“I think that group has been a group in the making for three or four years”: Praise for Blackpool U18s
Blackpool’s academy boss hails the potential shown by the Seasiders’ U18s.
Ciaran Donnelly believes a number of Blackpool’s U18 players have the potential to force their way into Ian Evatt’s senior squad.
The Blackpool academy director has been looking back on a campaign which saw them win the Lancashire FA Professional Youth Cup and finish runners-up in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup.
Speaking to the Seasiders’ in-house media, Donnelly said: “I think that group has been a group in the making for three or four years.
“They got lots of opportunities ahead of time when they were Under-16s, Under-17s, so we knew that we’d have a good group for this season’s Under-18s.
“They played in cup finals, they’ve been there or thereabouts, we’ve had some disappointments on the way.
“Some of the big nights in Youth Cups, semi-finals and finals, we’ve maybe not performed as well as we would have liked but, overall, we’ve taken quite a few of them through to become young professionals which tells you that we still think there’s a lot of potential there in the group. One or two of them are knocking on the door of the first team already.
“We think there’s talent in the group, they’ve shown that over the course of the season, and we think there’s a bit in that group.
“Hopefully the group behind them can do the same and show us the same potential but with that particular group there’s four or five players at the moment that we’re thinking, if everything falls into place, if they go on loan and they have a good one or they do well with the gaffer (Ian Evatt) down at Squires Gate - maybe get some opportunities in the EFL Trophy at some point - there’s an opportunity there that somebody might make that breakthrough.”