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On the first day of Intake, my H-YOD gave to me
A Target Man who's taller than a tree,
On the second day of Intake, my H-YOD gave to me
A fullback who can play the wings
On the third day of Intake, my H-YOD gave to me
A midfielder who's just barely five-foot, three
Yeah, I got nothing. We have someone who looks like he can be better than Raymond Devlin, and two players who have a slight chance of making something of themselves. Everyone else is garbage.
1. Giannis Veloudos. Dare I say he has a small chance of making us forget Kemar Kirkpatrick? He's gonna be awesome. Sure, he's shorter than Devlin but he's faster.
2. Seven not-bad personalities. NINE Unambitious players! I thought having a Head of Youth Development who's a Model Professional would produce better. Oh well.
3. One Model Citizen. This will make three on the roster. Steve Morse will get to stick around the U23s for as long as he wants.
4. One Australian. Steve Morse again. I like having a lot of nations represented in the U18s. Not so much in the Seniors.
5. One Croatian. Zeljko Soldo isn't just a half-Croat but he's Natural across the backline. He too can stay in the U23s for as long as he wants.
6. One Greek. Now Tasos Noulas will have someone to practice his mother tongue with.
7. One Kosovar. He doesn't look like much and I might not even sign him but at least we've got that international thing again.
8. One Northern Irish. Yet another "foreigner" but this one is still part of the Queen's domain.
9. We got 14 out of 16 youths with double-digit Natural Fitness. Too bad we can't say that about Determination.
10. A built-in quip. If Strutton scores a goal I'll be able to say, "he's Strutton his stuff." I'll see myself out...
11. Bonus! Seven of the players have Brixton listed as their Favoured Club.
This might be the new normal for a while, methinks. Maybe during the Championship, or maybe not until the Premier, will we start producing plenty of good players again.
That's really all the news that's fit to print. We are promoting too quickly for any of the rest to ever become members of the Senior squad.
The old U18s dominate early (first goal at 9:46) and getting plenty of shots off target then Strutton comes alive, thieving the ball near midfield. This ends up with a Veloudos goal, who then gets a chip-shot in a few moments later. But after that the U18s show their resolve and smother the Candidates with four goals in the second half. DL Connolly looks pretty good, winning the ball several time. GK Peters did not look fit for anything but pee wee sports. U18 ST Geoff Smart was the POM with 3 goals and AMC Bailey had 2.
Brixton U18s 5:2 Brixton Youth Candidates
Again, my Head of Youth Development wants me to sign all of them but there are some stinkers, so no.
The first batch of reports are completed on 12 August. There is one kinda promising striker from a small team who can be a Target Man under the right tutelage. I'll keep an eye on him.
Hold on a second. What's this?
Okay, he's slow and doesn't have a lick of Balance, buuutttt…look at his Technicals! Lots of great Mentals too. Professional but short. His Player-Preferred Move actually matches well with his Dribbling, First Touch, Technique, Composure, and Flair. The scout who reported on him is rated 17 at Judging Player Ability and 15 at Judging Player Potential. He rates David Steadman at only 28 out of 100. But look at those Attributes!
Steadman is an English kid who plays for a small Welsh team called Saltney Town. They are in the Welsh Second Division. What are the odds they produced someone this seemingly good. The scouting report says I wouldn't owe Saltney anything. Do I send my AssMan for a second look or do I just straight up sign him? But wait. Haven't we been here before? Because he plays Wales, we'll have to wait until he turns 18? Like John Burns and Michael Stewart. Hmmm...
Okay, here's my philosphy, I'll sign him with some pretty gradual escalators figuring he won't join us for 2.25 seasons, when we, with a bit of luck, will be in the Premier League, or more likely the Championship. We should be able to afford a paltry salary. If he doesn't pan out and I was being delusional, were out, what? £75,000 at the worst? Let's just hope Saltney Town can get his Pace to a respectable level.
Oh. Odd. We wouldn't actually get him on his 18th birthday, we'd get him at the end of the Welsh season, after his 18th birthday. So, 9 June 2025. Feels so weird to think that far ahead. He agrees immediately! I guess I overshot on the offer. Again. Meet David Steadman:
Man, I sure hope he pans out and he isn't some kind of fluke who flames out quick like what happened to me in Front Office Football a couple of times.
I also pick up another GK as I want to always have two in the U18s; Michael Stewart is going to be moved up to the Seniors sometime in March. His name is Carl Povey and he isn't much too look at but he's the better one of the only two GKs who actually want to join us. He was the taller of the two and has the better personality, Fairly Professional. He shouldn't be all bitchy about training. I offer him what I gave to YID kid Jermain Peters and he agrees immediately. Due to some rule I don't understand, he doesn't join us until 9 June.
On the 10th I set up some Tutoring. Eddie Macey gets to educate Veloudos and Stephen Lemon gets to take Nash under his wing.
[Ed. Note: I couldn't take the dark gray skin any more so I found something more reasonable. It sure helps me, hope it helps you.]