Is this the first foreign signing of Houllier’s reign 
Hattip: Villatalk.com
Well no but shows an interesting sign of things to come. We have signed Espanyol’s 16 year star Juanjo Serrano de la Cruz for a Sum of £50,000 which will rise to £800,000 with add ons in the future.
Two Pieces about him here
His attitude in this quote is spot on
At first, I know it will be hard, but yes, I want to go. The English football is more physical but also has more space, so I’m sure the position is midfielder when play- – I enjoy very much. ” Juanjo, who finished fourth secondary school, the family will live with another player on the team and his new club Aston Villa, will pay for their studies, although the first full year of dedicated to acquire the highest level of English.
And a very good sign that the reputation of our academy is spreading far and wide but I have some reservations in the amount of young stars coming in from abroad to become now ‘homegrown’. Hopefully at Villa the core of the academy is English.
Aston Villa News 24/7
Well he’s a De La Cruz and De La Cruzes always tend to be great players, right? Right???
What do you have against other nationals….we’ve got spanish flair be happy
nothing against other nationalities but we are allowed to do this because foreign clubs are not allowed to offer contracts until 18
do we really want English kids crowded out at 16, look at us and how many we have brought in as well as other nationalities, australian, Austrian etc.
as long as it is balanced no issue
The majority of the players in the Villa Academy and Reserves are English.
Then check Chelsea’s, it’s like spot the English man
They don’t have to be English to be homegrown, research & check out the Arse squad.
I hear he is starting against Stoke Monday
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Look’s like Carlos Cuellar will be his Mentor you never know he may turn out to be our Fabregas in years to come. I like the fact it seem’s Randy want’s to make Villa a hotbed for European Youth Talent with a good structual Arsenal esque scouting network.
As long as Carlos holds off on the personal grooming tips he’ll be alright.
yep but i dont think this kid can grow facial hair just yet so he is safe from carlos’s beard tips
I get you want English players, which is good, but we need players from outside of England and even Europe. Spain is a great start, they have some very talented youth players at the moment. Place I want to hack into is Belgium though. My god at the talent they have, such underachievers internationally but players like Witsel, Defour, Kompany, Lukaku, Dembele, Vertonghen, Fellaini, Vermaelen, Haroun and multiple others.
You really do speak an incredible amount of knackers Andrew
as I just posted Andrew it is fine for a few, we have Lowry, Siegrist, Weimann already
just keep it in moderation and not like what Rafa did at Pool where the reserves and youth are majority foreign
good spot ian and hopefully good news.
i assume your tongue is in your cheek when you credit it to someone who literally doesn’t have a foot in the door yet though!
it’s not like we don’t have any form; halfuid, siegrist, stieber brothers, dau, hoffman, weimann, herd, lowry and, of course, der hammer, all spring to mind.
of course Dan !!
No your right as I pointed out we have a fair few and I think we have the balance right would hate to see it tipped the other way !
cool beans, i didn’t see that comment until after i posted.
i’d say there’s a *lot* of room to expand the scouting network further afield and bring in youngsters on merit without tipping the balance though mate.
you look at the current scholars, there’s a handful of irish lads, the rest are english and now this one spaniard.
in fact, one kid from outside the british isles sounds about as *unbalanced* as it gets!
While it is good to have an English balance in the academy, they still have to be talented. I mean, we’re so used to English players at our club that aren’t exactly good yet we want to bring up more? Albrighton and Clark have been a sensation but is there really anyone special other than Gary Gardner? No, not really. Delfounso is still lacking a poachers touch which is why I rate Weihmann much higher as a striker. Do we want Parish in goal or Siegrest in 5 seasons (just a number, depends on what happens with Guzan)? We have our future RB in Lichaj who is also not English. I mean, I do like English players (not an Englishman myself), but I would rather have an academy filled with talent then an academy filled with English players.
Ian If it tips the other way and we become very succesfull will still moan about it…if they good enough they can come in it shouldn’t be about nationality
We have Gary Gardner, Harry Forrester, Sammi Carruthers (from Arsenal), James Collins. That’s four who could make it through with Clarke, Bannan, Delfuenso and Albrighton. If we are going to compete in the future, we have to have high quality youth players. Siegrist, Meehan (he will play for the first team this year), Halfhuid, Herd, Weimann, Lowrey. The percentage of non-British players is very low compared to Arsenal and Liverpool.
Wait until Gerard gets going – He’ll be bringing in a few french kids within a couple of months. He knows the best youth players in France after 3 years as big cheese youth man.
why Meehan Chip, seen good reviews and OK short on forwards with Weimann out but is he THAT good ?
to play before the end of the season indicates a top class player
Weimann is fantastic player in my opinion. Probably better than Delfouneso. The Fonz looks very awkward on the ball or something. He seems very slow and hesitant to try beat a player. I cant really explain it. In contrast, Weimann looks like the complete striker. Hes got incredible determination, he takes on defenders and scores for fun. Cant wait until hes back from injury!
He is an academy player who has just signed and is already playing in the reserves. He was a prolific goalscorer in Irish junior football.
Still your good old positive self eh ianrobo?????
Why do you have have a deluded view that any of these kids will actually ever make it?
Albrighton, Gabby, Vassell, Cahill, Barry, Yorke, Clark
all ‘made it’
Well said robbo. Is this the bloke with funny ways and a swimming pool?
would also add many of our kids play still in the football league and the likes of Alan Lee, Jamie Ward done well
should add of course Ridgewell and Gardner at the scum
Jay Lloyd Samuel did OK
Byfield still playing
but less said about the Moore’s the better !!
Our OS is a bloody disgrace. They never EVER inform us of academy signings. Cheers for letting us know Rob.
Ive always wanted us to look abroad for young players. I think things are really changing at Villa now that MON is gone.
Who the hell puts a scout in Sweden? Croatia and Russia are where all the best young players are coming from nowadays. Hopefully Houllier puts a man in either of them two.
Exciting times at Villa!
Let’s hope he’s better than the other de la cruz we signed, if he has some skill and isn’t a useless tosspot then he’s already streets ahead
Ulises may not have been the greatest of players but as a human being he’s a class act, does an incredible amount of charity work and has done a lot for the very poor in Ecuador. All on his own initiative too, rather than something a club insisted he gets involved with.
You’re the tosspot Bob Nudd. De La Cruz supports a whole town in his home country. What do you support? You probably piss your money up a wall
Hahaha, I’m not disrespecting Useless De La Cruz as a person, I appreciate he’s done a lot for charity in Ecuador. As far as playing football goes though it has to be said he didn’t get his name ‘Useless’ by being a good player.
Chip, you have some serious anger management issues, that maybe down to you being very short and/or having a small penis, but don’t take it out on me.
I didn’t comment on your physical capabilities Bob, only on your habits. I assume that when you are standing up, you are unable to see your little willy due to the big fat gut you’ve got!
“Who the hell puts a scout in Sweden? Croatia and Russia are where all the best young players are coming from nowadays. Hopefully Houllier puts a man in either of them two.”
And what if we found the next Ibrahimovic? I know people don’t like him and thought he was terrible at Barcelona (somehow… He really wasn’t)… I’d put one in Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Croatia and Germany.
ian robo your definition of “made it” is a bit way off. Albrighton and Clark have not made it yet, but they might. We have only produced a handful of quality players in the past 20 years.
you cant claim Yorke or Barry either they were taken from other clubs.
suppose you will have a come back for this as it seems you have an answer for everything. Almost on a par with that tosser than runs the Villa blog
Mr Swimming pool, they have made it, Ok maybe not the number of games I would like but they look clear PL quality to me anyway. Our academy is the envy of many, we are producing players. Some of them are like this spanish guy or Carruthers or Barry brought in from elsewhere but we nuture them and create them as the players they are and will be in the future.
In this age of little money anywhere then the youth policy is going to make the difference between midtable or challenging.
How biased you are to the Villa academy players is quite frankly embarrasing. You can not judge if a player is premier league quality until they have consistenly done it for at least 2 seasons.
Look how many one season wonders there have been not only at Villa but throughout the league.
Can we count this Spanish lad as the first signing of GH? Or who did decide to buy him?