Ollie Watkins

[Snoop Fog]

Moxey is correct. Rightly or wrongly for a player to currently get in the England squad they need to be playing top flight football, either at home or abroad. If Watkins is good enough he'll soon be playing in a top flight division and then his international opportunity is a real possibility. Until then he's just a decent Championship player. Its fine lines in football.

 

[Terryhall]

Worth noting that he is still eligible for England U21s. He'd be one of the older players in the side, and the 2019 Euros would be the last tournament he'd be eligible for - but it'd be fantastic for putting him even more in the spotlight. Unfortunately for him, it seems to be a fairly settled and successful squad already, and breaking in will be difficult when he's still competing for a place against a lot of players that start in the Premier League.

Still, if he keeps this sort of form up it'll be very hard to justify keeping him out.

He isn't. Current deadline is 1 Jan 1996, Ollie was born 30 Dec 1995, so he is two days too old for England U21.

 

[Temporarily Exiled]

He isn't. Current deadline is 1 Jan 1996, Ollie was born 30 Dec 1995, so he is two days too old for England U21.

Oh that's a shame. For some reason I was under the impression that it was done by season, not calendar year.

 

[Terryhall]

Oh that's a shame. For some reason I was under the impression that it was done by season, not calendar year.

Agree, its a real pity. Took me a while to find the rules on eligibility for the current tournament (if I remember rightly its for the 2019 U21 Euros) and they set a fixed date where any player born after that date is eligible. Tough break for Ollie but he is still just 22 and as others have posted, when he eventually gets his PL move (or even if he goes up with Brentford), no doubt he'll be in discussion for the senior side too. In that context its good to see Demarai Gray getting called up for tomorrows game - similar type of player to Ollie but has the advantage of (a) played for England at age group level and (b) plays in the PL. (He is 6 months younger than Ollie, so despite both being the same age, he was originally called up for the U21s and was drafted up into the senior squad today)

 

[STURTZ]

Wilfred Zaha would surely be miles ahead of Ollie if he hadn't grown tired of waiting for a call up and switched his allegence to Ivory Coast. Be real Greek chums there are loads of players ahead of championship starlet Watkins.

 

[Colesman Ballz]

Wilfred Zaha would surely be miles ahead of Ollie if he hadn't grown tired of waiting for a call up and switched his allegence to Ivory Coast. Be real Greek chums there are loads of players ahead of championship starlet Watkins.

Blimey, we aren't even allowed to dream without the Sturtzzi bringing out the tear gas and water cannons !

 

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

I see Dean Smith is strongly linked to the Villa job. If he goes and the new man doesn't rate Ollie as much could it affect our sell-on?

 

[IndoMike]

Yeah, we don't do things differently!

Perhaps you'll listen to one of your ex-coaches, who coached Watkins at Exeter:

Kevin Nicholson@kevnicholson1

Brentford have started the season impressively. One of the youngest teams in the @SkyBetChamp remain unbeaten. A club that do things differently, show faith in young players and believe in playing an attractive style of football to achieve positive results.

From his twitter account.

Must be a worry with Smith being linked with Villa....Hope he stays to take care of our Ollie.

 

[Andy Holloway]

Must be a worry with Smith being linked with Villa....Hope he stays to take care of our Ollie.

or takes Ollie with him for £20m!

 

[IndoMike]

or takes Ollie with him for £20m!

I never thought of that. Good thinking (...except Villa never want to fork out the dosh)