Roy Hodgson asks Crystal Palace not to put ‘too much pressure’ on exciting academy prospects 

Roy Hodgson has asked for caution over Crystal Palace’s exciting crop of youngsters, explaining that it would be best for their development if “we don’t put too much pressure on them.”

If Fulham fall to defeat in their game against Norwich City on Saturday afternoon, Paddy McCarthy’s Crystal Palace side could clinch the U18 Premier League South Division title this weekend with victory over West Bromwich Albion.

The excitement is tangible, with prospects such as Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, David Omilabu, Tayo Adaramola, Fionn Mooney and Jadan Raymond all sealing professional deals with the club.

Should the U18s win their inaugural season in the Premier League South Division, they would take on the winner of the Northern Division – which is a closely fought battle between Manchester United and Manchester City – in a single game that decides the overall U18 Premier League champion. Should the Eagles win, they would qualify for the prestigious UEFA Youth League.

Added to the thrilling U18 side, Palace’s U23s secured their place in the Premier League 2 Division Two play-offs, thanks to a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough on Friday afternoon.

When asked how enthused fans should be by the talented group of youngsters, Hodgson said: “I know the chairman, who follows them very closely, is very excited by them.

“There is no doubt that they are a good team and they have got some good players. I have seen four of them at close hand, and they have come up and trained with the first team and conducted themselves very well, considering the age that they’re at and the intensity of our training sessions.

“Everyone is right to be excited by them. I think the fans, hopefully, will be excited by the prospect of our U18 team possibly winning a very, very tough league.

“The only thing that concerns me in all of these matters is that it would be best for the club and for the players if we don’t put them under too much pressure.

“I would like to see their development follow a line and a pattern that it’s been taking and that we don’t start all of a sudden throwing someone in at the deep end and seeing him drown. We have got to make certain that when they get thrown in the deep end, they can swim. But there are certainly a lot of potentially very good swimmers in there.

“It would be very nice if they could win it [the league]. We can only sit and wait now. We have got to win our game at the weekend against West Brom and then hope that Fulham, who have got two games to play, don’t take four points from those two games. Whatever happens, it has been a great season for them. Paddy has done a wonderful job.”

The impressive achievements of Palace’s youth teams are all the more outstanding considering that the club’s academy was only awarded category one status in July 2020.

With the new £20million academy training complex approaching completion day by day, there is a clear legacy of Crystal Palace’s Premier League years being created.

Hodgson added: “It’s good that the club has been able to make that investment. I think that we can regale ourselves as a very much bona fide Premier League club now after eight seasons, and going into hopefully a ninth, it’s important to have the academy system and the academy facilities to back that up.

“The site across the road from where we train here in Beckenham is a really, really impressive site. It will be very useful for the club, not just for this particular U18 team we are talking about – where there are one or two players who we think have a bright future – but in terms of our recruitment and in terms of all the work that’s going to go on with many, many youngsters in years to come.

“I think that Steve Parish is rightly proud of that investment, and I am pleased that our work over these four years has maybe freed up that sort of money for them to make the investment.”