Article: We cannot do it alone. Football Southampton

Our Academy cannot single handedly provide the future home grown talent for the home international sides or the Premier League clubs. Tottenham and Arsenal need to stop being parasites and start to get their academies in order and do their bit.

Southampton Academy and youth system have provided many top international quality players over the years which many other clubs would not be able to match.

Players like Alan Shearer, Dennis Wise, Matthew Le Tissier, Mike Channon, Martin Chivers, Steve Moran, Steve Williams, Steve Mills, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Kevin Phillips, Danny Wallace, Rodney Wallace, Alex Oxlade Chamberlaine. I could go on and on and on.

Almost every Premier League and Championship club has at least one ex Southampton Academy player in their squad.

So how about your predatory clubs stop stalking our academy boys and put the time and energy so saved into developing your own youngsters.

Who knows you may become as good as us at unearthing a developing real talent.

 

No offence but if you're quoting players who went through your youth ranks 40 years ago then this kind of loses credibility.
No-one is disputing the fact Southampton has an excellent academy system, that said they've been forced to sell all prized assets in recent years to compensate for years of financial mismanagement, had Southampton not received the funds they did for Bale and Walcott in particular the club would have folded.

West Ham were in the same boat when Chelsea raided them for Lampard, Cole and Johnson, the Russians rubles saved West Ham....

 

It will be easier for us to keep our academy players if we get promoted. The main point of an academy is providing team players but money brought in by sales is also important as it pays for the high cost of the academy. Our chairman believes very strongly in a top class academy, as have previous regimes. We are not desperate for money so no one will get a youngster at a bargain price anymore. Saints are very happy people at the moment.

 

Wah, wah, wah. Dry your eyes mate, we have your Bale and you have our Barnard, seems a fair trade to me

 

No it doesn't as it demonstrates the consistency with which we have performed and that it is not just a recent development.

 

Before any more Spurs or Arsenal fans 'bite' in response to this thread, we regard it as a compliment that PL clubs recognise the set-up and talent we produce down here. At the end of the day business is business, the PLclubs are not parasitic, and if both parties do well out of any potential transfer then it's win-win. Yes it would be nice if we could hold on to our talent.

Spurs and Arsenal both have excellent academies.

St Goodness you are transgressing from your Saintly ways already - naughty step for you...

 

Your Chairman/ Manager could quite have easily rejected the bids for your players... Think it's them you need to be moaning at.

 

Sex or Spurs, could I have chocolate instead, please

 

We have had to sell our top players in the past that have come through the academy that is true. Usually though only when they have made a break through to our first team. Since our demise from the top tier of football we have had to sell our stars just to keep our heads above water. However because of our successful academy the larger clubs are constantly sniffing round trying to attract the younger players we have found. In the hope of picking up a bargain............Why don't these clubs go out and get their own talent the same as we do? It is simply wrong that the newspapers put these youngsters under pressure by printing that these other clubs may or may not be interested. We no longer have to sell our best players, but if the so called big clubs keep poaching our youth/younger players the academy will just be too expensive to run. Then no one gains........

 

You can have whatever you like

 

Nicola said earlier in his reign that the only way to compete with top clubs (and we all know how ambitious he is) is to raise your own players. He knows that teams like Saints will never be able to compete with the silly money that the Man City's and Chelsea's of this world pay for players. He also said he wants Southampton to be an example of how to run a football club. I never want Saints to get in the financial mess they were in recently, so I trust the Don to get the figures right.

 

Very hard to hold onto players, when you're not in the top division. Bale, Walcott, Chamberlain, Surman, Best, Ranger all left since we were relegated.

I don't mean to sound offensive, but if you believe that it's that easy for football league clubs to just hold onto their players when premiership teams are sniffing around, then you are very, very niave.

 

We probably did the same when we were in the PL and remember Lallana (our luckily overlooked gem) came from another academy (Bournemouth or Brighton). Also, though not academy players, a few of our present team were bought from other teams who couldn't say no when a relatively-rich club like Saints came a-knocking. It is part and parcel of football and always has been.

 

To be fair, we have made a lot of money from the sale of our youth players - that money may not have taken the club forward at times (paying off debts etc) but we have made millions out of the academy let's face it.

Because of our financial situation now, the £15 million from Chamberlain's sale will be re-invested back into the club, I have no doubt about it and we're just as stong without him - so are we really loosing out?

I don't think we are, and also, in terms in progress on the pitch, the club have never been left in the lurch without the likes of Bale, Walcott etc.

 

It's not just the lower league teams, it'd be the same if you were still in the Premiership. Look at the Modric saga, a year ago he signed a 6 year deal, a month before the end of the season he declares he's happy at Spurs and encourages the current squad to stay together despite not securing CL football. Then Chelsea make an insulting bid which they leak, the Daily Mail print a story everyday(not exaggerating) about Modric leaving and everyone in the World seems to know how much Chelsea would offer Modric, when they were making bids and for how much.

As I remember with the Bale transfer it was a case of Manchester United, dithering trying to lower the price, thinking that Bale wouldn't sign for us even if we offered you a better deal.

 

Love Bale..that's the player I regret losing the most.

 

Imagine if we got promoted and we re-signed Bale, Theo, Best and chemberlain! DECENT!

 

What have Southend got to do with it?

 

Can I have some of what you're on?

 

I'll start it off

Theo Walcott - Arsenal
Gareth Bale - Spurs
Alex Oxo-Chamberlain - Arsenal
Chris Baird - Fulham
Andy Surman - Norwich
Kenwyne Jones - Stoke
Nile Ranger - Newcastle
Leon Best - Newcastle
Nathan Dyer - Swansea
Tim Sparv - Groningen
Alan Blayney - Linfield...?


These are all the ones I can think of from what I would call the "modern" academy, ie post 2005 FA Youth Cup Final. There's a few more players sprinkled around the Championship, Blackstock, McGoldrick, Matt/Joseph Mills etc. Of course Lallana came from Bournemouth (although about age 12 to be fair), we just picked up Jack Stephens from Plymouth for about £100k, a few of the above were signed aged about 16 as well. So that's just life.