From Leeds United’s Jack Clarke to Middlesbrough’s Marcus Tavernier, these 10 talented teenagers are quickly becoming fixtures in the future of footballAfter several game-changing cameos off the bench, the York-born forward was finally handed his full debut by Marcelo Bielsa last Sunday. Raw and direct, Clarke has the ability to grab games by the scruff of the neck; he kickstarted an extraordinary comeback victory at Villa Park last month and made a similar dent against Nottingham Forest and, before that, Sheffield United. Clarke has pleasantly surprised Bielsa, becoming the Argentinian’s go-to man, asked to spark Leeds into life at half-time on no fewer than six occasions since November. “When I started to look at his skills I didn’t imagine that...
New system is having teething problems but can be refined by making it quicker and sticking more closely to its ground rulesThis is both the trickiest fix to effect and the most vital. On Wednesday night the Wembley crowd could have succumbed to hypothermia in the time it took Paul Tierney to resolve decisions. As Mauricio Pochettino pointed out, having to wait two minutes to know whether you can celebrate a goal is a bit of a buzzkill. VAR is supposed to check all “reviewable” decisions (goals, penalties, red cards, mistaken identity). Goals are particularly problematic because the game stops and cannot restart until a decision is confirmed. Quite simply, these confirmations need to be quicker. Greater experience may help...
Connor Goldson and Ethan Ampadu showed their worth, Mauricio Pellegrino’s taxigate sympathy and Coventry must not be forgottenThe Dozen: the weekend’s best FA Cup photosAmid the focus on Brighton’s first quarter-final appearance for 32 years and an impressive first outing for Jürgen Locadia, Chis Hughton was keen to hail one of his team’s more unsung heroes. Connor Goldson scored a well-directed header in the first half and it was the centre-back’s first goal since returning from surgery on a heart defect, which ruled him out of the closing months of their promotion season. This was Goldson’s sixth appearance of this campaign; Hughton hoped to loan him to Ipswich in August but could not source appropriate cover and the 25-year-old, far...
Aston Villa’s £15m signing from Brentford got back on track at Stocksbridge Park Steels and has the pace and eye for goal to reach the Premier LeagueAs Scott Hogan would no doubt testify, it sometimes takes rejection to change the course of history. “We wanted to sign him, 100%,” says the Rochdale manager, Keith Hill, “but he just wasn’t ready.”Almost six years before he completed his move from Brentford to Aston Villa for a fee that may eventually rise to £15m, Hogan’s career was already at a crossroads. The Salford-born teenager had just been released by Rochdale after failing to be offered a professional contract despite some impressive performances for the youth team. Related: Non-league to Premier League: Jamie Vardy...
Will Daniel Sturridge get a chance to regain his verve? Will Ranieri fine-tune for a relegation battle? Will Ravel Morrison return to Old Trafford?A clutch of (fool)hardy Lincoln City fans queued through Wednesday night in sub-zero temperatures in order to get their gloved hands on the last tickets for their club’s biggest and indeed only fourth-round FA Cup tie since 1976. Those fans were evidently not discouraged by the fact that the National League leaders had suffered their heaviest defeat of the season the previous night, when they were beaten 3-0 by Barrow, whose rugged approach on a treacherous pitch fairly knocked Danny Cowley’s men out of their impish stride. The Championship leaders, Brighton, will probably not resort to such...