Thats just wrong. Their education should be on the floor, play it from the back always. Take theLiverpool game. Liverpool's back four were comfortable playing it around constantly tiring our two strikers out. We lumped it long constantly. Thats poor coaching. Russell should have been screaming at them to do it properly ad stretch their forwards. Barmby got his lad out now Harry's got his lad out.
There's two sides to this. It's true that a kid can develop into a good footballer without having amazing facilities, as you've highlighted with the reference to Afican players in the other post. But just developing good footballers isn't going to help keep hold of those players, as you need indoor pitches etc to get a higher category rating for the academy to prevent those kids leaving on the cheap.
I agree we need to up grade, but the coaching set up itself is too comfortable and needs shaking up. As you said on here Harry's dad wasnt impressed with it at a young age.
Yeah we did. The owners spent millions on the training ground and academy 2 years ago. It was decent before aswell but I think the revamp made the difference between category 1 and 2
There's another way of looking at this. As far as I'm aware, this is the first time we've ever got a fee for an academy player. It's a club record. Good business City.
I think I'm right in thinking that money spent on an academy is disregarded for the purposes of FFP. I really hope that our academy is developed. Our training facilities generally too
You can spend as much as your like on your academy. Its not included in FFP. Part of the reason they brought FFP in was the encourage teams to use their academy's
Re the Sunday league, the reason a lot of teams don't release players (or at least it used to be the reason) was that if you played 2 games for city, you weren't allows to play for any Saturday or Sunday teams again that season. City played people 2x then ****ed them off, leaving Sunday league teams with no players and the young lads with no way of playing. City's set up has improved greatly but it's still a shower of ****e compared to what other clubs of our size have got. The coaches and players can only work with the resources they have at there disposal which, due to gross ineptitude on the part of the club for many years, amounts to bugger all.
I think many parents now are canny enough to know that quality of facilites and accreditation are what counts- not league placing or what division. Leeds, Scunny and York are very active recruiting the kids in East Yorkshire. All enjoy good reputations for running caring and serious coaching. Many parents - having talked with other parents of young players - are aware of City's poor reputation for bringing kids through, improving their game and devoting serious attention to young players. Many are also aware of the various ratings of Schools of Excellence as opposed to the superior and more professional Academies, so are aware of City's weakness. Couple that with slapdash attitude and we've lost the kid. As regards Harry Cardwell, I heard he'd more or less been offered a pro contract. Imagine that - a club comes 200 miles to ask you to come and play for them, they pay you and undertake to look after you. No doubt they will have done a first class sales pitch to him and his family, showing the excellence of Reading's facilities. Who can blame him and his family for making that decision? They will have seen a serious commitment to young player development and money having been put where mouth is in this regard. I know the dad of one of City's best young youth players. The lad already has an agent (ex pro who turned City down in the 90s) and his dad is acutely aware of which clubs have the best records for bringing kids through. He is scathing about City's couldn't care less attitude to young talent. For now it suits the kid and his dad to be at City (school, job etc all local), but there will come a time soon when they will have to decide with the agent where the kid's best chances of the best coaching and the best chance of success lie, It won't be round here.
You don't need a chainsaw to cut down a tree, but the woodsmen out in the forests working for top companies won't be using an axe. The quality of the coaching is obviously the biggest factor, but the weapons they have at their disposal not only make their job easier but also more effective, and can help them reach places they probably couldn't without. There's an episode of James May's man lab where they teach him to take a penalty at Loughborough Uni. They do it using things like ultra slow motion cameras and sensors etc. to examine exactly how he strikes the ball, his body shape, how he swings his leg, the angle of his hips, the placement of his steps which are all vital parts of getting a good strike. A coach could polish that issue naturally with the naked eye in maybe a few weeks, but with those facilities one session where they can also show him first hand in high detail could do the job. These are the kind of facilities that really make the difference between a top youth set up and the rest. You're far more likely to attract the better coaches, players and their parents if you have the facilities in place. And to a youngster having all these flashy cool gizmos at their disposal could be the extra bit to inspire them to go the extra yard and yearn to make the very best of themselves. In theory the facilities aren't vital for a successful youth set up, but in the face of competition they are.
I think personally the quantity of high quality coaches is the issue, we may have one or two in our set up but not enough. I think thats down to the country though i don't think we appreciate how valuable an under 16 coach is or an under 15 coach etc.... We think a dad can do it on the weekends, thats not right and that shouldn't be the attitude. They are just as vital as any other youth coach. The average wage for a youth coach in the UK compared to abroad was about £10,000 less, which is shocking. They are so vital, and we need to make it more rewardable. Specific to City i think we are on the up, can anybody remember the last time we had so many players out at league clubs or conference sides. I can't, when i started watching we had Wiseman that was it, this year we had two go to Portsmouth, Cooper to Chesterfield, Cullen to Luton and a few more. Far better than previous crops, slowly but surely. As a club we went from bottom of league two to the Premier League in such a short space of time, so instead of players for League Two we need to produce players for the Premier League, that takes a lot more money.
The facilities have been neglected by previous owners. correction.. By ALL previous owners. I wonder if AA is beginning to regret buying HCFC, he seems to have opened a can of worms. I hope we get a new stadium, we have to call it The Allam Stadium as thanks for what he has done for the city.
