At the start of every season, we not only hope but are confident that there are players in our under-21 changing room who could feature in our first team at some point – and this campaign has seen Benicio Baker-Boaitey, Josh Duffus, Jack Hinchy, Jack Hinshelwood, Mark O’Mahony, Odel Offiah and Cam Peupion all make appearances for Roberto De Zerbi’s side. We have also had Luca Barrington, Ben Jackson, Leigh Kavanagh, Samy Chouchane and Imari Samuels feature on the bench numerous times in either the Europa League or Premier League.
To see their transition to the first-team squad makes us extremely proud as an U21 group and further proof of the pathway that exists at the club. What the call-ups do is bring real excitement and motivation to the rest of the group because they know that if they work hard and impress, it could be them being called into the first-team squad next.
The best way to do that is to perform well for the under-21s and, overall, it’s been a really good season for the group. We have played 50 games in all competitions – a huge number – but our league campaign saw us reach the Premier League 2 knockout stages, where we were narrowly beaten 5-4 after extra-time at Chelsea in a game which could have gone either way.
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We also progressed further than the club has ever done before in the Football League Trophy, reaching the quarter-finals, where we were beaten by eventual finalists Wycombe Wanderers, while in the Premier League International Cup, we topped our group, beating Valencia, Celtic, Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb.
If fact, we were the only team in the group to win all four games, with each providing a different challenge to what we would usually encounter in our league programme. We faced different systems of play, differences in the culture of the football, but the players came through each fixture incredibly well.
Ironically, it was an English team – West Ham United – who ended our challenge at the quarter-final stage, a game that again went to extra time, showing the fine margins between victory and defeat that exist at our level as well as the first-team group.
What has also made me so proud of the players is the fact that we’ve had an ever-evolving group. That’s the nature of under-21s football, where you lose players to the first team on a regular basis, with players being drafted in from the under-18s group as a result, while others will depart on loan. Yet whoever has pulled on the shirt can be proud of their efforts in whatever competition they’ve played in.
We’ve had fantastic feedback from Gordon Greer and David Weir on our players who have gone out on loan. Andy Moran has played over 30 Championship games for Blackburn this season, while goalkeeper James Beadle built on a fantastic first half of the season in League One with Oxford United to help keep Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship since his move there in January. Ed Turns has played League One football for Leyton Orient this season before helping Crewe Alexandra to the League Two Play-Off Final; Marc Leonard has continued his education with Northampton Town, making almost 50 appearances for the League One side, while Jensen Weir has made over 30 appearances in the third tier for Blackpool and Port Vale respectively.
Every player within our group is on their own individual journey – with the ultimate aim being a place in our first-team squad – but the aforementioned players have shown just how important a loan move can be as part of their education, and there will be further players heading out of the club to gain experience that way next season.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our backroom staff for their efforts this season, starting with Gary Dicker (U21 assistant head coach), who continues to make such a positive impact on the squad. The pair of us bring different skillsets to the group but have bounced off each other so well and our relationship continues to go from strength to strength.
Mikey Harris (U21 coach) and Owen Fisher (goalkeeper coach) also played key roles prior to their move to the women’s first-team set-up, with James Grainger (academy goalkeeper coach) stepping up fantastically well in their absence. Sam Hall (U21 analyst), Dan Farrar (head of academy analysis), Colin Brand (player care lead), James Hamilton (lead S&C coach), Dan Grimble (Academy S&C coach), Rich Scully (U21 physio), James Murray (lead PDP physio), Harry Wood (academy kit manager) and Matt Thomas (nutritionist) have all provided such fantastic support to the players and continue to play a key part in their development.
Our season concludes with ten players taking part in the Hong Kong Sevens at the end of the month and, following a few weeks’ rest, we will reconvene for pre-season training on 26 June. The new season will then be upon us before we know it – and I, like the rest of the staff, can’t wait to do it all over again…