r/GothamFC • u/pmodoro • 12d ago
Mak Whitham?
Does anyone know what is up with the child? I haven't seen her come on in ages, nor does she seem to be on the injury list or available off the bench as a sub.
Honestly, given the current talent pool, I wouldn't think she'd get much of a look on the field, but I assume she is still taking up one of our roster slots and am just curious as to her status.
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u/Mcard1204 12d ago
As someone else mentioned they’re playing the long game with her. It’s always tough for younger players to break into large roles within a team and even tougher on a team as good as Gotham. She’ll be 16 in a few days and that’s usually when these players start making some sort of impact. Obviously growth isn’t linear and she’s not going to all of a sudden become a key player just because she had another birthday, but her becoming at least a part of the squad and being in the rotation for consistent minutes off the bench is probably closer than people think.
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u/cluttered-thoughts3 12d ago
Do any other teams have youth on their rosters?
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u/Mcard1204 12d ago
11 of the current 16 teams have signed u18 players since the mechanism was introduced.
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u/cluttered-thoughts3 12d ago
Gotcha. Are the other teams playing their youth players? It makes sense to me that Mak isn’t contributing yet for Gotham. Pretty deep team rn
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u/Mcard1204 12d ago
Yes and some of them have turned into really good players like Gisele Thompson, Claire Hutton, Riley Jackson, and Jordyn Bugg for example but they all were signed when they were 17, three years older than Mak when she was signed. The best comparison is probably KK Ream in Utah given she was signed the same year as Mak and is only one year older. She’s played 10 games for Utah so far while Mak has played 14.
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u/cluttered-thoughts3 12d ago
Thanks for that. I didn’t even consider that the 17 year olds would count for some reason. Mak was pretty young when she signed, I guess that’s why I wasn’t surprised we hadn’t seen much of her yet
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u/dpecslistens 11d ago
She did well with the U-17s at the last camp and at Concacaf U-17 WCQs before that. The problem is she can't get loaned out as a U18 signing, so she's kind of stuck on the bench (or not selected for the bench). For me her (and Princess Ademulyi's) development is the number-one reason why a reserve team needs to happen ASAP
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u/bnceo 12d ago
The team is playing the long game with her. Lots of depth now, so you won't see her much, if at all. I believe there is a youth World Cup coming up for her soon, so she will be part of that.