And something tells me they could be approaching first team football pretty soon. J W-P probably slightly more advanced as of now but an injury or two could change things dramatically.
It's the Catch 22 nature of it all that really irks. If we could close down all channels of communication with other clubs, we could build with these youngsters. As this is impossible, the power games go on, with the implication that a youngster like Shaw would be mad to stay with the club which has developed him. So we try to build a team that could genuinely challenge at the top, but if any player seems to be better than our usual fare he is whisked off to a big club. Of course if a club is foolish enough to risk big money on an untried player we'd have to consider it, but the way that these youngsters are led to believe that the status quo is not open to challenge is annoying. Shaw could have a 15+ year career. If players of his quality (Ward-Prowse, for eg) stay with Saints they could be playing Champions League football with us for much of that career. The risk is not all one way. Young players take a risk that they'll not develop with another club as well as they might do at SMS, as Walcott has shown.
Shaw and JWP could stay here and play for another 4-5 years and still be considered young players with long careers ahead of them. Champions league in that timescale is pie in the sky, but establishing ourselves in the PL is reasonable. Players with loftier ambitions will move on and that's fine, but I can see our youths sticking around for long enough to make teams out of them. Getting a few good years and a few good memories out of a young player before they move for an unholy amount of cash is the best we can hope for. Whenn we signed Rodriguez from Burnley, most of their lot begrudgingly accepted that he needed a bigger challenge to progress as a player. Fair enough, goodbye, good luck and thanks for the cash. Unfortunately, Le Tiss was a one off. Wrangles a bit though when kids like Chamberlain and Walcott leave before they've outgrown the club.
I have a feeling this is why the Wallcott story has materilised and Nicola is just putting two fingers up at Arsenal saying that we can not compete and keep hold of our own players. I do not envisage Luke going anywhere this season and he has bought into the Southampton way.
I do not understand why some on here say Southampton have a history of producing players. We have produced 4 really good players in the last 10 years, 3 of whom we have had to sell or recieved an offer that was too good. We have produced a fair amount of Premier-championship quality players in those 10 years though, but no where near the likes of Man Utd, Liverpool or even Spurs and Everton. 10 years from now I believe we could be like the Utd team of the late 80s where half the team is from the acadamy, but I could not make a decent team from players we have produced in the last 10 years. I think we have more of a rep of buying older players and getting more from them, currently we have Lambert, Chaplow, Jos, Davies that are playing the best football of thier careers
I disagree, you can create a fairly solid team from players who came through Saints academy. Only position i'm a bit stuck for is goalie. Plus the big three we've produced (Walcott, Bale and Oxlade-Chamberlain) are better than what United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs etc have produced for a long time. In 5-10 years we could be seen in the same light as West Ham when they produced Ferdinand, Lampard, Cole, Carrick and Defoe in quick succession.
There is a piece on OS from a few days ago about our academy getting Category 1, but does anyone know what it means when it says we are representing the PL as one of three teams in Europe to demonstarte techniques? Not clear to me.
I would say a keeper is fairly important, the team formation would be 1 (Bridge playing fly keeper) 6 in midfield and 4 upfront
Poke ? Cranie Baird Bridge Bale Lallana Surman Chamberlain Walcott Best Probably missed someone obvious, and ignored players from a whuile ago; Le Tiss, Shearer etc. Can't think of a RB?
As mentioned keeper is iffy, but otherwise Baird-Williamson-Mills-Bridge Dyer-AOC-Lallana-Bale Walcott-Jones Now i'm not going to say thats a league winning side, but you'd be hard pushed to find a club that could name a better side from academy graduates in the past ten years.
sorry dont know who williamson is. But my point is that we get a gem every few years, but overall we do not have a history of producing good players. Alot of clubs can boast of sides where 4 or 5 players were home grown, probably our best time for academy players was the late 80s with Le Tiss, Danny Wallace and Alan Shearer in the same side. Then bits and bobs until Theo in 2005. Not being a downer, as our academy will grow in status over the coming years.We did of course have a team made up with alot of academy players that got relegated from the Championship
consistency is what builds great academies, utd had it in the 90´s and those players played for the club for 10 years and are so even now, thier squad for this year has 6 homegrown players in it, and one in the squad but out on loan. during the 90s we only had Le Tiss, and then when we did have a good youngun they jumped ship with the first oppertunity (Baird) or were sold (Surman).any team can get lucky and find a really good young player, its finding more and keeping them that is hard
Luke Shaw should stay at Southampton,what's the rush anyway?Wouldn't it be better to play for the saints for a few seasons and improve as a player than to go to a big club and sit on the bench..? It's getting really annoying now,every time we produce another youngster it's always the same club after them,Arsenal.Go produce your own players,you've got enough money to do so... It would be great to have these academy graduates around for a bit longer than a season.
if you guys want to see who we are after, if any of your youth you should check out one of young guns arsenal youth blog by jamie sanderson or jeorge birds arsenal youth they're both the most reliable arsenal blogs by far. We are defintely not interested in james ward and we have been monitoring luke shaw but haven't made any sort of approach for him and i doubt we will as brandon ormonde ottewill is a left back too and has trained with the first team so is obviously held in high regard. Hes 16 too and an england youth international. I'm not saying hes as good but he is rated pretty highly. Chelsea's interest seems to be more genuine though. At any rate i agree we have been annoying you guys so understand the bad blood but as a prem team now i doubt theyll go for anything short of exorbitant prices.
everton have 6 youth players in thier squad, they also had of course baby shrek rooney. spurs only have 2 after ledley´s retirement, i think happy harry was relying more on buying players which sounds familiar
If Saints had been in the premier league for as long as Everton we would probably have that many as well. For instance we wouldn't have had to sell players like Dyer, Surman, Baird and Jones who have all gone on to become established top flight players. Plus players like Osman and Hibbert are going to stick around at a mid table club longer than players like Bale, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain anyway.
we are going around and around- but thankfully without calling each other names as happens here. It comes back to my original point of people saying we have a history of having a great academy, when we clearly are no better, and in fact worse than some other clubs. But that will now be changing with the correct investment and drive
