ExeterCitysRealDeal
Member
With Mr Grimes likely to be living his final 24 hours as an Exeter City player I thought it would be interesting to see what everybody's thoughts were on which one of Sean Goss ex Exeter City academy now at Man Utd or Matt Grimes soon to be Swansea City(?) made the right decision for their career at 16? Sean Goss was the star of the Exeter City Under 16s with Matt Grimes and got his dream move to Man Utd at 16 netting Exeter City a great £100k in the process and his since gone on to earn a professional contract at Man Utd whilst playing for their reserve team currently.
During the same period his direct contemporary Matt Grimes signed his apprenticeship contract with ECFC, got a pro contract, earned POTY last season, England U20 caps and has earnt a move to a good Premiership club in Swansea earning ECFC a big fee (for us, not big in PL terms).
Sean Goss is at a much bigger club and if he breaks through will play for the full England side as default (see Tom Cleverley).
Matt Grimes has gone to a much smaller club but looks likely to get PL game time before the end of the season and probably England U21 caps in the process. If he impresses will likely play for England in the future.
Who made the right career choice at 16 and if their positions were changed would Grimes have still progressed like he has and now be breaking into the Man Utd first team and would Sean Goss being packing his bags in the same way as Matt Grimes is in preparation for his big move to the Premier League after earning it through his performances for ECFC?
We will never know the answer but it is an interesting question and it is likely to be a similar question to what Kwame Ampadu and Ethan Ampadu have been thinking about over the past couple of months and probably will continue to going forward until their decision is made.
For the record Frank Lampard has gone on the record to say that with his son he would like him to be at Chelsea's academy until he is 16, then he would plan to put him at a good League 1 or 2 club so he can breakthrough to the first team to play regularly at 17/18 years old as in his opinion that is the best route for young players to develop.
During the same period his direct contemporary Matt Grimes signed his apprenticeship contract with ECFC, got a pro contract, earned POTY last season, England U20 caps and has earnt a move to a good Premiership club in Swansea earning ECFC a big fee (for us, not big in PL terms).
Sean Goss is at a much bigger club and if he breaks through will play for the full England side as default (see Tom Cleverley).
Matt Grimes has gone to a much smaller club but looks likely to get PL game time before the end of the season and probably England U21 caps in the process. If he impresses will likely play for England in the future.
Who made the right career choice at 16 and if their positions were changed would Grimes have still progressed like he has and now be breaking into the Man Utd first team and would Sean Goss being packing his bags in the same way as Matt Grimes is in preparation for his big move to the Premier League after earning it through his performances for ECFC?
We will never know the answer but it is an interesting question and it is likely to be a similar question to what Kwame Ampadu and Ethan Ampadu have been thinking about over the past couple of months and probably will continue to going forward until their decision is made.
For the record Frank Lampard has gone on the record to say that with his son he would like him to be at Chelsea's academy until he is 16, then he would plan to put him at a good League 1 or 2 club so he can breakthrough to the first team to play regularly at 17/18 years old as in his opinion that is the best route for young players to develop.
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