At what point do you give up on academy football? Surely it must operate at a loss eventually. Should just go like Brentford B went.
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BornBlue76
Player Valuation: £35m
Rule number 1.. have to represent your countries international team at youth level .
If not.. not even on our radar as a potential first teamer.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Has he been selected for Scotland? I saw he was with them recently.
Just to add to the gloom, England u19s beat Italy 2-0 yesterday and Welch didn’t feature. Dobbin didn’t make the squad .
Yes, as has Matty Apter who’s an u15 who’s also been doing really well for us lately.
That doesn’t stop you getting picked for England though. You can play for Scotland 1 day and England the next at this age group. If you want to.
Cameron Bell played for Scotland 17s if I’m not mistaken also…
He did yes, I should have mentioned that.
He’s an under 16 as well, (like Matty Apter and Emilio, I’ve put u15 above).
EFC_FRANCIS
Player Valuation: £35m
A loss is a bit of a stretch considering we're going to get north of 2 million for Small alone. The academy is probably the only profitable operation in the club.
That’s one “sale” though. I was more speaking of it operating at a loss in a footballing sense; an academy is their to prop up the first team which ours doesn’t anymore. At some point you have to think what’s the point with the biggest sides already hoovering up the best. Kids that are half decent aren’t of any use to us.
EFC_FRANCIS
Player Valuation: £35m
An academy is there to generate players for the first team or generate revenue for the club. Villa, Southampton, Leeds, Leicester have probably overtaken us in heavily recruiting for their sides but that doesn't mean ours is a completely lost cause. Kids that are half decent are of use to us both as squad players and to make money.
Our academy hasn't been propping up the first team because its been a revolving door of managers who are only ever a bad run away from the sack and have no long term vision.
Even if you discount money making, the club had Thierry Small and Mohamed Ali Cho on the books right up until pro terms, that would've been a pretty good left back and right wing cover within about the next year or so if we'd retained them but the academy did their job and developed them to that point. Before them Antonee Robinson could've been a good left back cover but was sold to make quick money, JJK is currently the clubs back up rb (for better or worse) Davies provides midfield cover. We've had plenty of kids who were in our academy that could've been squad players, no real stars since Barkley but I'd argue its only really Chelsea Arsenal and United you could say are guaranteed some new midtable and above prem starter quality players almost every season. And then if every ten years you develop a Barkley who shouldve netted us 30 million and did net us 15, that pays for itself.
I don't see any reason why to go Brentford B. We've already had a superior version of that when we went on a 4 year spell of signing Stones, Lookman, DCL, Holgate to supplement our existing youth players. If the club was smart it would be looking at doing it as well as the academy instead of spending 10 million on a Delph that fixed none of our problems.
A lots being overblown about the England youth thing. Holgate, DCL and Godfrey all only got their debuts at U20 level.
I mean my comment wasn’t on the back of the England thing; it’s a thought I’ve had for ages now. I disagree though that half decent academy players are of use to us because half decent academy players are your JJK’s who are of zero use to us. Even less so if we eventually become a European side again. I don’t even blame the managers for not using the players because they’re simply not good enough.
I also don’t see the point in bringing up players like Lookman and DCL who we did not develop as an academy.
Like out of the current U23’s and U18’s how many do you see either becoming PL squad players or generating decent fees? Barely even a handful for me.
…I think it’s a fair question to ask. I think the lack of talent coming through is more down to kids doing other things than footy these days, you rarely see street football, we were brought up in the 60s and 70s with a ball attached to our feet, life has changed.
Personally, I’d like to see the emphasis returned to school football more & let the Academy responsibility ramp up at 14 or 15 years of age. I know it’s a lot of responsibility on teachers giving up Saturday mornings, but it opens up the game to more youngsters.
I don’t feel we should be insular in consideration of Academy’s, perhaps worth determining if they are the grass roots of the game given how many teams in lower leagues are made up of players previously associated with top flight clubs.
Do you think this is in part due to the transfer ban the club had?
We were banned from buying players for the academy for a year and a half I think?
That didn't help but we've been free of that for a while now and not invested. Will be even harder with Brexit now as academies will focus purely on homegrown talent.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Got you. I just wondered if for whatever reason he is playing with the Scotland national team currently?