It's true it's not our money (though we do pay something towards the running of the club via our attendances and "commercial" spending) but I'm not sure I'd agree that a good owner would pay for everything either. Surely the nirvana for all clubs is to be self funding / self sustaining, ours included, and therefore VT could then start to recoup some of his massive investment and make the club less reliant on his good nature and deep pockets?? I do get your point however, it is entirely down to the club (and VT) to decide how they handle the squad comings and goings. problem is, we all want a bit of a say don;t we?? If we all just stuck to talking about things within our control on here the only thread still going would be the "Away from Football" one In saying that, many of us would probably be less stressed if that was the case!!!
Especially while we wait for the season to start and I appreciate the forum is for everyone to have a say. It would be sad if no one was interested in talking about our club, I like Tan and I think he does have the best interests of the club at heart but we certainly are entitled to have our say on how we see things.
Telling developments. Though one may be in a different position from the other two. Cardiff City players Romaine Sawyers, Isaak Davies and Max Watters have not travelled with the club on their pre-season tour to the Algarve.
Interesting; we’ve heard of Oxford and Barnsley interest in the first two respectively but nothing (sadly) on Sawyers. Possibly it’s because he’s been away in international duty?
Just reading a bit more and think you're right on all 3 counts. There does need to be a bit of a clear out. In some areas of the pitch we do seem to be overloaded. Nice to have options and with injury, suspensions and the need to rotate through a 46 game league season you need cover. However, we seem to have quite a few players who just won't get a sniff of a game. Nor would we want them to. We might get pleasantly surprised by one or two thriving in a new style of play or new role, but I'm not expecting mutch. We should get a better idea of a starting line-up as the pre-season games progress. By the last one, it should more or less be the team to face leeds
Our squad is overloaded. We need to move some on and quickly. Watters and Ojo should be top of the list. I feel sorry for Isaak as it is great when youngsters come through the system and prosper but the bottom line if if they're not going to make it at our first team level then move on quickly to a level at which they can do well. Management watch them in training every day and analyse every level of their performance. We must trust them to know what is best.
Interesting insight. Is that because he doesn't want him at Cardiff or because he wants him to get more game time? We don't seem to be getting players through the accademy and into the 1st team. We get them to the fringes, they have a season or two where they get the odd game then they leave. It happens often enough that I think the club is at fault. We had a couple youngsters played in that FA cup game against Liverpool a couple years back. Rave reviews then disappeared (or did I dream that?).
Interesting Welsh conflict for our opener at Leeds.......... Ampadu and Dan James against Rambo and Colwill
It's an interesting point and one that I too have wondered about. It's another example of the need for the club to have a fully coordinated approach from top to bottom. I have no facts or figures but I also wonder if the recruitment of youngsters into the academy is as effective as it should be. Whatever is happening and as you said, something isn't quite right between the academy and first team. Probably a bit of tweaking will sort it.
Its the running of the club dude……he’s an abervan boy and Cardiff through and through ……was praising Swansea for the way they handled the youth set up compared to Cardiff i won’t get into the gritty details because they be personal to the family and the club but long and short is clubs not being run right maybe this new chapter will be a turning point who knows
The Swans certainly have the drop on us when it comes to youth products. No need to get into details. Private as you say. Interesting to get a perspective of someone close to what is happening though. Tan has been a big help to the club for what he has done financially. As has been oft said by many, he still hasnt got the footballing infrastrucure right though. Stuck record time. We need a DoF. A different scenario, but I had a 3.5 hour meeting with the owner of the trout fishery I'm a member of yesterday. He's a local farmer and the family own the lake and surrounding land. He's been managing the club for about 6 years and has sunk quite a bit of cash into it, though he doesn't fish himself. After 3 years of me chewing his ear he has finally recognised his shortcomings and asked me and another guy to run the club for him. He'll still head it up, but with direction from two anglers on how to do it. Tan just doesn't want to own up to the fact he doesn't know football.
Hats of to the owner for allowing his ego to take a back seat dude……putting people with knowledge in his place will benefit all and surely that’s the way it should be tan for some reason has never looked deep enough to think maybe I need to get some who knows how football works to run my club which is a bit strange from a successful businessman
Guys I get the emotional part of wanting local lads to succeed but they must be good enough. Ramsey and Ledley being prime examples. How many youngsters who we have offloaded have been successful elsewhere? Lockyer has improved in the last few years and Healey (not via our youth system) are the exceptions. Is it recruitment or how we manage them through the system?
Like James and many others, Ampadu has suffered from an early big money signing at a top club. I'm sure that financially they are sorted, but their footballing development suffers. From playing for exeter while in nappies, Ampadu has hardly played a game for Chelsea and been farmed out all over the place.
As I hinted at, I think it comes down to us as a club. The Swans are scouting the same sort of regions but are far more successful at getting players to championship and Premier league standard. When was the last time we sold a youth product for more than 50p? Rambo probably, 16 years ago.
I hope to cod you make it happen pal, slippery slope that business, no trout about it, it’s all about scales! Masky
