Five to watch at the Under-21 Euros including Man Utd and Arsenal transfer targets and a familiar Premier League face
One star has already impressed in the Premier League
YOUNG GUNS Five to watch at the Under-21 Euros including Man Utd and Arsenal transfer targets and a familiar Premier League face
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THE Under 21 Euros kick-off today - bringing a whole host of new stars.
England are the holders and some of their winners from two years ago are now in the senior squad.
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England are the holders of the Under-21 Euros
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Nick Woltemade is one of five players to keep an eye out for this year
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Conrad Harder was signed by Sporting last summer for £16million
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The likes of Anthony Gordon, Cole Palmer and James Trafford have been with Thomas Tuchel's party over the last week.
Premier League clubs will surely be interested ahead of the proper transfer window opening on June 16.
So, here is SunSport's five to watch - although one of the names will be familiar...
NICK WOLTEMADE (Germany)
Stuttgart's 6ft 6in striker is anything but a target man and arrives full of confidence after making his senior bow against Portugal last week.
READ MORE ON FOOTBALL
GYOK TO GO Man Utd target Gyokeres 'ready to go on strike' to force move from Sporting
The £34million-rated star's 17 goals this season have alerted a host of Prem clubs, including Everton.
Woltemade, 23, could now earn himself a big-money move by firing the Germans to Euro glory.
CONRAD HARDER (Denmark)
Sporting Lisbon brought the hotshot, 20, to Portugal for £16m last summer and now value him at nearly FOUR TIMES that amount.
Harder had seven goals and 16 assists this term — with Chelsea, Manchester United and Juventus all watching him closely.
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YEREMAY HERNANDEZ (Spain)
Deportivo winger was playing third-division football in Spain a year ago — but now has a host of top clubs eyeing him.
The 22-year-old led them to promotion with 15 goals and five assists.
Footballers you didn't know were related from Premier League icons to Lionel Messi
His electric pace and dribbling make him one to watch.
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Yeremay Hernandez will be one of the quickest players at the tournament
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JORREL HATO (Holland)
Despite being just 19, the classy defender has been named Ajax vice-captain.
Even though the Dutch giants suffered title agony, Hato was named the Eredivisie Talent of the Year.
Arsenal and Liverpool are among clubs eyeing the teen star.
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Jorrel Hato is a key figure at Ajax
Credit: Getty
ETHAN NWANERI (England)
Arsenal's attacking sensation, 18, aims to announce himself on the international stage this month.
Nwaneri produced 11 goal contributions for Mikel Arteta's men in a breakout campaign.
Equally happy out wide or centrally, Nwaneri is arguably the Young Lions' biggest threat.
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Ethan Nwaneri is England's big threat
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Instead, we believe the answer is to remain a 100 per cent community-owned club that finds its natural place in the football pyramid. Private ownership leads almost every football club in the UK through a never-ending cycle of boom and bust. And usually leaves supporters as powerless bystanders and the townsfolk as the bank of last resort.' Takeover and investment plans shelved The deal was put to a vote of the club's 2,573 fan owners and although 67.8 per cent of those who participated were in favour, turnout was just 42 per cent, sparking concerns there was not enough support for the move. It was abandoned, with Lewes even citing the fact that it would have contravened their 'core principles of equality' because it would have resulted in a cash bonanza for the women but nothing for the men. The club later announced it was 'seeking legal advice' over a 'potential conflict of interest' during the Mercury 13 talks, which Telegraph Sport has been told did not find any wrongdoing. Things were also going awry on the field for the women's team, who found themselves in a relegation dogfight which they lost in April last year despite a crowd of 2,614 cheering them on against eventual champions Crystal Palace. That spelt the end of almost £500,000-a-year of FA funding and television revenue and, without access to the director loans that had sustained them, the club slashed their budget for the women's and – therefore correspondingly – the men's teams. By then, not even record average league attendances for both sides could mask the plight facing Lewes and there were calls for the Equality FC campaign to be scrapped, including from Dobres's wife, Karen, a former club director who had been instrumental in promoting it. She and others advocated a move to what they called 'equity', which would involve the women's team being given a bigger budget than the men's in the hope both would ultimately benefit. Instead, Lewes recently floated the idea of launching an investment scheme from which owners could make a financial return but the plans, which contravened the principles under which the CBS had been founded, were quickly abandoned. That was towards the end of a season in which Lewes Women finished sixth in the 12-team National League Premier Division South. The men's team ended the campaign 13th in the 22-team Isthmian Premier. 'You are required to live beyond your means' Lewes's appeal for donations followed less than a month later in an open letter published on their website. It was written by Joe Short, who joined the board a year and a half earlier. Telling Telegraph Sport 'no one's really sure' what would happen if the money did not materialise, he was nevertheless confident the threat to Lewes was not existential. He added: 'It means that we have to shrink to such an extent that our playing budgets would just be relegation budgets.' He also said there were no immediate plans to abandon Equality FC, which had brought income and attention to the club, and that the club were victims of what had become 'aggressively high' licensing requirements at the summit of women's football. Those requirements saw Blackburn Rovers become the second club to withdraw from the Championship in the past two seasons – after Reading did so last year – and Wolverhampton Wanderers chose not to submit an application to join the division. 'You are required to kind of live beyond your means in order to stay in the top two divisions,' Short added. 'We fear it is turning into a template of the men's game, where you lose money year after year.' Collins, meanwhile, had a blunt assessment of what would happen if Lewes failed to raise the money needed this summer. 'It's a business,' he said. 'If you can't pay your bills, you potentially face administration or insolvency.' He also warned they needed to 'stand on their own two feet', even if that meant being unable to 'compete against the Arsenals and Man Uniteds'. He added: 'We just want a club to go to on a weekend.'
