Do we need a transitional stage?
What I’ve heard supporters say in the past is that without an Under-23 side the transition from our youth set up to the first team looks difficult, close to impossible. I might have had similar thoughts myself. So, it was interesting when Kevin Kuhn suggested we look at the first team appearance stats for the season just ended to see how many players had come through our youth system. It turns out to be roughly a third and they made 27% of the actual appearances in pre-season, league and cup games.
Forty players made first team appearances last season. Of those, fourteen have played in one or more of our youth sides. Some were still playing in EJA games as well though perhaps not on the same weekend. Of the 751 individual appearances through the season 206 were made by players with Ware youth team records. That’s 27.43%. The names of the players concerned and their number of appearances in 2025/6 are given at the end of this article.
Is there more to it than it seems?
Of course, it isn’t quite as straightforward as the figures suggest. A number of those named below moved on to other clubs to gain experience before returning to Ware. One, Sami Moutawafiq, went as far as Spain to get more playing experience. Ben Nightingale went to West Ham and then came back on a brief loan from Dagenham & Redbridge. Others made only short and infrequent appearances off the subs bench last season. Two others left the club to get more regular football elsewhere; Gabriel Chapps moved on to Grays Athletic and played in all of their last twelve games, scoring four goals; Andrew Bennett joined Biggleswade Town appearing in fourteen of their last fifteen matches including the play-off semi-final.
So, room for improvement perhaps but movement from the youth set up to the first team looks more fluid than in the past.
Now, how many of last season’s under-17s, pictured above having won the Herts FA under-18 cup will eventually move on to the first team and by what route?
A timely reminder
The youth teams are recruiting for 2026/7 now.
The fourteen and their 2025/6 apperances
- Andrew Bennet 3
- Baran Cambaz 3
- Gabriel Chapps 39
- Roman Chapps 2
- Rechan Esprit 47
- Freddie Higgs 3
- Tom Kay 1
- Sami Moutawafiq 51
- Ben Nightingale 6
- Leigh Rose 10
- Leon Theodoropoulos 1
- Logan Timothy 7
- Herbie Townsend 19
- Gabriel Ward 14
