Eye-Catching Youth Talent, the Sack Race and Groundsman of the Year – Talk the Football League
- Sam Greasley-Machin
- Sep 20, 2019
- 4 min read
The past week the Championship saw it’s fair share of empathic away wins with Bristol City, Birmingham, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds in games they might not have necessarily all been favourites. In Birmingham we saw a prime example of one of the many exciting, young EFL talents on display this season in Jude Bellingham with his winning goal.
While League One and Two has been dominated with a series of eye-catching, high-scoring displays last weekend and as the week has gone on it has shown that despite being only September the full managerial merry-go-round is in full swing. All this and more in this weeks edition of the column.
Eye Catching Championship talent
Usually it is as the season ends that the young talents of various clubs across the country begin to blossom and demonstrate their talents. This year already within the opening stages youngsters are having drastic impacts on matches and not players loaned from the league above, as is usually the way, but more and more are rising from their own clubs academy ranks.
GOOAALLL – Charlton 0 Blues 1 (Bellingham 52)
🔥 JUDE. BELLINGHAM. 🔥@SkyBetChamp | #BluesLIVE pic.twitter.com/vOpfpa3VFy — Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) 14 September 2019
Jude Bellingham is one youth star already having a game changing impact with his goal the difference as Birmingham dealt Charlton their first defeat of the campaign. The 16-year-old looks to be an incredible talent and was unlucky not to score in his previous game. On his debut in August he became the Blues youngest ever player and it’s clear what all the Birmingham’s fans hype is about, certainly one to watch out for this season. Another young star putting in eye-catching performances is Han-Noah Massengo of Bristol City who, since his summer arrival, has looked as comfortable as any experienced central midfielder in the division and certainly proving why the Robins forked out £7m for the 18-year-old. While Nathan Ferguson has nailed down his place in the West Brom side this season despite fierce competition as can be said for the next in-line of talented Sessengon’s down at Craven Cottage. Another talent turning heads in London is Eberechi Eze who has become a crucial part of Mark Warburton’s side and a huge factor as to why they are flying high this season. The 21-one-year-old has netted three times this season and set up two, the tricky playmaker is without a doubt one of the best players to watch in the league so far this season and without a doubt will go onto big heights. Michael Olise of Reading is another exciting playmaker who shows great promise but so far is yet to see real game time this campaign in the league. It’s always brilliant to see young players shining especially when it’s for their own club and not teams developing someone else’s talent. That too often ends with the parent club going on to sell the players for a higher fee and exploiting the clubs that develop the talent for nothing, as Chelsea love to do. Of course there are other young plyers such as Eddie Nketiah and Conor Gallagher performing well, but this is a highlight of players not on-loan. Sacking season is well underway Sacking season is well and truly underway particularly in League One, where three managers have already left or been sacked despite being only in the second month of the season. Phil Parkinson has left Bolton which resulted in fans being conflicted following his efforts despite the awful situation he found himself in. Kevin Bond was rightly sacked from Southend following their awful start while Danny Cowley was tempted away to Huddersfield along with his assistant and brother Nick. Micahel Appleton was appointed the successor to the Cowley’s and what an appointment it is for the Imps. The 43-year-old is still a relatively young manager with plenty of experience in the lower leagues with Portsmouth and Oxford but also at the top following an interim stint at Leicester City. As with every season this is just the start of the many managerial comings and goings, it is unusual to see the sackings taking place so prominently so early on but that is where modern football is going or rather perhaps gone. Many great managers of the past wouldn’t have stood a chance today.
Groundsman of the season Everyone is familiar with the tragic story that has unfolded at Bury this season, but one man still showing up every week despite his sides exile from the league is the groundsman at Gigg Lane. Michael Curtis still turns up to keep the pitch in immaculate match day condition despite having no team to play on it. Curtis was one of only two staff members who tried to keep the club running in their final weeks before being expelled from the league. Once they were kicked out he found many new tasks that required his attention such as fixing doors and windows broken by angry fans and sorting the pitch they dug up, never giving up hope. Yet in his efforts he continued working tirelessly for essentially no reason, that takes real hard, devoted commitment and has my vote for groundsman of the season. Why not check out last weeks column here discussing the young talented managers in the EFL, player of the month awards and the team to keep an eye out for in League One thi season. Also don’t forget to follow Talk the Football League on Twitter to hear all the latest Football League news and join in on the discussions @TalktheFL.
By Sam Greasley-Machin
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