Charity, no. Civilisation, yes. What a pitiful existence we would lead if everything was judged on purely monetary terms. I hope Sir, that if ever you are unfortunate enough to succumb to illness, that you've paid enough taxes for your healthcare. I'll stop short of quoting Oscar Wilde, as I think we have a different outlook on life, but that's cool, we live in a free society and I suppose that's the hole (sic) point of the board.
Most clubs in the English leagues have Academy's. 1 or 2 in none league. They are categorised re status/development. Whether it be seen as a glorified youth system is not the point. Players like McCarthy and Banks would have gone through the present system. If starting out today. With us or a.n. other. Option 1. Academy with all the trappings of a professional set up, further education etc. Option 2. Youth system. Local schooling part time training. Which would attract those better evaluated prospects. But what you also need are the best coaches. I believe Winstanley did coach via both set ups.
YT while I get your sentiments pal, it is no good filling the first team with academy youngsters just for the sake of it if they aren’t good enough. To me it all comes back to the people in charge, when was the last time we had anyone who we all wanted to see play for first team(ala Hirst, Banks , Agnew, Stones etc).....it’s been too long so needs addressing and maybe Bobby Hassell needs reminding that just because he played for us it doesn’t mean he can cozy up and rest on his laurels.....his output regarding the objective of producing players good enough for our first team is nothing short of shocking mate.
Another issue is that there are so many foreign players in the leagues these days, it reduces the options for local youngsters to make it into the first team (and before anyone starts, I'm not against foreign players, just that there's a bigger pond to fish in compared to 20 or 30 years ago)
I've got theory regarding academy's I think the so called big clubs shouldn't be allowed them. The criteria would start with the Billy big goulies who wanted sell everyone else down the river with the euro super league. The whole Premier would be better but that changes every season which makes it impossible. Let the lower leagues develop the young lads they would get game time which would help them and the clubs could make a few quid from selling the elite ones on. I appreciate it will never happen but it could be a way of the of the riches filtering down the pyramid.
My plan would be only allowing premier league clubs to loan out 3 players in a season. It would force players to decide between short term money or gaining experience by signing at a lower league club
As I say, the last few weeks have proved that there’s enough in the academy to fill out the squad, allowing you to spend more on your regular starters. I won’t be getting involved in a debate regards Bobby though. Not worth my time. Whenever I defend such as him, Conor or certain players I’m told it’s bias because I know them. So I’ll pass on that one. I also largely don’t care. I’ll keep popping on with opinion here and there, but after 38 years I’ve now started not to even tune into the games, never mind attend them. So what’s it matter what I think? Let’s hope those tasked with running the club get on top of whatever the issues are!
For me they need to go back to what we always used to do - which is pick the pockets of clubs smaller than ours from the same or lower division - as we did with DKD. I'm not saying to the tune of £700000 but certainly set aside a reasonable sum - and then fill out the squad with the younger lads and maybe 1 / 2 seasoned pro's (James Collins as an example). The data side works to a point and every club is at it now - to solely use data with our budget and make it work is a ship that has sailed - we didnt exploit the vision to it's full potential when we were ahead of the curve - Brentford did and they are light years ahead of us. We need to appoint seasoned ex players/managers to scout for us based on data - MM, DW , Warnock etc - this would also be someone that CH could lean on if he wanted to If we saw more academy players in and around the first team on a regular basis then I think we would see the benefit of having it - if these younger lads get a fair chance to really see what they can offer us as opposed to brief appearances, it might help us be a more attractive proposition to potential academy lads - rather than seeing the bright lights of a big club and being the 24th choice forward etc
If John Stones had gone to Everton under EPPP the club would have received £3k for each of the nine years in the academy ie. £27k. Fortunately, Don Rowing and Ronnie Branson had the foresight to realise his potential and get him contracted to avoid him leaving for nothing.
The academy itself is doing ok as far as I can see. It’s the ethos of the club that’s the problem. We’ve seen over the last couple of seasons Kieren Flavell, Bayley McCann, Jonathan Bland, Fabio Jalo, Josiah Dyer, Vimal Yoganathan, Aiden Marsh, Nathan James, Theo Chapman, maybe others I’ve missed, all make first team appearances (plus more only in the EFL trophy). None are world beaters - ok. But none have looked any worse than the vast majority of the dross that we have signed and paid money for. I agree with whitey. Why sign the likes of Slonina, Lembikisa, Matty Craig etc? Absolutely pointless. We need to use the budget to sign better players to improve the first team, and some experience - DKD as an example, even if they are hoovered up from the levels below maybe - and supplement with some experienced players, Marc Roberts the obvious example. The academy graduates don’t necessarily need to start in the first team every week - but there is no reason to not supplement the first team squad with them. A few on the bench every week maybe. Play when we have injuries and suspensions. Some might take their chance and stay in the team. They have all shown to have something about them - and the only times they’ve looked out of their depth for me was in the trophy when they were all played at the same time with few to no experienced pros around to help them. If we don’t ever give them a go we’ll never know. MDG gives a goal a game away just about. The full backs have flattered to deceive. The loan keepers have been nothing to write home about, the forward line at times non-existent, DKD aside. So what would we lose by giving some minutes (or at least squad places) to some of them rather than bring in players who are less than bang average. Circumstances dictated Kieren Flavell had to play - we might have brought in an emergency loan even then. But without a number of unfortunate injuries he wouldn’t have been given a chance. He’s hardly been faultless - Lev Yashin he isn’t - but has he looked more out of place and more of a risk than Slonina? Gauci? Smith? Even Killip? Has he not looked like he has some promise to persevere with? Bland has done mostly fine, as well as any of the ‘first team’ squad playing in that position - and whilst being played out of his natural position too. We are boracic lint. We shouldn’t be spending the copper coins we have on ‘filling squad places’ as we have with the likes of Clement Rodrigues and Jon Lewis - Neerav Parekh’s words. Spend the money on players who will play. You’ll still get some signings wrong and waste some money - that’s the nature of the beast. But why invest any money in players who you know from the outset aren’t ever going to be good enough to be regulars? Similarly, only bring in loan players to improve the team. The players we have on loan and have had on loan all season - have any of them been better than other players we had in the squad? Why bring in kids on loan who aren’t good enough or not ready for mens football? Who benefits? Dexter Lembikisa trains with our first team every day and doesn’t play. He might learn something and training with a men’s team might help him but he’s crap currently and won’t play - what do we get from the arrangement? We’d be better served looking after our own. They might not turn out good enough. But they’re never going to make it if we don’t look at them.
One of the best posts I've read on the BBS in a long time. We seem to have so little faith in our academy and instead bring in loan players that have no resale value & deplete our budget. Spend money wisely. We did on DKD, but we've wasted most on bog standard signings that are no better. I'd add many signings seem to be regressing in our current melaisse, MDG being a prime example. He looked decent, but now is a total liability. There are many more, like Pines, Connell and O'Keiffe that seem to be going backwards, even Phillips TBH. What is happening on the training ground?
