03 Apr 2018 07:22:20
Hi Eds,

Can you shed some light on what is the plan of the club for Yan Dhanda? he looks a good player and has been playing regularly in the under23 side. Looks a bit similar to Jao texiera.

Thanks, Ashish.

{Ed001's Note - it is not that simple, each year the club sits down and assesses the situation with the youth players. While it can be a disadvantage not having a plan set out, it also allows the club to react more easily to changes in a player. As players mature at completely different rates and in different ways, it is impossible to do what Chelsea keep trying to do and make a long term plan. Which is why their system has failed to produce much in the way of first team players. Ours should, I emphasis should, work better, but it is being badly handled so doesn't work as well as theirs, but that is failings within the club's organisation.

Anyway, with regards to Dhanda, during the close season his performances and physical, mental and technical maturation and abilities will be assessed. Then it will be decided what to do for next season. Even then, a youngster can easily change things by how they act in pre-season. I don't have the knowledge of his development to give anything other than a guess, right now, as to what will happen, even within the club it would be no more than an educated guess. Look at McTominay, for instance, the lad was nowhere near a first team place until he grew a huge amount in less than a year. If Dhanda has a similar growth spurt it can change everything for him too, though not always for the better. I know of one lad who was forced to retired from playing after a growth spurt caused injury problems, his muscles were unable to cope with the sudden growth and he suffered a number of injuries. It can cause balance problems, players technique can suffer, all sorts of things. That is why it is so difficult to predict which young players make it through and why it is so idiotic that clubs spend huge sums on trying to recruit kids as young as 8.

Sorry I got on a rant then and completely lost track of the actual question. The club will have a look over the summer and make a choice of loan, staying with the u23s or pushing him towards the first team. The latter option is the least likely and he would have to be exceptional to make that step. Looking for a loan for him is the most likely.}

1.) 03 Apr 2018
03 Apr 2018 08:28:19
As things stand Dhanda has 88 days left on his LFC contract. He is 20 later this year and does not seem to have progressed at all in the last 12 months. I have only seen him live on a couple of occasions, most recently against Man Utd U21 last month when he was completely out of his depth and taken off after 70 minutes. Just a personal opinion.

Incidentally, there are seven or eight U21 players whose contracts are up at the end of June.

{Ed001's Note - I never realised his was coming to an end, that is a surprise. His age is irrelevant, players at that age go through a stall in progress, it is the way it is. They are growing up and it is more of a journey of ups and downs than a upwards curve.}

2.) 03 Apr 2018
03 Apr 2018 10:19:03
Ed001 - Thanks a lot for your detailed response.

i think the pressure of the league is so high that the managers do not want to take the risk with young players. Suso, Tex etc come to mind. If we get a good midfielder or winger from the academy like we got Sterling, that's almost more than 50 million saved for the club.

{Ed001's Note - Teixeira never had a chance because of fitness issues.}