Youth Player Slams The Club

Sounds like bitterness from someone who was not offered a new deal!

 

Could well be the case Dave, however no smoke ............

 

There are 3 sides to every story - AG's side, the club's side and somewhere in between - THE TRUTH!!!!

 

I´ve said it before, and I´ll say it again KIO - we all see what we want to see. In this case I see a disappointed and bitter young Gafaiti, who decided not to go quietly, your conspiratorial mind starts to work and you see the beginnings of a board collapse. Can´t see the board or Alex Neil quaking in their shoes over this, and if Gafaiti had had any real talent, he wouldn´t have gone back to Algeria to play, someone in England would have picked him up, surely.

 

I would be more concerned about this had it been from an experienced player who had seen how several clubs were run and knew what was involved. The opinions of a youth player that has been released, with no experience of how football clubs are run doesn't concern me too much.

 

Title should say "former youth player". It sounds like the usual petulance from a spoilt child who has been told that he can't have something.

Also, if true, were in the middle of changing our management with "football experience" seemingly an important requitement. Infact arguably the lack of footballing knowledge amongst our senior management has been repeatedly acknowledged by the chairman and we've already seen steps to fix this with the agencies coming in to consult.

 

One of my little people is in the Academy U10's, and speaking to one of the coaches one day I asked how many of these youngsters have any chance of breaking through!
He said, put it this way, I've been doing this job for 6 years and we've had 4 break through's, 3 of them goal keepers!

 

A sad statistic, and the nature of football these days, and I´m sure symptomatic of nearly every club in the country.

 

U 10's ability at that age has no guarantee of future success.

Very few "child prodigees" go on to be really great.

Most Acadamy money IMO is wasted.

 

You need look no further than this board for the source of the problem. Every year it's the same. We must buy buy buy. Anybody who suggests giving youngsters a chance is told ' too soon - send them out on loan ' Everything has to be instant nowadays. I doubt whether the current comments are anything but sour grapes but if Maddison and one of the Murphy's are not regulars next year I will be seriously concerned about our so called youth policy.

 

I wasn't referring to just the U10's. When I go and watch the academy boys there's probably 10/12 games going on at once of varying age groups. The coaches comments were across the whole range!

 

Maddison is only 19, but the Murphys, Toffolo and Thompson will be the real test of our youth policy next season. Wes could be the perfect mentor for Maddison and there's a chance he'll get time against lesser teams, as could the others, especially in 3 match weeks. Time will tell, I suppose.

 

And when we do go out and buy we gets old has beens like Naismith!!

 

Fair comment 1950, but I refer back to the article by Edward Couzens-Lake - "Amongst the players who played and starred for Chelsea on that night when we beat them in the FA Youth Cup in 2013, are Conor and Billy Clifford, both of who are presently playing non-league football for Boreham Wood, and Aziz Deen-Conteh who is currently with Zaria Balti in Moldova..
Not forgetting goalkeeper Sam Walker, now at Colchester United who has also had spells with Barnet, Northampton, Yeovil and Bristol Rovers.
Oh the glamour!!"
Full article here - http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...s-carlton-morris-make-their-mark-next-season/

Having said that, I'm VERY hopeful that we'll see at least one of the Murphys and Toffolo being part of the first team squad.

 

Good point Braveheart but at least Chelsea saw the lack of potential and moved them on. We keep them/send them out on loan until they are 25 and them move them on. As I have said before - if they can't perform in the Championship at 22 they are not going to be Premiership standard at 25 so give them a chance or move them on. I will be particularly interested in seeing how Maddison develops with a mentor like Wes and, whilst I'm at it, I think Naismith will be a big player for us next year.

 

Good Heavens.

£8 mil for Naismith, and we're just HOPING he may come good in the championship?

 

Hope is all we have for all of our players next year - there are no guarantees. Talking of big money flops - any news on the Dutch flop?

 

That's true, and no, nothing about the winkel, still has a year to run, doesn't he?

Can't imagine too many takers.

 

Naismith owes us big time, 12 goals minimum is the least I expect from him next season.