Who will break through?

We haven’t had an academy player break into our team for a while now. While we have had players promise a lot, they’ve never sustained a place in our side and have left the club. Mark Little, Dan Jones and Lewis Gobern all left in the last year or so despite impressing in Mick’s first year, remember Liam Hughes or Chris Cornes? We’ve produced a few good players over the years. Matt Murray is still at the club, Joleon is an England international and playing in Europe for Manchester City and Robbie Keane has been at all the clubs he supported as a kid. This year, there are a few youngsters who could make it.

Scott Malone – An England youth international, and has been involved in the u19s squad in the last few days. As a left back, you’d think he has a decent chance. The signing of Jelle Van Damme has made a first team place a lot more difficult but if it doesn’t work out for the Belgian he may well get a chance. 6/10 chance.

Ashley Hemmings – Got a couple of games towards the end of our promotion season and impressed. Struggled with injuries last year, but the skillful forward played well at Walsall recently and bagged a goal from left wing. With Doyle, Fletcher, Sylvan, Keogh and Vokes currently ahead of him it will be very tough for him. 4/10 chance.

Batth – future skipper?

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing – In his only senior appearance for Wolves, he won the man-of-the-match award in the home Carling Cup tie against Swindon. It was a very dull game but he still received plenty of praise for his pace and dribbling skill. He’s on loan to Peterborough right now but if one of our wingers gets injured, which they quite frequently do he’ll be called back and be fighting for a place. 7/10 chance.

Danny Batth – Had Colchester fans raving about him last season, the future looks bright for the young centre back. He won the academy player of the year last season, and Mick has been pleased with him. He has shown great leadership skills in his friendly appearances and to me looks the likeliest to get in our team. Craddock might bot be able to last the year which could see him battling it out with Mouyokolo and Berra for a place in the heart of the defence. 8/10 chance.

These aren’t the only ones too. James Spray made the bench last year away at Wigan when we had injury problems up front, Johnny Gorman made his international debut for Northern Ireland at the age of 17 this month and John Dunleavy has been involved in the friendlies as has Sam Winnall. Who knows, maybe Zele Ismail might get a chance. I haven’t heard much about him though for a while now. Anyone have any news about him?