but an acadamy does not build a name over night. some of the boys that are coming through now have been with the club for 9 years. Lowe had the idea in the mid 2000s to use the acadamy players , but the quality was not there and we got relegated. If he had the same crop of youngsters that we have now, plus the existing players like Lallana, Gillet ,Davies and later Spiderman we would have more than held our own in the championship. Lowe would probably be a hero at Southampton along with the two Dutch clowns. But, I think Lowe¨s decision to try and use the acadamy was purely to save money, whereas I believe the NC sees the acadamy as a way to bring stability and a certain style of play to the club
That's where Lowe got it wrong. Neglect the first team and you don't have a club. Even though the academy in its current form was Lowe's brainchild, he slashed the funding when we went down in 2005 and subsequently the post Walcott/Bale/Lallana generation weren't that good. Lowe was just a cheapskate.
