That list doesn't even include any of the scholars (who don't have pro contracts) who have been released, or others who mysteriously disappeared over the last 6 months (like Enzo Robise)
Martin Hunter has a lot to answer for, the Academy started misfiring under his watch and has yet to recover. The facilities are there so it must be that the scouts and coaches are failing in their duties. If we are to be a self sufficient model then there has to be a better return from Staplewood and to end up releasing so many without either selling or getting them to the first team is just a huge waste of time and investment.
If you head over to the Leicester board someone mentioned they'd quite like Theo until I put them straight.
I have to be honest that I had not heard of any of the other 8 players other than a vague recollection of O'Connor signing terms. My surprise is that there were so many of them anywhere near the first team enough to register an impression. As I said previously, I have no idea how typical this is but on the face of it it does look quite an indictment of our academy. It will be interesting to see if any professional clubs take an interest in any of these players or how quickly they will end up playing in non-league. What it does reveal if the extent of re-build needed. Players will have to be brought in for the short term and you wonder whether we might see something along the lines of Saints taking a punt on academy players released from larger clubs just to improve the quality of the under 18 /19 squads. It does feel like the well has dried up as far as our own self-produced players are concerned. From recollection, I believe Koeman was very critical of the academy when he was in charge.
We've been doing that for a while. See Nathan Tella as the best example. Joined us age 17 after being released by Arsenal.
Good point on Koeman too. He got utterly slated for those comments but they've turned out to be correct; not a single player has properly broken into the first team since then. Dunno how many we lost with the Reed Jr agency fiasco mind.
Yeah, it's worth noting that Ralph (who is a proponent of using young players) hasn't exactly been handing out copious amounts of playing time either. I'd actually like to see us use some of the Academy players more (Tella in particular), but we aren't awash in young talent at the moment.
I disagree. I honestly think, had they been handled and developed correctly and not lost in a sea of manager changes, upheaval and chaos, the likes of Reed, Hesketh & Sims could have pushed on further. Let's not forget that Reed & Targett (2 of those he effectively said weren't good enough) were PL regulars last season. Now, admittedly, the cupboard seems bare nowadays but there's no point rewriting the history books and judging 6 years ago with the hindsight we now have. Things could have turned out very differently had we had a settled manager, team and overall plan.
I never thought he was including the likes of Reed and Targett in those he was describing, who were pretty much on the fringes at that time anyway. Targett played 20 times for us in Ron's second season but was obviously behind Bertrand. More than half of Reed's league matches for us came under Ron too. The fact is we've not had a player properly break through into the first team for a long long time largely because they haven't been good enough. You're right to say that the managerial changes and general upheaval won't have helped, and that it's easy to say with hindsight, but hindsight does show he was correct to say we were lacking talent in the academy imo. Tella looks the most likely to push on for a while and we bought him in 2017.
Thé sad issue about Reed and Targett is that if they had still been at Saints we would have been better off than we were without them Bertrands form has dropped off the chart and was supposedly injured whereas Targett was voted the fans player of the season and Reed would have been a big improvement on anything Ralph cobbled together after Romeu was injured
I disagree about Bertie's form, he was back to his best last season and the first half of this one and the whole team haven't performed since the new year bar one or two. I think that Matty was let go mainly because he lacked the pace to play in Ralph's system but he obviously suits Villa and he has always been a great crosser of the ball.
Reed essentially went 2 seasons ago, when we still had Hojbjerg (along with JWP, Romeu as cover, the newly signed at the time for versatility Armstrong and an emerging Smallbone). Ralph was at the time was wanting to trim the squad down to 23 players - with an emphasis on players able to play in various positions. I think RH had no interest in keeping, trusting Harrison. Recently - after our mid season decline - Ralph has shifted to stating a squad make up of two players for each position. Targett went very early in that window for £13m, for willing squad full back, with further deals for our real outcasts anticipated. I think again it was the inability to shift Hoedt, Boufal, Carillo, Forster and Lemina which has hurt us. Many at Villa wanted Targett replaced after one season, but were pragmatic that after forking out £13m - and weakness elsewhere - a new RB would have to wait, as the back up options were worse. We wouldn't have given Targett the game time to develop to where he is now. On the new RB front, I really like the sound of this full-back we're eye-ing up at Brest.
Southampton have enquired about Benfica defender Nuno Tavares. The 21 year-old is also being scouted by Napoli.
