While Jordan Spence is doing his club and county proud by captaining England in the European Under-19 Championship qualifiers, another Young Lion is continuing to impress at club level for West Ham United.
Junior Stanislas played for the U19 side in a friendly in November last year and has built on his promise with some fine performances for the reserves this season. Stanislas has been used in the same position that Matthew Etherington fills for the first team, and, like the whufc.com player of the month for September, thinks it brings more to his game.
"I feel it benefits me as when you play in a 4-4-2, you are working up and down all the time. In this system you do less work but you can have more effect on the game. It's not a free role as you are playing as a three with the wide men tucked in a little hole behind the striker. You see more of the ball and you can look a good player in that role."
Stanislas has moved up from the youth side this season and enjoyed his first involvement with the first XI when he was named on the bench against Watford in the Carling Cup. "I want to break into the first team and do well and keep working hard. I want to follow in the footsteps of Freddie [Sears] and Kyel [Reid] and go beyond them."
During his latest reserve team outing against Fulham, the 18-year-old showed his prowess in dead-ball situations. As well as several useful looking corners, Stanislas forced two good saves from the goalkeeper with free-kicks. "I like any dead-ball situation - corners, free-kicks - and I work on them after training so it was nice to hit a couple of good ones.
"I watched [Gianfranco] Zola on television and I watch him in training showing the first-teamers the techniques and how to take them. Hopefully he will show me and I can score one next time."