He played predominantly for the club's reserve team, in friendlies and continental tournaments. Yearwood signed for Brentford in 2019, but he found his chances limited, making just five first-team appearances. At the end of that season, I knew he would go." Yearwood made 34 appearances for New York Red Bulls in 2020-21, scoring once In the end, everyone was calling him Dru Powell - 'he's the son of the manager'. "He was very forceful in the way he played," added Chris Powell, who succeeded Brown as Southend manager. It showed how much he took upon himself to make sure the club didn't get relegated." "It dawned on me how much pressure was on that boy's shoulders. "I remember him getting quite emotional," Duncan recalls of seeing Yearwood after Southend beat Sunderland 2-1 to avoid the drop on the last day of the 2018-19 campaign. His form earned an England under-18s call-up for the 2018 Panda Cup in Chengdu, China, but injury prevented him from making his Young Lions breakthrough. He was crucial to a 10th-place finish in 2017-18 and a successful fight against relegation the following season. In just two seasons in the Southend first team, Yearwood played 62 games. "As robust and energetic as he was, he needed to work on his technical ability, and he did." "He would always do a bit extra after training," reflected Hearts defender Taylor Moore, a team-mate of Yearwood's at Roots Hall. He studied footage of Claude Makelele and N'Golo Kante - and dedicated himself to mastering his new craft. Yearwood admits he was "massively learning on the job" as a 17-year-old in third-tier football. "He quickly became almost first on the teamsheet." "It was a no-brainer that he was going to make it," Brown says. "That one game, putting him into midfield, made his career." "After about a month of playing in midfield, we started pushing him over to Phil, saying 'we think we've found one here who's a bit special'," remembers Ricky Duncan, Southend's academy manager. When injuries rendered Southend short of central midfielders for an under-18s game against Leyton Orient, Yearwood was drafted into an unfamiliar role - "the only position in my life I hadn't played much". He was a fast and skilled forward who, according to one coach, "wouldn't have made it" were it not for a chance switch of position at 16. Offers flooded in from other major London clubs, but, on his father's advice, he stayed local, signing for Southend United. Yearwood approached the difficulties that accompanied his MLS move with the same laidback self-belief that has seen him embrace the challenges he faced in his early career.īorn in Harlow, Essex, into a Barbadian, football-loving family, Yearwood joined Arsenal's academy as a seven-year-old, only to be released four years later. I had in my head it was going to be tough." Moving over in the coronavirus pandemic was tough, but I just got on with it. "It did take a little while," Yearwood tells BBC Sport of his gradual improvement with the Red Bulls, having moved to the Big Apple from Brentford in August 2020.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |