Ok so its not quite as major as suggested but still a little bit of an interesting fact that I'm sure you guys will appreciate! ... I was in work a few days ago when I met a guy who started telling me all about his 17 year old son who plays for Aston Villa. He has made the recent 21/22 man squads for alot of the Villa games but not managed to get a first team debut yet but sounds highly rated. He also showed me some pics of him playing for the England U17's. I mentioned that this must mean he has played with some of the young Saints lads. He confirmed that as his son in a left winger he has played in front... You guessed it! Our very own, Luke Shaw! Said that they were actually really good mates and the families have gone out for meals and stuff like that. After mentioning what a nice young lad Luke was, which is always good to hear, he then mentioned that recently Luke has actually been scouted and had enquiries made from Barcelona! One can only infer that the club rejected any interest and that the lad himself also decided he wanted to stay with the Saints. Great news. This gent then started talking about how highly respected the Saints Academy is and even went on to say that it was one of the most highly thought of academies in the country (along with Forest, Palace, Middlesborough and Villa - to name the ones I can remember!) Anyway just thought you would all be interested by this little fact! All good news, makes me feel even more positive about our future stars. I am particularly excited at the moment as today I officially got told I had the Reading game off work (brought my tickets weeeks ago!). Hope to see as many of you as possible there for a further defining moment in our season COYS!!!
Our academy is up there with the best in the WORLD. Big statement I know but the proof's in the pudding, lads like George mells in U16 and sam Gallagher are choosing us over big name clubs. George mells was originally at Chelsea but his father was invited down to staplewood for a tour and a chat and arranged for him to be transferred. 1 month later mells was in the saints system! However my friend tells me that Chelsea have first dibs on him if we choose to sell.
We've got a unique system in England, one that is far more continental in its set up, so naturally top European clubs will see us as the first resource for young English players. Great to hear snippets like this though, thanks for sharing it!
I actually don't like too much attention and praise lavished on our Academy. It doesn't take a genius to realise that all another club has to do is adopt our methods and commitment and bingo, our advantage of attracting the best potential in players disappears. http://www.footballfancast.com/2012...ather-than-making-him-the-fas-elite-developer
Doesn't surprise me one bit to be honest! Barca have also been linked with all 3 of Bale, Walcott and AOC in the past and if those rumours had any substance to them, it'd obviously make them take an interest in us and our current youth players to see if they could nab any of them before their price tags soar. Luke's got a bright future in the game and will probably go onto earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a week; but from what I know of him, he's a really nice and down to earth lad who doesn't get too carried away with the media hype, so I think he'll be staying put for the next few years at least - the problem with Barcelona is that they'd give him a trial period and for him to partake in that he'd have to leave Saints first because he's on a pro-contract. If he did that and they turned him down he'd be left without a club (although it probably wouldn't make a difference as Arsenal/City/United/Chelsea etc all want him too and he'd just join one of them) - the same thing happened with Elliott Kebbie who is an ex-Leeds scholar - he left to go to Barca, got rejected and has now joined Athletico Madrid. So he'd potentially be risking his whole career. His best bet is to stay with us, break into the first team, wait until he's holding down a regular place here and then see where we are in the Premier League table then. Who knows, depending on how much the Liebherr's are willing to invest we could be in the Top 4/6 by the time this happens and it'd be pointless for him to leave. In other news, Aaron Ward-Baptiste has joined Bristol Rovers after being released a month or two ago and Ben Beckles is currently on trial at QPR.
what we need to do is to forge strong links with a lower league club and we act as a feeder club. our youth players are sent there and only there to gain league experience, but to play our style of football and they grow up all playing together. a club near southampton say bournmouth, plymouth or even winchester where a good influx of youth may put them into the league. it could be like barcelona b team
I agree. We do already, officially, have Eastleigh as a feeder club, though we don't really utilise it enough. I can't think of any of our players that have gone there on loan (though Jamie White went there permanantly, it's not much use for us), and the only player to have come to us from Eastleigh is Aaron Martin.
I thought Ward-Baptiste had a bit of potential? Made a few appearances for the U18s.I guess there are a lot of u16s to choose from and we have to be picky. I remember seeing somewhere a while ago about George Mells being half Australian and them considering him a really hot prospect. I guess him, Sam Gallagher, Matt Target and others will be amongst next year's graduates. I wouldn't rule us out as contenders for the FAYC next year.
We don't, but bandwagons are fun! It's pretty much accepted that the lad is good and has attracted a lot of interest.
Like young JWP, Shaw is also on the periphery of the first team and is likely to see some action next season, or even against Coventry if the league is sewn up by then.
This is all great news,the fact that our club's academy and our youngsters are known around the world and attracting a lot of interest from big European clubs like Barcelona and Arsenal it just goes to show what great work is being done at our football club Of course there is a downside of having a great academy like ours,the fact that selling these youngsters will be inevitable due to the interest generated by the so called "bigger clubs",until we break into the top 6 in the Premier League it will be difficult to keep hold of them,but we know how stubborn Cortese is . I hope this Shaw kid will be as good as some people think he'll be .
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/MatchReport/0,,10280~61469,00.html Knew I wasn't imagining this. He got 15 minutes at the Den in the FA cup. Was an unused sub against Preston in the league cup and Coventry in the FA cup too.
