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.