Teenagers. Being the walking volcanoes of untameable hormones and angst that they are, naturally, they are highly unpredictable. Put 22 of them on a pitch, give them a ball, some fans, and a referee crew? The humanity! Aston Villa took on Marseille Wednesday night as hosts, champions of Group 3, and owners of the second-best defensive record in the inaugural NextGen Series.

Sky Sports understands Liverpool have handed a two-week trial to Swedish teenager Abdul Aziz, who has been dubbed the "baby Didier Drogba".
The 14-year-old, who was born in Sierra Leone, has an excellent scoring record for his club ISK Norkopping and with the SwedenUnder-15 national team.
Manchester United and City had both been watching the youngster, but have been caught napping by their north west rivals who moved swiftly to land Aziz on a trial.

It isn't every day that a bright young player like Junior Flores comes around. Major League Soccer knows it and is trying desperately to add him to their 2012 Generation adidas class.

Reports from the Washington Post say that the league has already offered Flores a lucrative GA contract, one likely to be on the high end of those deals signed in this class.

Sir Alex Ferguson has sung the praises of Manchester United's Brazilian twins, Rafael and Fabio Da Silva, and hopes that the injuries which have seen them miss so much of the season so far will become more infrequent the older they get.

"The two of them are terrific talents," said Ferguson.

· Have we ever had a less important match in our schedule? Friendlies aside, this is one of the greatest non-events in our history. With Sunderland and Chelski coming up in the League over the next week, and the cyanide-laced chalice of Europa qualification limited to mathematics equations of the absurd, ‘Arry would be forgiven for just leaving Clive Allen and Tim Sherwood to take care of the kids tonight, or maybe fielding Allen and Sherwood themselves.

Former Manchester United player, Lee Martin, has taken time out to answer a few questions for RoM on his time at the club and what he's been up to since.

STR: You joined United when you were a kid. How confident were you of making it for the first team then?

LM: I was never confident I was ever good enough to play in United's first team.

Will Liverpool's new youth policy produce the next Gareth Bale or more of Rafa's 'talentless teenagers'?

With the minimum of fuss, Liverpool's director of football Damien Comolli has introduced a new emphasis at Anfield, backed by the instincts of manager Kenny Dalglish.

On the weekend of Sir Alex Ferguson's 25th Anniversary, United's academy travelled to Bolton Wanderers and returned with a slender 2-1 victory. In Sir Alex's twenty five year career, he's given a first team debut to an incredible 79 teenagers. It's impossible to accurately predict which of the current crop of boys will go on [.

—————————————– The Christmas gift for the fan with (almost) everything —————————————– By Tony Attwood For years and years talented children and teenagers in England have been hindered if their talent is in the world of football. While talented youngsters who express their genius in terms of music, mathematics, the theatre, dance, visual art, literature or [.

Following my original article singing Benny's praises as a footballer and all round good egg, he continues to impress me no end. Assou Ekotto is a complete breath of fresh air in today's game. This week he's been "rewarding inspirational teenagers" where more than 70 young people received their Educational Achievement Awards from the man himself at a special ceremony at White Hart Lane as part of a joint initiative between Haringey Council and the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

Green, Walcott, Sterling, Bostock, Rajkovic and more expensive teenagers

Six mega-bucks Premier League deals for kids

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A news article on 2011-10-04 17:00:04 from: Talksport

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Soka Afrika Every year thousands of players don't make the grade and are left on the proverbial footballing scrapheap. Whilst that can mean huge disappointment and readjustment of career prospects for European teenagers, it can – in the worse cases mean homelessness, complete isolation in foreign lands and family-rejection for their African counterparts.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ross Barkley, Phil Jones and John Flanagan: the top 10 teens in the Premier League

Taking a look at the teenagers destined for big things

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A news article on 2011-09-30 08:00:00 from: Talksport

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Arsenal are always on the lookout for new young talent, but at the moment the majority of supporters are crying out for more experienced, big named players to be signed in January not more foreign teenagers with a future, but the two players mentioned today have first team experience already at such a tender age.

Ryan Giggs has warned the youngsters coming through the ranks at Old Trafford that talent alone is insufficient to make the grade at United.
The veteran midfielder feels a number of the club's teenagers are good enough to pull on the famous red shirt but the important step is to have the fight and determination to succeed at the highest level.

Revealed: Why I will be performing at Tuesday night's England v Wales match at Wembley

After all these years, and 89 Premier League yellow cards, it seems I'm still a valued customer at the Football Association. And just when I thought my chances of appearing at the new Wembley were gone, I will now be performing at Tuesday's England v Wales game.

It seems that Spurs are being linked with just about every teenager in world football at the moment and this morning sees two more stories concerning some promising young talent.

The first of these involves Tasos Kantoutsis a 17 year old Greek defender who is with Atromitos at present.

Demba Ba, Alan Shearer, Kenny Dalglish and six footballers overlooked as teenagers

If at first you don't succeed...

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A news article on 2011-07-08 11:12:22 from: Talksport

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Three Teenagers Do No Make A Summer by Gaz Radamel Falcao, Karim Benzema, Eden Hazard, Gervinho, Ricky Alvarez, Mamadou Sakho, Christopher Samba, Gary Cahill, and so on, and so on. Every day there is a player we are supposed to be "on the brink" of signing, but still we haven't strengthened our squad with the [.

I have read very few articles over the last week or so but some things have stood out. I didn't know how to feel about these things. Part of me was amused, another part was annoyed, and there were moments when I was positively repulsed by what I read.

Let's consider the draw against Liverpool.

Super Star title in the world of football should not be used a lot, and in my opinion, should be given very conservatively with players such as Platini, Cruyff, Zidane, Ronaldo1, Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton .......
Messi at the age of 23, going to another country for the intention of playing against their team, but then missing the game because of light injury, and still ending up by a hero, with so many people asking for his autograph.

The process is part of a painstaking two-and-a-half-year project by the Barclays Premier League leaders to develop their own talent in South America rather than splash out huge fees on the next generation of stars.
Confidentiality agreements prevent Desportivo Brasil from revealing which of their 100-plus teenagers have a pre-contract agreement with United, but Sportsmail has learned that the five players pictured at Old Trafford are called Gladstony, Aguilar, Lucas Evangelista, Agnaldo and Rafael Leao.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is preparing a double raid on Crystal Palace for hot prospects Wilfried Zaha and Jon Williams.
Anfield scouts have been monitoring Zaha during his first full season for Palace and Dalglish has had glowing reports about the 18-year-old striker, who is also interesting Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle.

Wellington Silva

After failing to qualify for a work permit for the UK, Wellington Silva will spend the rest of the season with Spain's Levante. The player was expected to join Arsenal this month but failed to meet the UK's stringent regulations regarding work permits for non-EU players. The teenager got off to a very bright start in 2010 before falling out with the coaching staff at Fluminense.

The season kicks off on my side of the Atlantic this weekend with one of the great hidden gems of the footballing calendar - the South American under-20 Championship.
Back in 1954, when it was first held, this was an out-and-out youth competition. It is stretching the point to say the same thing today.

Today I participated in the Philadelphia Union Media Community online chat sponsored by the Brotherly Game. A transcript of the chat can be found here. This was my first experience participating in a public online chat. There were a lot of participants and the pace was quite fast. I frequently found myself typing out a comment and being on the verge of pressing "send," when I discovered the topic has already changed.