Twelve-year-olds Sam Crabtree, Jamie Mourant and Charlie Petulla are all pupils at the Jersey Football Association’s Centre of Excellence and they have been invited to spend a week with the Nationwide League Championship club from 7 August.
JFA Centre of Excellence director Dave Kennedy said: ‘This trio have recently finished their first year with the Centre and the application they have shown both in terms of attitude and their improvement in games has been particularly good.
‘The Southampton coaches visited us for in-service work and they took a closer look at all of them and they want to take them away for a week.
‘The boys will receive further coaching by way of a residential training camp and they can only benefit from their visit.
‘Personally I’m delighted for the players, the Centre and the Island.
This shows that our Centre is doing the correct things to help the development of its players.
‘The boys will now be given coaching by top-class coaches and that can only help them further.
‘A strong relationship with Southampton has been built up over the years and the partnership has already resulted in Joel Speight and Michael Weir playing for the club under contract.
‘Two other Jersey lads are being looked at as well, a week before the three youngsters go, Year-8s Kamen Nafkha (13) and Jake Baker (13) will also be attending trials.
‘Southampton is a great place to send the kids; they have a good policy in place and they are the current Youth Academy under-18 champions having won the title last season despite clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal in their group.
‘Their academy is proven too as Arsenal’s Theo Walcott is a product of Southampton and he is currently with the England squad in Germany for the World Cup.’
