Forum | Non-Football Related

In recent years a new breed of successful football players have become much younger, and the stars we see can only get better with age. Just imagine: Erling Haaland is just 20, Killian Mbappe is 22, so their potential peak is in the future. And there are so many examples of leaders in PL teams below 23 years old, like Bukayo Saka (19, Arsenal), Phil Foden (20, Manchester City) or Mason Mount (22, Chelsea), that you should be ready to support talents from the very young age. We and bookmaker-ratings.com tried to find the most interesting prospects for you:

Ademipo Odubeko, West Ham, 18, Republic of Ireland, striker 
West Ham United truly love to see young players making a career. A club that has proven to help young talent flourish could have another star in Ademipo Odubeko. The 18-year-old known as Mipo is a talented young striker who turned down a new deal with Manchester United and signed with West Ham in 2019. His most famous performances last season include a hat-trick against Southampton and two goals against Charlton in the FA Youth Cup, and while West Ham eventually dropped out by penalties, Odubeko was praised by his manager. David Moyes thought about Odubeko making his first-team debut in the second round of the English League Cup against Charlton, but the young striker was injured right before the game. Goals are the main strength of Odubeko, and his relatives believe that there is a real way to get into the main team. He scored a hat trick against Man U U-23's the other day, and may well be needed by David Moyes before the season's end.

Diogo Dalot, Manchester United, 22, Portugal, defender
United bought the young right-back for £ 20m from Porto, a move that only a few took seriously. Mourinho demanded a ready-made full-back here and now, and they bought him some teenager? What a disrespect. 
Dalot made his Champions League debut in a match with Young Boys, then played a cup match with Derby, and only on December 1, Jose allowed his compatriot to play in the Premier League. Mourinho mainly used Dalot as a full-back in three central defender schemes, while Solskjaer began to trust Diogo and the fullback position in the standard four, and even the winger position in individual meetings. Dalot played 1000 minutes in the Premier League, having managed during this time to become the second in the team in expected assists, to give two real assists, to participate in the legendary comeback against PSG. Diogo has high potential: he sees the field well and has a high speed.

David Brooks, Bournemouth, 23, Wales, Winger
The young Welsh winger spent over 1,000 minutes in the 2017/18 Championship and was well known to both the scouts and the English second tier. Bournemouth made a very good deal, pulling Brooks out of the division below, for no more than £ 10m, which is ridiculous for the Premier League. Brooks revealed himself in the Eddie Howe system. Bournemouth wingers are constantly shifting from the flanks to the centre; David in this scenario is like a fish in water. Brooks has a sense of the areas in the box to break into and is very quick and smart.Brooks once was is in the top 30 Premier League players in Deep Completions, third in xG / 90, fourth in goal + pass (7 + 5). Right now, David is unlikely to go somewhere, but after a couple of years, the native of Wales can finally open up and become a star: the style of Bournemouth will help him a lot in this.

Fabio Carvalho, Fulham, 18, England, attacking midfielder
Fulham's young player Fabio Carvalho almost made his perfect first-team debut back in September. The attacking midfielder came out in the League Cup win against Sheffield Wednesday and escaped from the Championship club's defence just minutes later. But the dream was not destined to come true, as he shot past. However, Carvalho's first-team debut was a worthy reward for a player who has long impressed his coaches in Fulham's youth team and is currently training with the main team under Scott Parker. He has played for England at the age of 16, 17 and 18 and his contribution to the attack has helped him to stand out. He has scored 7 goals and 4 assists this year in Premier League 2 for Fulham U23.

These players are the most peripheral of heroes at the moment. A career in football can be most rewarding, but it can also chew young players up and spit them out. Nobody knows how it will go for every one of these talented lads. We can only hope, that they will prove themselves able to play alongside the best, especially Ademipo Odubeko for West Ham. - Ed

The end of Hammers 3-2 win over Leicester City was like the Alamo, again!what is it with West Ham? Are the club secretly trying to kill off a large amount of fans with suspect hearts? There can be no other explanation as to why a hugely over achieving team can go in to matches devoid of their best players,  and then race to a three goals a game advantage and then have to battle through the rest of the game to survive!

Somehow and somewhere, the team spirit David Moyes has instilled in his players, helped in not a small way by Jesse Lingard, just seems to keep on grinding out results, just like 'elite' teams do. Aaron Cresswell and Mar Noble were both added to the worryingly long injury list during the game, but the band wagon keeps on rolling on, despite only having three wheels left.

Despite the brilliant result, it will still be incredibly difficult for the Irons to maintain fourth spot, but at least they have given it a real go, and perhaps fans might like to think about how they support their team as the club moves forward, and how they can make the ground, their club have achieved the 2nd best results of any other Barclays Premier League club so far, a happier place to be.

As the wonderful Darren Harry says, "button up butter cups, and enjoy the ride". - Ed

David Moyes made over 550 league appearances in his career as a player before becoming coach at Preston, since then he has managed over 575 Premier League Games, pushing him towards an incredible 1000 games in his managerial career, the figure currently stands at 974!

It would therefore be churlish to suggest that 'he hasn't a clue', a criticism often made when fans don't fully understand the metric of what is going on behind the scenes at a club. David Moyes will almost definitely name Mark Noble in the starting line up to face Leicester City in today's crucial six-pointer against Leicester City at the London Stadium.

He will probably do so because Mark Noble IS a strong leader, both on and off the pitch, the only issue being that Brendan Rodgers is an astute manager and will set his team up to exploit Mark Noble's lack of pace, and the space created by Declan Rice's injury, not to mention the Irons lack of Michail Antonio's fire power.

Losing both 'Ant & Dec' is obviously not what the manager wanted ahead of such an important game, but it is what it is, at least he can deploy the "lingard Machine' to frighten the Foxe's defenders, and he has 'King Authur' Masuaku available, at least to start with.

There is no point in banging on about the lack of strength in depth of the squad, that is something for post season, for now all fans can do is to hope that the 'cobbled together' team that David Moyes puts out can contain a Leicester City team that can be devastating on their day. - Ed