James Eastham is a French Football scout and analyst who contributes for publications such as When Saturday Comes, Four Four Two, Betfair and others.
With City signing French youngster David Faupala, we quizzed James on the young player and whether he could make the breakthrough at City.
So City recently signed youngster David Faupala from Lens. Is he the sort of youngster that could make the breakthrough at City?
I don’t know whether he will make the breakthrough at City as I don’t know how strong their youth academy is. Looking at it from the outside the route into the first-team may appear treacherous because of the club’s ability to bring in ready-made players that can go straight into Manuel Pellegrini’s squad. We’ve seen another example of that with the signing of Raheem Sterling this summer.
But Faupala is a talented youngster that has attributes that would appear to make him suited to the English game.
City have been very prolific in recruiting from France, with the likes of Thierry Ambrose, Olivier Ntcham and Seko Fofana all joining the Blues and playing in the club’s Elite Development Squad. Why do you think there is such an interest in French talents?
The French Academy system remains strong in several areas. Players are well-coached from an early age. Tactically and technically they get a very good grounding. This applies to Faupala – he has come from the Lens youth academy, which has produced Raphael Varane, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Serge Aurier in recent seasons.
When you sign a young player there are no guarantees he will go on to become a top-class professional footballer. But when you sign a player from one of France’s better youth academies you are improve your chances of having a good prospect on your hands because the player will have received a high level of tuition from an early age. By the time they get to Faupala’s age the players from French academies generally have a good understanding of the game.
Having seen him on a number of occasions, what can you tell us about his playing style? Does he have any obvious strengths and weaknesses?
Having watched Faupala nine or 10 times over the past three seaons I would describe Faupala as a highly promising all-round striker.
He is tall, strong and quick. He has a decent touch and is comfortable taking the ball on either foot. He is comfortable being on the ball outside the penalty area. I have seen him play on the wing rather than as a central striker, although I prefer him playing centrally.
He has certain qualities that you might describe as typical of an old-fashioned, English centre-forward. His power, strength and athletic ability mean he can bully and scare defenders. His presence means he is a good penalty area target for other players to play off. He is good in the air and fairly mobile for his size. Central strikers tend to get few scoring chances in youoth-level games in France but on the occasions I have watched him he has shown reasonable finishing ability.
At City it will simply be a case of developing the skills and qualities he has shown in France playing for Lens’ young teams and France at youth level.
Do you know if any other clubs expressed an interest in him? Have City done well to snap him up?
Faupala was linked with a transfer to Watford about 18 months ago. That move didn’t happen but it was not surprising Watford were interested in him. When you play regularly for the France national team at youth level, scouts from clubs across Europe will be aware of you and know your strengths ann weaknesses. He will have been tracked by a number of clubs in France and abroad over the past two or three years. Clearly City have reacted to the fact he became available this summer.
Finally, with the new facilities at the Etihad Campus and seemingly more faith in the academy now, is City the right place for his development?
Again, I don’t know enough about the set-up at City to say whether it is the right place for him to be. Some would argue the lack of obvious first-team opportunities for young players at City – because of their ability to buy ready-made players – would be a concern. But the appeal of City is clear as well: I have never visited their training ground but I would imagine their facilities are first-class. He will be surrounded by other talented youngsters, and if and when he graduates to the first-team squad he will be training with top-class players every day.
Thanks to James for the insight. Follow him on twitter @james_eastham.
