20 May 2015 17:16:03
Just wondering who everyone thinks will win the awards tonight and the goal of the season winner for me personally it is fonte and mane against arsenal
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20 May 2015 19:01:34
Fonte is a shoo-in, although I think he's gotten away with about five nailed-on penalty shouts this season, allied to the one he he didn't get away with. He's certainly been good, though far from flawless. If Alderweireld had stayed fit all season, he would've been my choice.
Bertrand's been very consistent. Schneiderlin's been too in-and-out with injuries. Sadio Mane might make a late run in the voting, but he's not as beloved with the supporters as Fonte. Yet.
Goal of the season? Long and Wanyama's goals against Villa and Hull have a combined range of about 80 yards, but I think Pelle's volley against QPR was a bit special.
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20 May 2015 22:55:47
Actual winners -
Players' Player of the Season: Fonte
Young Player of the Season: Targett
President's choice: Wanyama
Goal of the Season: Long (vs Villa)
Fan's Player of the Season: Fonte
The Targett one's a bit out of left field as he hasn't played nearly as often (or well) as Ward-Prowse or Reed, but perhaps they weren't eligible as they'd previously made their first team debuts prior to this season. I don't know if that's a rule, but it's a slightly surprising outcome so there must be some reason behind it.
Anyway, congratulations to them all. Let's finish the season in style on Sunday.
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21 May 2015 07:37:07
Man City have nothing to play for now so maybe they'll take their foot off the gas a little? I can see both Spurs and Liverpool dropping points so a win could give us 5th place. Let's go for it boys!
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20 May 2015 08:07:05
After watching the U21s abysmal performance last night it just confirms what I thought already that none of that squad are ready to step up to the first team. 1 or 2 might make it on to the bench but I don't think any of them are good enough to start EPL matches. I hope that Roko is given enough money to replace leavers and bring in at least another 3 top players to keep us moving forwards
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20 May 2015 10:10:56
one bad performance (against a very good team btw) isn't indicative of how talented that u21 team is and how well they've done over the whole season (W9/D4/L9). Don't forget that team played 3 games in a week (including going up to city and beating them 2-0 on saturday)
Targett, Reed, Isgrove, McQueen, Gallagher & Seager (21 goals this season, can't be that bad, eh?) are all good enough to come in and do a job next season. McCarthy will captian the first team one day. Cook, considering he's only 17, is doing well and will make the first team albeit in a few seasons. There's a massive amount of talent in that team that will be coming through, not just next season but for 3-4 seasons after
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20 May 2015 10:25:18
Sadly not every crop of youngster's can make the cut, however the next step should be to loan them out to a Championship or League One club and see how they develop. I think this may be the best option for the likes of Ryan Seager, Sam Gallagher, Dom Gape, and a few others. They've had a great season for the U21's now let's see how they fair in a really competitive division of the football league. There's plenty of promise, they just need to put the hard graft in now.
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20 May 2015 10:28:31
One loss like that doesn't define the team. Manchester City won the game well and deserved to. Despite Southampton being such a good side to develop young players, they're not going to win every game. Be proud that this group won a trophy, have great chemistry with eachother and the first team and that some of them will make the step up in time. Instant success has never been the aim.
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20 May 2015 11:05:41
I think reed and targett will make the bench, for some reason I get the impression Gallagher is not a youngster roko likes not in the squad even when we have no strikers on the bench which is a shame as he's sort of in between pelle/guidetti what I thought roko likes as a striker tall strong etc seager I don't think is rokos type of striker at all which is a real shame and as for McCarthy it's so hard for prem teams to trust young unproven cbs as it's a vital part of the team and mistakes will get punished at this level hence hardly any good young English cbs in the game at all
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20 May 2015 11:41:05
What I was trying to get across was that normally we have 2 or 3 U21s who can come in to the first team each year and do themselves justice but I don't think that any of the present crop could do that. Maybe because our first team have got some better players my expectations have increased but I hope that a few from the U21s can step up and prove me wrong. I still think that we have one of the best academies in world football but a lot of youngsters look at the big spenders and think that they will be better off signing for them
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20 May 2015 12:39:07
How can u say that last year we had 1 youngster in ward prowse year chambers so another 1 n before that only oxlade Chamberlain so 2 or 3 every year is wrong next year will b the same with reed
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20 May 2015 14:39:48
Remember that we have the two Jack's out on loan at Swindon (who are in the L1 play-off final on Sunday)
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20 May 2015 17:24:02
It's harsh to judge the U21s based upon the overall team performances, as the line-ups are often compromised by a number of players who will fall a long way short of making the grade. That's just how it is - Man United's famous "class of 92" only actually got five players into the first team. The rest were rubbish. And Robbie Savage.
I think McCarthy and Will Wood have looked the best defensive prospects. Hesketh has bags of promise. Seager and Gallagher have a good chance of featuring for the first team in the very near future. Add them to the more established Ward-Prowse, Reed and Targett, and that's eight players (eleven, if you consider Chamberlain, Chambers and Shaw are also from this crop's generation) that could potentially make the grade. That's would be an amazing achievement if it happened.
And going into the age-groups below, Josh Sims, Marcus Barnes, Armani Little, Alfie Jones, Callum Slattery, Harley Willard are ones to watch, in my opinion. Maybe none of them will make it, maybe all of them will. But they're certainly not a write off.
I don't expect Mugabi, Gape, McQueen, Isgrove, Sinclair, Rowe to reach Premier League standard, but who knows - they might be late developers and surprise us all.
Don't give up on them yet!
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20 May 2015 21:11:43
I'm certainly not giving up on them. I'd like to see all our young lads make it to the first team after all it's what the academy is for and if it wasn't for the money brought in to the club from the sale of some of the players that came from our academy it's quite possible that we wouldn't be in such a strong financial position as we are at present.
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