To save starting an individual thread, thought we could have a dedicated Academy thread for U21/U18 matches this season and any other relevant information. It's U21 action tonight, as Chelsea come down to St. Marys on a wet Friday night. Following from a good win over Liverpool, the Saints will want to improve on a lacklusture defensive performance and attempt for a clearer and more confident win. St. Marys, 7:30pm kick off, also on Chelsea TV so suspect there is a stream somewhere, also supposedley U21 matches are free to air on Sky/Virigin. It's also free entry at St. Marys, shame im working. Meanwhile, the U18s kick off their season at home to Everton tomorrow morning at 11:00, unfortunately behind closed doors.
Disapointing weekend for the youngsters, as the U18s lost 2-1 at home to Everton, whilst the 21s were thumped 4-1 at home to Chelsea. U18 goalkeeper Harry Isted has suffered a severe injury during the match ... wish him a speedy recovery.
May be disappointing on the pitch, but great that 4 Academy players were in the first team at WBA (Lallana, Chambers, JWP and Shaw). The main function of the Academy is to provide first team players.
I think one of the main reasons the Academy aren't doing too well at the moment is because the first team keep nicking their best players!
It's interesting that we are having more success blooding youngsters now that we are in the premier league, most of it is due to the exceptional quality but I also think the premier league suits the technically skilled player that we develop. And despite what you said in the match day thread Fran I think the club is very accommodating of it's academy prospects - chambers was given a lot of protection but I also think that Cork is a significantly better footballer and a slightly better rightback and 19/20 premier league cubs would have played him over Chambers. The players coming through will have to be of a higher standard as the team improves but as we saw with Chambers I think the initiation period for them will be much smoother than it would be if we were in a relegation battle. The higher we go the easier it will be for them to not play badly but of course it is going to get harder to play to the appropriate standard.
Cork is a better player, but his position of choice is not RB. Mauricio has seen a lot more of Chambers than we have and his decision was vindicated. Chambers gained great confidence from the match yesterday. However, Mauricio would not have risked playing a young player if he didn't have confidence in him. He picked the team he thought could get a result and we did.
Just as it should be! Just shows how we set ourselves apart from other teams, everything in the youth set-ups is geared towards making great players and raising them as good people, not about making great teams like the big teams who effectively buy their youth teams for success. There's so much focus on the lack of English players and whatnot in the Premier League, but I just quickly went and looked at Liverpool's U21s and only 13 of their 30 man U21 squad are actually their own academy products, the rest were all bought/signed from other teams, and only 15 of them were English (As opposed to 24/27 for Saints). Just seems so backwards to what they should be trying to achieve to me, really think there should be limits on foreign and bought players in academy's, for the good of everyone involved.
When asked about playing three 18-yr-olds, Mauricio said he doesn't consider age when selecting players and added that he was just taking advantage of the hard work of Nicola over the past 4 years. I can't remember who, but someone at the academy said their job was helping players to achieve their potential and get in the first team, it wasn't to win cups. So Saints Academy often play 16-yr-olds in the u18s if they think they would benefit from the experience. On a side issue, have we filled the vacancy at the Academy now the FA has nicked our man.
I don't think nationality should matter more than it does at top level, bring the premier league into line and you will see the youth's nationality change. If there was a requirement for english players we would be the biggest beneficiaries but I think it's wrong to divide footballers like that.
Southampton are playing liverpool academy in 2 hours, its on firstrowsports if anyone wants to watch: http://firstrownow.eu/watch/216703/1/watch-liverpool-academy-vs-southampton-academy.html
