There is a feature in today's Guardian which is worth reading, even for those who hate the newspaper's politics. It is about the high-pressure world of today's Academies, the high failure rate, and the troubling effect on those 16-year-olds who suddenly find themselves on the scrap-heap at 16 after several years with a big club. Huddersfield have actually scrapped their Academy from U-16 down when they realised it hadn't produced a PL player since 1999 (Jon Stead). Kids are now being scouted by the Big Clubs from age 6, so there is plenty of time for dreams to build up before being suddenly shattered. I jointly ran a football club for about 6 years when FHB jnr was at primary school, mainly for the pleasure of seeing kids having fun, and there was NO COACHING. The bottom line of this feature was that Roland is pouring money into a project which will not actually deliver in the way he imagines. He is just a blinkered idealist.
Two of our most outstanding youngsters, and the most profitable for Roland, Lookman and Pope, were not Academy products.
I have a question. Apart from the money to be had from selling young promising players, do Charlton's youth teams serve any useful purpose for the Club? Granted they might be doing a service for the community, possibly giving some local youngsters a chance to have a career in football. But what proportion of our youth team players are local kids? And how many of them do end up as full time professional footballers - at any Club? In the last 20 years, how many academy graduates (players who have come right through our youth system) have become regular and valued first team players over several seasons? How many academy players have become great Charlton first team players in the last two decades? I suspect the answer is way fewer than, let's say, one every two seasons. But if that is so, then what is the point of all that expense and all that investment of time and effort? Surely the Club could slash costs by not having a youth set-up at all. Not only Duchatelet's flawed dream, but is our academy no more than a vanity project anyway?
The flaws in the Academy system are becoming clear to me. If you're in a higher division the standard of football is too high to throw a kid into, and you have to farm him out here there and anywhere, taking pot luck on whether or not he'll flourish in an alien environment.. If you're in a lower division your best prospects get picked off by the bigger clubs, who will dangle ££££££'s in front of star-struck parents. Man. City's owners spent a fortune on their Academy with the admirable prospect of building a team this way. The snag is that it is the manager's job to win games, not play kids who are not good enough, and Pep shows no sign of bringing any of their multitude of youngsters through. Solly is our only long-term Academy success in the team, and he'd probably have left if his knees were good. Under a different owner we wouldn't have got relegated, and would probably have kept Pope and Lookman, but they aren't Academy products.
The only Academy prospects that we have brought through from the age of 8/9 are Parker and Gomez and we released Gomez when he was 14 (about 14??) who then trained with us while looking for a new Club and we realised our mistake and re-signed him.
According to ever reliable Wiki, he was born in Feb 1992, and joined us in 2004. According to the ever-reliable OS, 5'3" was 12 when he joined us from Arsenal. So they both count as our products, do they not?
Solly was an Arsenal Academy scholar. I think he was released at 16. Regan Charles- Cook was also in the Arsenal academy and released.
Hard to get enthused about the Academy at the moment, much as I admire the coaches who are clearly outstanding at their jobs. It’s just there as a cash cow to line the owner’s pocket, or to offset the losses incurred by his disastrous choice of CEO.
In a twisted sort of way, that's exactly my point. Whether or not the money is used well, the money itself appears to be the best reason for our academy to exist. Not only now in the age of Duchatelet, but going back decades. What has it done for our First Team? Almost nothing. If the primary purpose of the CAFC youth system is to improve our First Team by feeding players into it who could go on to be great Charlton players (even legends) then it has largely failed over the past 20 years or so at least - and continues to fail. If the primary purpose of the CAFC youth system is to earn money from selling young players, then the owner and the administration whoever they are should be honest and open about it to fans. Youth team kids should not wear our badge and colours. What they achieve should not be showcased with pride by the Club. Fans should not be misled into eternally hoping that one day a couple of these youngsters might become First Team stars of the future. And our First Team - which is immeasurably more important than any youth system - should not be abused as a 'shop window' for youngsters to sell themselves to the highest bidder by putting in a dozen decent performances when they have no future at CAFC. Aside from worthy projects in the community involving disadvantaged or special needs youngsters, the only thing that should matter at Charlton Athletic should be how the First Team performs. Everything should be focused on that. Being proud of teenage players we sell who then go on to have great careers at top flight Clubs is a bizarre attitude to me. Especially when our First Team is kicking around in a three-quarters empty stadium in the third division.
@lardiman The primary purpose of the Academy should be to supply a consistent stream of local young quality players, who can contribute to the first team and ultimately enable us to win promotion. Under this Regime, it always stalls on the last bit because a short term buck is the No.1 priority.
Sorry I didn't realise Solly joined us so early.I still derive enjoyment in watching the U23s and U18s. We have always sold our best players usually too cheaply. In my 56 years of watching Charlton we have sold the likes of Bonds, Glover, Walsh, Elliot, Bowyer, Parker and the list goes on. The present regime are no different to the Gliksten era, as regards us being a player farm.
