Young talented Aussie lad

[clentclaret]

In Australia for a year (Queensland). Decent local 12 year old was star of national tournament. When I saw him he looked class. I thought with Aiden O' Neil coming from Brisbane, it might be worth giving someone from Burnley a heads up. Anyone know if it would be worth contacting someone and if so who

[bobinho]

It's a nice idea.

I'm sure future generations will discuss fondly how simply discussing a Belgian footballer on here years ago saw us sign him and that's how he became a PL legend.

Not dissing your idea tho. Hope it's looked at. Stars of tomorrow have to be looked at. I do worry about young talent going to waste, but that normally happens after they have been signed up by the likes of manure and chelski, then discarded after they couldn't dislodge the current big names. Maybe coming to us at this time wouldn't be much different?

[ecc]

Bit harsh that.

[Rowls]

Hopefully someone will reply with good info.

Who was scouting for us in Oceana when we secured O'Neill and Howieson? Are they still there and working for the club?

[Silkyskills1]

Where in Queensland are you,clentclaret? We have relatives that live close by Surfers Paradise. What was it about the young player that impressed you the most?

[clentclaret]

Impressed with touch, vision and attitude. Captained Queensland in national tournament where he was stand out player. Family thinking of moving over to Europe (? Taken advice)to further career. It's a long shot I know but, as rowls says, if anyone over here who could have a look or make contact would be good
I'm in rockhampton, on Tropic of Capricorn. Coming back january

[BennyD]

Give the club a call, and you may become a claret supporters legend!

[DCWat]

How many recommendations from abroad would a club like ours receive, from an uneducated source (and I mean no disrespect by that term).

My point being that it's probably not a huge number and probably not a number the cost to put a few 'follow up' feelers out there would be particularly excessive, in the grand scheme.

OK so there may be a few duff recommendations but I'm sure there are plenty of fans who would spot some real talent if it was there to be seen and if just one of those was to come to fruition, it'd have been worth the effort.

We've fans all over the world so perhaps, just perhaps there are some gems out there that they have seen.

Certainly doesn't justify the shitty comments that have been put on this thread.

[ralph8]

Well done for trying to help the scouting network, any club should follow up a good lead. Ignore the response from the smart arse comedian.

[ClaretDiver]

Living here in Thailand many of our Burmese boys are fantastically talented football players. Not Premier League quality but defo League 1/Championship with a view to making it....we have one lad who works for us who would run rings round many players...and he plays in dive boots cause he cant afford football boots.....

[Claret Till I Die]

Is he Robbie Blake's son ?

[Danieljwaterhouse]

Any football club in today's world should be using the 'uneducated' fan/scouting base to make the first step to building a world class scouting network. In days gone by scouts used to visit 'feeder' clubs and boys wishing to make it would need to be at this club to be seen. Wallasey (sp) Boys Club being one such example.

Today we have a nation and a globe that is interconnected via the web. That means performance can be analysed in real time without leaving your home/office.

For example: Mercedes F1 team have a team of analysts sat in an office in Britain reciving and giving real time information about the car and race to the engineer to pass to the driver. Why fly everyone to Tokyo when you can fly key heads and keep everyone else ever they're supposed to be.

Opinion, and until academy level that's all it really is, is the first filtering system in the scouting network before performance analysis kicks in, I.e. Is he tall enough, athletic enough, or technical analysis I.e with the ball how many received passes turner into completed passes, or how many dribbles turned into penetration into the penalty box. The way in which football 'performance' is measured isn't how you think!

You think that a boy running rings around others is an outstanding talent and it is, but is it an effective talent, is it coachable, is it transferable. Performance isn't measured just on talent or performance (other wise Jordan Rhodes wouldn't have a career) it's a mix of the two.

Players who are dropped from academy football are in the main uncoachable, they have talent, the have performance, they don't have both in enough quantity. Jesse Lingard is a prime example, he is coachable, where as others in that generation we're not. He's made it the others have had to leave or make a career further down the pyramid.

I appreciate to put this across fully would take more time than this but I'm sure you can gather my idea.

[The Sofa Shifter]

Lads, we don’t even have any youth scouts in Burnley, let alone Manchester, Liverpool or Australia. Big job for whoever comes in, all of the scouts have been sacked / left.

[Quickenthetempo]

There's something wrong about asking a young lad to move half way across the world on the off chance he can become a footballer.

[FactualFrank]

I'd say the first step would be for the OP to contact the club, but also see if any video footage can be taken. Although I'm guessing this might be the stumbling block, as I doubt many parents would be happy with someone stood at the side of the pitch filming kids, even though it is perfectly above board. But without that, the club would be going blind, with nothing to go off other than someone's opinion.

[Claretnick]

I am sure I read somewhere a couple of weeks ago that the club were looking at a link up with an Australian club. It might have been in the Perth area and the article had pictures of an acadamy coach working with some youngsters out there.
I have done a quick search on the club site without any joy. Still it might be worthwhile sending the club an email.

[SydneyClaret]

You do know that there's a professional league in Australia right. If he's good enough he'll get into a club here first then move on later.

[bobinho]

Sorry if this comes across not very well, but how much money is floating around the Aussie pro league? I genuinely don't know, but in this day and age, when kids want to be famous/rich overnite, this may be the ruling factor in this sort of decision.

[DingleDangle]

This is the article from last week regarding BFC linking with ECU Joondalup - https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport ... s-burnley/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Claretnick]

This is the article from last week regarding BFC linking with ECU Joondalup - https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport ... s-burnley/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks DingleDangle for finding the article, I was beginning to wonder if I had actually read it or dreamt it

[Claret00]

The club did have links in Australia & New Zealand & a Burnley "acadamy" side visited the UK playing matches against local youth teams between 2013 & 2015.
On their first two tours, they played as Burnley Fc Acadamy Australasia. On their last visit they were playing as Balcatta fc from Perth.

[clentclaret]

Sorry to bring this up but Burnley FC are talent spotting, in Rockhampton, on February 6. They should get a good look at him. They've set something up for the whole of Queensland, hope it brings some reward
I'm back in UK now and looking forward to first Burnley game of season Saturday

[jdrobbo]

With the greatest respect to those who have replied with sarcasm, there are several people on here alone, who have contacted the club in recent years about players abroad.

Indeed, our recent friend, Lotty, recommended that the club took a look at Anthony Knockaert when he was playing for Guingamp. Leicester benefited from our club choosing not to take up the tip-off. I don't think Lotty even received a reply. Just one of many.

We need to be careful as fans that we don't throw names at the club like we're playing Champ Man, but we also need to acknowledge that many people have made many a good suggestion down the years that have turned out to be huge misses, signing for other clubs in England and going on to have excellent careers!