Debut Review: Alex Samizadeh

Something that Bolton Wanderers fans have been calling for all season has finally happened; Alex Samizadeh has made his first team debut! The 17 year old Iranian came on for Kaiyne Woolery against Brentford to become the latest player to come through the youth ranks. I have to say that I have been interested to see what Samizadeh can do at first team level for a while if given the chance, has to be better than Emile Heskey right?

Samizadeh started out in English football with Curzon Ashton moving into the National League North side’s first team via their Under-18 set up. While playing for Ashton’s Under-18s Samizadeh hit almost 20 goals in under 10 games. From there he moved to Manchester City and trained with their Under-16 side but it didn’t work out. This led to him having a trial at Bolton where he impressed earning himself a scholarship. With any luck City’s loss could be Bolton’s gain.

While moving through Bolton’s youth teams the youngster from Tehran has seemingly been unable to stop scoring. On is debut for the Under-18s he netted a hat trick against Colchester United going on to score in the next three matches. He then got his chance with the development squad where he scored on his debut against Cardiff City to earn a draw. This is clearly a player with an eye for goal and natural ability.

The fact that he has been free scoring at lower levels has led to large sections of the Bolton fan base calling for his inclusion in the first team for some time now. This is of course due to the goal shy and not very good nature of many of our other attacking player, Gary Madine and Stephen Dobbie being the ones who spring most readily to mind.

It was widely reported during January that Samizadeh was wanted by fellow Championship club Derby County. The youngster was seen at Derby’s training facilities but a move never materialised. With any luck they will not be back and Samizadeh will start next season at Bolton where he could become an important first team player in League One.

His debut for the club was short only coming on in the 85^th minute and was never likely to amount to much in such a poor team. But hopefully this will not be the last we see of the youngster this season as we look to develop him into a player capable of regular first team football. And indeed as we look to convince him that Bolton is the place where he can best build on his undoubted potential through first team opportunities.

If you want to learn more about our latest debutant then Rob talked to Samizadeh earlier in the season and that can be read here.