...i’ve said for many years that the club is too romantic in employing ex-players. Ferguson, Unsworth, Ebbrel, Tait, Jeffers Jevons et al. The youth teams are doing ok, but the club smacks too much of nepotism and needs to break that trend.
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...i’ve said for many years that the club is too romantic in employing ex-players. Ferguson, Unsworth, Ebbrel, Tait, Jeffers Jevons et al. The youth teams are doing ok, but the club smacks too much of nepotism and needs to break that trend.
Totally agree.
It’s nice when we’re winning leagues but rather us finish bottom and produce a Sancho every year.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Yeah. That's what disappointed me. I said in an earlier post that you can see why we have only conceded 3 in 9 league games. City are the leagues top scorers and we pretty much restricted them to shots from outside the box (missed the last 15 minutes of the first half when I believe they may have been a bit more in the game).
But the downside to this is we are far less dangerous going forward. I really can't see how this style of play fits in with the remit coming from Brands/Silva whereby the front 3 are very attack minded plus we're playing with a number 10. So it's almost a 4-2-4. Unsworth definitely played a 4-5-1 last night and samba was often isolated. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's gone in the summer, or that he's trying to gain recognition by winning the PL2 again in his final season.
On one level you can't blame him for looking after number 1, but by doing so he losing a lot of the respect I held for him.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
If only it was that easy to produce a wonderkid every year
andy4efc
Player Valuation: £60m
Holgate wasn't an academy product, just for clarity
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
In fairness I think Brands realises that it's a lot harder to bring through players into the premiership than it is in the Dutch league. Or I certainly hope he does anyway.
But that has to be one of the two goals of the academy. To bring maybe 1 player per year through to the first team squad. And to bring through another 3/4 players per year that are good enough to be sold off at 21/22 to other clubs for sufficient to make the academy self financing.
Whilst we arguably have one of the top 4/5 academies in the country, we still need to improve and I think we will see Brands make changes by bringing in foreign coaches and introducing a style of play conducive to the way the first team play. Think we'll start in the summer by replacing Unsworth.
toffeejack
Player Valuation: £100m
i agree with the fact, if we won the U23 league, it'd be a bit hollow seeing as we have fully grown men like browning playing who are never going to make it here, playing very young teams. But on the flip side, this is pretty much a reserve U23 side of ours, we would get half of our first team in an U23 and i think the progress we have of the quality of youngsters coming from the youth setup to the first team is unrivalled in the prem. Players like davies, whilst they get slated, these type of players are now costing £15m-£20m for the top 6 to buy, just as bit part bench players.
If we can continually bring through these types, like we have done successful with youth teams, we are stealing a march on them in that regard, saving money and wages which can go to buying a better calibre of first team player.
The one aspect i want to see us improve on is selling players who won't be good enough. I mean you see the RS sell ibe for £15m, ward for £12m, all based on no first team reputation whatsoever. We're bringing through players with more quality than that, but when they go on loan they don't seem to thrive as much and then starts and endless cycle where they just go through the motions of bad loan spells and then they end up back in our youth setup when they're too old.
If we can continually bring through these types, like we have done successful with youth teams, we are stealing a march on them in that regard, saving money and wages which can go to buying a better calibre of first team player.
The one aspect i want to see us improve on is selling players who won't be good enough. I mean you see the RS sell ibe for £15m, ward for £12m, all based on no first team reputation whatsoever. We're bringing through players with more quality than that, but when they go on loan they don't seem to thrive as much and then starts and endless cycle where they just go through the motions of bad loan spells and then they end up back in our youth setup when they're too old.
Pabbers
Player Valuation: £60m
We produce first team players as much as any or city and chelsea.
Sancho was poached from watford.
I'm using him as a reference ability-wise not where he came from/career trajectory etc.
Pabbers
Player Valuation: £60m
Ok mate, but nobody probuces a player like that every year.
We destroy our young lads, but we have 5 of them involved in first team squad. Thats very good.
I think the point I was trying to make is being missed.
Cameron Manning
Player Valuation: £35m
Yes Ibe's fee was a huge surprise, don't think he has justified it since to be honest, Danny Ward though had plenty of experience with Aberdeen and helping Huddersfield get into the premiership with a good season there including two penalty saves in the penalty shootout which won them that game at Wembley, don't think £12M was excessive and I think he will prove his worth in the long run at Leicester, a lot of Liverpool fans thought he wasn't given a proper chance at Anfield considering the cock ups made by the two 'keepers used last season.
toffeejack
Player Valuation: £100m
Yeah but with ward, nothing in the prem,which is what I was trying to say. We'd get less for dcl and davies imo.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
No chance