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It’s being billed as the “Champions League of youth football”, which is probably a massive overstatement, but the NextGen Series is an interesting competition nevertheless. We’re one of 16 teams across Europe taking part in this new Under-19 championship which kicked off with a handful of games this evening, including our own Young Lions going down 2-0 to Ajax at their youth training camp, De Toekomst – Dutch for “The Future”.
As the competition is so new, information is a little sketchy and many plans, including fixtures and venues, are yet to be finalised. The broadcast of matches is restricted to the individual clubs’ channels for the moment, where applicable, but the organisers are in discussions with partners for the knockout phases in the new year.
All three of our home games in the group stage will be played at Villa Park:
- September 28th – Fenerbahce
- November 2nd – Rosenborg
- November 22nd – Ajax
A glimpse of the future
Obviously the prospect of putting our youngsters up against tough opposition and the experience of travelling across Europe can only be beneficial, but it’s difficult to avoid asking questions about the future of reserve football in England.
Tottenham pulled out of the Premier Reserve League a couple of years ago and Man City have elected to follow them this season, withdrawing their so-called “Elite Development Squad” to focus on the NextGen Series and other fixtures they’ll arrange themselves.
I suppose the prospect of playing the likes of Barcelona and Inter Milan is a little more “elite” than taking their youngsters to Wigan. If only their senior team had such a luxury.
Is this a glimpse of the future then? Well, quite possibly, and in more ways than one. However, the point has been made that players are making the breakthrough to first team football at the top level later and later these days, anything that helps to prepare them can only be a good thing.
I’m reserving judgement for now, but there’s clearly some potential there. It’s worth keeping an eye on so I’ve created a new NextGen Series page to replace the old Pre-season page which includes a map of all the teams taking part, the groups, fixtures and results. I’ll do my best to keep it updated as we go though the season.
Aston Villa Starting XI vs Ajax: Siegrist, Nelson-Addy, Bryan, Williams, Cameron, Carruthers, Johnson, Juan Serrano, Graham, Burke, Taylor. Subs: Robinson, Barrett, Darkin, Webb, Bateman, Caira, Grealish.
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4 Comments to “NextGen Series kicks off in Amsterdam: Ajax 2 Aston Villa 0”
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am liking the look of this site,a villa fan all the way from Kenya,keep up the good work Dan,looking foward to be a regular contributor.Cheerz
thanks! i don’t get a great number of visits from africa, but kenya’s 2nd only to south africa in visits from the continent. good to have you.
dan,what do you thinkg of our prospects?/personally i dont think Albrighton will make it,same as Clark,though in Delfouenso and Gardner will.
i haven’t seen enough of gardner 1st hand to give an honest opinion, but he’s very highly thought of, hence his inclusion in the 1st team now.
fonz has been around the 1st team for ages, but still hasn’t done much. not really. question mark over him then, he’ll need to show something this year, although he’s still only 20 believe it or not.
albrighton & clark have already made it as far as i’m concerned. cracking players and will hopefully be part of the side for years to come.
bannan’s the one i really want to see more of this year.
but from the youngsters who will be taking part in this nextgen series: siegrist, nelson-addy, cameron, johnson, carruthers, serrano and burke would be the ones to watch out for i think.