so much class in his movement, balance, control and on the ball ability. Is already able to play a big part in games at Championship level at only 19. The opposition see him as Britol City's main threat and give him the sort of treatment one gets in the Championship when that is the case, yet he still constantly gets on the ball and makes things happen. If he keeps his feet on the ground then he is desinted to be a real star I think. £20 million (maybe plus add ons) probably gets him and I think he'll go to a PL team this summer so this will be our last chance to get him before he becomes too expensive for us. I would expect him to be a Dele Ali type signing for us that one expects to get into the team in a year or two but just comes straight in and plays from then on.

Joao Pedro.
Age 21, support striker Watford.
A young Brazilian who has absolutely everything to make it in the PL (or anywhere else). Control, balance, a lovely dribbler of the ball and lots of confidence. Would be an asset for anyone in the PL. I think he'll end up playing a little deeper as a number 10 type attacking midfielder or might even move out as a left sided wide forward but am convinced he'll be playing for one of the World's big clubs within 4 years. Again, this summer is probably the last real chance we'd have to sign him, though think he'll already be £25m plus.

Viktor Gyökeres,
centre forward, age 24, Coventry City.
He is a Swedish International that I think could be something of a late bloomer in terms of realising his potential. 18 goals last season and 18 goals and 8 assists already this season in the Championship for a pretty average Coventry team. Somehow Coventry paid Brighton only £1m for him, which is a real bargain. He'd probably cost well under £10m. I think he'll be playing PL football for someone next season.
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I've liked Joao Pedro for a while, but it looks like he will have a lot of suitors this summer and won't be as much of a bargain as he would have been, say a year ago. I don't know if he would have been on our list if Conte wasn't the manager. We could have gotten him for half what we paid for Richie, but oh no, we had to fudging back Conte and get established players.
 
Finney Is Back said:
Have you watched Edwards much? I think he has potential but that Greaves is quite a bit further advanced than Edwards at present (though admittedly 18 months' older).
Edwards hasn't had a great season this year, I think he needs at least another 3 years before being ready to play for a top 8 PL team. He also isn't particularly tall for a centre back. I would be guarded above paying any more than just a few million for Edwards at present and I think Peterborough are looking for upwards of £10m due to the hype.
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Only at England youth level. But he looked stand out in the Euros last year. He seemed a real Rolls-Royce, a bit Rio Ferdinand-like

I'm thinking specifically about the 4th choice role (as you don't need to rotate CBs, so one senior cover is enough), like Foyth used to fill
 
Gutter Boy said:
Only at England youth level. But he looked stand out in the Euros last year. He seemed a real Rolls-Royce, a bit Rio Ferdinand-like
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He hasn't got Ferdinand's physical attributes.

I tend to be guarded about watching young British players in international age-group football as our young players are typically a lot more physical in the game earlier than youngsters in other countries.

I prefer to watch young players playing actual men's football in the Championship or League 1/2, where they are coming up against fully developed physical players and we get to see how they can cope by only relying on their skill and speed of thought.

When considering hot prospects at centre back who are very young, so looking 4 plus years into the future Ashley Phillips at Blackburn is probably the most exciting young defenders who are not already at a top club. He is big (6'4") fast and good on the ball. Still loads and loads of developing to do though so not guaranteed to make it but I'd be surprised if the teams that like to hoover up talent at this sort of age like Chelsea aren't already sniffing.
 
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I find it hard to judge CBs. Remember when Caulker was player of the season in league 2, League one, then the Championship I think it was.. Everyone was raving about him. He broke through got an England cap then disappeared of the planet after some behind the scenes agro.

CCV also had some promising loans at Ipswich before settling eventually at Celtic. Yet no one was fussed about losing him

I think the side they play for has a huge impact on how they look, that it's had to judge accurately
 
dingdongo said:
I find it hard to judge CBs. Remember when Caulker was player of the season in league 2, League one, then the Championship I think it was.. Everyone was raving about him. He broke through got an England cap then disappeared of the planet after some behind the scenes agro.

CCV also had some promising loans at Ipswich before settling eventually at Celtic. Yet no one was fussed about losing him

I think the side they play for has a huge impact on how they look, that it's had to judge accurately
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Caulker probably would've made it at the top level if he didn't have the off pitch problems that he had.

CCV never really looked good enough to play at the top level to me. No real outstanding attribute to his game.
 
Nice thread.

He may play in the prem but he was a championship player, Lewis-Potter is a player I would like to see more of.

I like Ricky Jade-Jones, two footed and a lot of pace.

Would actually like to see a few of our players go out on loan. Let's see how Alfie Devine does next season in the lower leagues.
 
I think there is a lot of young talent we could get
I also think getting rid of Paratici and getting a DOF who looks at the UK market will help
 
Finney Is Back said:
The right DoF would just have a very good person heading up scouting in that market.
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We have changed our scouting a lot
But you can use data more now to help and I don’t know do we have done any improvements on that front
For what it’s worth I think I could come up with 4/5 players who would improve the team and squad significantly and cost us £100m all in…
In fact, fudge it
Reya - hot young so out of context for the thread. Was talk of him costing £25m due to his contract
Ndicka… free
Kilman £25m according to transfermarkt
Scott (does suit this thread) £25m again (recurring theme)

That would be £75m to fix a lot of problems and of course, complete bollox on fees as I’ve just made them up

but that is business that IMO aid very doable regardless of our European status

we would get that money back in sales with the amount we need to shift too
 
The discussion above reminds me of when United needed centre backs and suddenly bought 2 I had barely/not heard of... from Blackburn and Fulham, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling... then they surprised me by buying Maguire from Hull.
Some would say these were a great success, big careers, lots of games played... some would say they are the worst players ever to pull on a Utd shirt.

Trying to find gems to slot into a "top 4" team is a very tricky business to get right; easy to get it 95% right but that player isn't good enough in the long term.
 
Bullet said:
The discussion above reminds me of when United needed centre backs and suddenly bought 2 I had barely/not heard of... from Blackburn and Fulham, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling... then they surprised me by buying Maguire from Hull.
Some would say these were a great success, big careers, lots of games played... some would say they are the worst players ever to pull on a Utd shirt.

Trying to find gems to slot into a "top 4" team is a very tricky business to get right; easy to get it 95% right but that player isn't good enough in the long term.
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Jacob Greaves, who I mentioned in my second player post in this thread, could be that sort of player for us. I was disappointed that we didn’t go in for Tarkowski on a free last summer. It would’ve allowed us to let either Dier or Sanchez leave, achieving the almost impossible treble of improving the team/squad, freeing up an overseas place and generating positive transfer funds. Was kind of mental that we didn’t bring him in really considering our lackluster CB options.
 
Bullet said:
The discussion above reminds me of when United needed centre backs and suddenly bought 2 I had barely/not heard of... from Blackburn and Fulham, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling... then they surprised me by buying Maguire from Hull.
Some would say these were a great success, big careers, lots of games played... some would say they are the worst players ever to pull on a Utd shirt.

Trying to find gems to slot into a "top 4" team is a very tricky business to get right; easy to get it 95% right but that player isn't good enough in the long term.
Click to expand...
It would be interesting to gauge how many games Foyth would have played by now considering we've played a lot of back 3 and he'd of gained experience.

Maybe he still wouldn't of been good enough?
 
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