[wba_1996]

Yep, as with Kemar Roofe who has just signed permanently for Oxford, if you aren't knocking on the door of the first team at 21/22 then there is little chance of making it as a PL player. Unfortunately over the past couple of seasons we have seen that a lot of the players we had high hopes for haven't made the grade. Next up it is Adil Nabi who really needs to be getting game time by the end of next season or he will likely be let go as well.

The ones to watch in the academy now are Samir Nabi, Jonathan Leko and Tyler Roberts - aged 17, 16 and 16. These three next generation graduates are rated higher than the likes of Mantom, Roofe, Garmston and Thorne were from our first batch of category 1 academy players,

The challenge is holding on to these three - especially Roberts and Leko, who are attracting attention - and ensuring they don't go the way of Jerome Sinclair, Yan Dhanda and Izzy Brown. (imagine our under 18's if we still had those three)

That reminds me, I really need to update the youth academy thread. I will do it at the end of the season when we know who will be released and who will be kept.

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Adil Nabi scored the only goal as we beat Reading 1-0 earlier to end the U21 season.