Anyone played against premier league players as a youngster?

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WildTurkey said:
York and Gillingham were his other clubs. He had more but York, Gillingham and Grimbsy was where he made most appearances I think. I didn't think Grimsby were even in the championship at the time, but I am probably wrong
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I played against Poulon many times when he was playing for Walker Central. Him and Sam Aiston had a few right battles on the pitch.

** Pouton, not Poulon....
 
Played against Gatesy on a cruise ship 3 a side seven years ago, oxygen was on hand.
 
Lanchesterredandwhite said:
I remember playing at Uni and there was a bloke on the other team who played 8 games for Burnley before getting released. This was when Burnley were one of the weakest teams in the Fourth Division. I thought he couldn't be very good. Jesus, he was light years ahead of anyone else on the pitch.

Still makes me laugh when people look at professionals now and say 'I could do better than that'.
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I mean, you’re right. We couldn’t.

But dya know what though - with the right breaks and training from a certain age I bet people can punch well above their weight in terms of talent.

I think a good example of that is the likes of San Marino. No way should they be only losing 3 or 4 nil to international teams. Should be 0-15. But they’ve all been trained as effective off then all defenders and relentlessly coached.

Having said that someone tried to convince me he could “do what Beckham does” in about 2003. Because anyone can cross a ball.
 
Kevin Nolan at Bolton Academy. Wanderers did a lot of stuff with various schools and we went to their training ground to do some stuff and then played against some of their best youth players. Nolan wasn't notably skilled just incredibly direct and being comparatively bigger than everyone else he was hard to stop.

Of course it was just a friendly school parternship so I daresay they weren't exactly going for it at their maximum
capacity. That said they played the game in a notably more fluid manner. It was the off the ball movement I remember the most, that was the revelation. Most of the drills we did while there were about that but seeing it in action it was like understanding a whole new dimension for the first time.
 
Couple at school. My best mate from ages 10-15 played for Fulham and Ghana, another lad in my class played for Wigan in the prem when Paul Jewell had them rocking, no point naming them because nobody will have heard of the fuckers anyway. Neither were THAT good at school where you'd think they'd have gone on and made pro footballers. Few other lads I knew at school played for lower league teams, one lad ended up coaching the U11's at Crystal Palace for a canny few years, probably still there now. He was a canny player.

Funnily enough, the best player in the whole school/world was a thick as fuck autistic african kid that ended up working at the Odeon. He'd literally dribble past everyone on the pitch, including his own team, round the goalie with the ball glued to his foot, turn around, then head back towards his own goal and dribble everyone again. He'd repeat the process until he got tired. You simply couldn't get near him. He'd also be laughing the entire time which just added to the pain of being nutmegged. When he did eventually have a lazy shot he kicked like a f***ing mule.

Would've made a cracking player. Poor fucker ended up picking up popcorn for a living.
 
Played against Bobby Stokes in schools regional cup competition - he ended up being a a FA Cup final scorer/winner for Southampton RIP
 
santa said:
Terry Fenwick & Brian Marwood.
Played against them in school league & with them for Seaham boys.
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Some fine players have come out of the Harbour over the years

Played with the entire Sunderland team in 1972 whilst they were training at the cat and dogs, Monty shouted at me and three mates to come and join in with them.
 
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Played against Allan Smith and Paul Robinson against Leeds u19 just before they made the first team, different class.
 
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