The genius that is Stewart Donald sells our up and coming academy prospects to these well run academies you mention such as Arsenal, Liverpool, Man.United etc. Then we take on released academy players from those same clubs. This is why our U18 and U23 teams had one win between them last season, mainly losing games quite heavily. Gone from fans fault to Acadamy's fault now eh? Basically it is anybody or any thing's fault but Stewart Donald's.
or Jordan Henderson.... oh hang on, didn't the guy who captained the EPL and Champions League winning team come through our academy. Would you rather he came through a Liverpool academy?
Zero respect from me. He took a gamble on us and failed. There's been no long term plan, the academy had been decemated. F*ck him
As I said I'm comparing 12 seasons of our academy to just one season of liverpools. You think our academy produces well, I think it doesn't. Best to leave it at that.
So at the last world cup our academy had produced 18.18% of the England starting 11. Yeah, it's been a massive failure.
Boris would say “more flip flops that Bournemouth beach” you compare Liverpool’s one season of producing one player (not 5 as 4 of them are thrown into meaningless games. But we’re not allowed to count those players from our academy? Making yourself look completely stupid here. Trying to change your argument to suit your agenda. At least everyone else is sticking to the rules you’re setting. Sadly you seem to only stick to them when it suits!!
I came on here to point out DS had mysteriously forgotten to mention Hendo. With that kind of selective memory he could be Stewart Donald himself.
When we say ‘world class academy’ we are referring to the facilities. It’s a top rated facility. When we say it’s been destroyed, that’s through lack of investment and poor staffing and fire sales. There’s Hendo and Pickford, obvious ones, then there’s Egan who did wonders at Sheffield United in the PL, Waghorn has transferred for in excess of £10million. There’s a number of ex academy lads playing in the lower league and Scotland as well. Barcelona and Real’s famed academy systems don’t yield top class player after top class player, there are hundreds of players that came through their academies playing g throughout the Spanish league and beyond though There’s far more to it than slating the headline names gives credit for, and if you question what jerk the investment has done the number of SAFC academy players picked up by top PL sides in the last 2 years is eye watering. United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have all ‘poached’ from our academy, and who knows maybe a couple of them become household names. The facilities, which are category A and therefore officially top class, are being squandered due to a lack of foresight and investment.
So despite not joining in the thread apart from to say that I have a mysterious selected memory etc. When I point out your incorrect, I'm the patronising one? Yeah sounds reasonable.
The world class facilities should still be there, unless Donald has sold the facility? Apart from Maja, I don't think anybody was overly fussed about any of our current crop. Neither was anyone fussed about the ones that have departed. I would be in total agreement if we had an excellent performing academy and Donald had dismantled it. The fact is our academy for producing players has been mediocre at best. Donald hasn't made any difference to that, just hasn't improved it.
DS is clearly not right for the club, he's made mistakes and hasn't invested properly. There have been positives from his tenure that I have listed. The point of my thread was to highlight the classless nastiness that I don't normally associate with our supporters. We've all got our different opinions regarding the academy etc. You can say what you like about Donald, it don't change my life, just pointing out something I didn't agree with, that's all.
Regardless of the ****housery his whole vision and investment hinged on a first season promotion. We didn't get it now he and us are flat on our arse until somebody else fancies a blast.
Can't disagree with that. It was a gamble that both parties could have benefited from. In the end we have all lost. Let's just hope we can get some investment in and fast.
