Villa Linked With Hot Young Barnsley Striker

Not much transfer gossip about at the moment but no doubt that will soon to change as we start to approach the January transfer window!

A striker, a striker, my kingdom for a striker?!

Anyway, only link I've seen recently is from the News of the World yesterday linking Villa with Barnsley startlet Reuben Noble-Lazarus.

The 15-year-old striker is apparently on our hot list and Villa lead the pack chasing his signature.

The report says he would cost in the region of £2million after he became the youngest player in the history of the Football League to make a senior debut.

Aston Villa lead the race to sign Barnsley striker Reuben Noble-Lazarus, 15, who became the youngest player in Football League history when he made his debut in midweek. The Yorkshire club will demand £2m in compensation if he goes. (News of the World)

Wikepedia says of the young fella:

Reuben Courtney Noble-Lazarus (born 16 August 1993) is an English footballer who currently plays for Barnsley. He can play as an outright striker or on the left, and is renowned for his speed. At 15 years and 45 days old, he became the youngest player ever to feature in a Football League match when he came on as a substitute during Barnsley's 3–0 Championship defeat by Ipswich Town on 30 September 2008. The previous weekend, Noble-Lazarus had scored a hat-trick for the Barnsley under-18 team, for whom he had played since he was 12 years old, and was selected as a substitute for the senior team's visit to Portman Road. Coming on in the 84th minute of the match to replace Martin Devaney, Noble-Lazarus surpassed the record set by Bradford Park Avenue's Albert Geldard in September, 1929, and equalled by Welshman Ken Roberts for Wrexham F.C. in 1951, by 113 days. He was too young to be paid for his appearance – Barnsley manager Simon Davey joked he would be given pizza and a ham sandwich for his efforts – and was due to return to school in Huddersfield the following day.

Davey had wanted to play Noble-Lazarus in the League Cup earlier in the season but was prevented from doing so by the competition's rules, which prohibit the selection of players under the age of 15. The club has made an agreement with Noble-Lazarus' school to allow him to train with the club for two days each week. Davey has said that the club will 'nurture' Noble-Lazarus by ensuring that he is '...dipped in and dipped back out...' of the team. Noble-Lazarus was included in Barnsley's squad to face Doncaster Rovers the weekend after his debut.

Davey was Barnsley's youth coach at one point and when Lazarus was just 12 years old, he played him with Barnsley players that were 18 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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