General Premier League Thread 2025/2026

If max dowman or Yamal or Rooney was Irish I wonder would you be saying that or getting thanks

and he ran straight to a tricolour..lol

Pep seems to have given up on Foden. Some come down from the player of the year in 2024.

I mean we see Evan Fergusons body falling apart and he started with Bohs at 16.

I missed the goalposts moving from 16 year olds playing senior football.

And possibly a point closer to Spurs being relegated too 😀

Rooney was eligible for Ireland at 16, FAI contacted him about an u21 call up

Rooney had a particular body type that wasn’t exceptionally athletic and he liked a drink and a smoke.

Obviously there’s Ronaldo and Messi but there is also Luka Modric, Zlatan, Paulo maldini, Ryan Giggs, Roberto Carlos, Totti, Eto’o, Seedorf who all debuted at 16 or 17 and played till they are very late 30s or more. That’s extreme cases but there are plenty of legends that started at 16 or 17 and played top level into mid 30s and went out on their own terms like Henry and Luis Figo.

I’m not saying there is no physical affects to starting that young but this perception that they are being thrown to the wolves and it’s a major problem is OTT.

wouldnt surprise me if he gets minutes this season. From the videos I’ve seen he’s special special.

Some of that OTT comes from ex football players like Michael Owen. The story goes that himself and Gerard were coming through at the same time but Owen advanced to the full team sooner and that was detrimental to his career later in life. His body wasn't ready. So many sports have the same story so it's not unique to football.

But, we have seen plenty of young players in the PL especially, labelled as failures because they don't develop fast enough. A teenage brain is an over confident idiot. Bodies develop differently but you can see how injury occurs when you place a young teenage underdeveloped lad against a developed man, so care needs to be taken. Teams and fans have to manage expectations but given the money involved, they are all impatient.

I'm surprised to read that Drogba wasn't ready until 23/24 given his physical size.

Whatever way it works out for Dowman he will be incredibly rich, he is living his dream. Say they waited until he was 19 but he suffered some catastrophic injury and never broke through, what kind of life would he have then?

Yeah, it's quite a weird view some people have. There are plenty of 'elite' youth footballers who are putting in the same work and effort as the likes of Dowman, but probably without the same backing of a top level medical/sports science team. Where you could have an argument is if he receives an injury caused by a bigger, stronger senior player, but I'd say the likelihood of an injury physically caused by another player is probably higher when playing against youths.

Of the 10 youngest players to ever play in the Premier League, half of them are legends of the game. Some may have suffered later in their career, but that's as much a function of the amount they have played, regardless of their age. I'm sure you could find some stat that says the more top level minutes any player plays, the higher their chance of an injury that has an affect on their career.

In any case, Arsenal seem to be looking after Dowman. Imagine being 16 and enjoying an achievement like he did last night. Amazing.