Kevin Ball

Has anyone heard the rumour that Bally has left the club ? I suppose it was only a matter of time if true.

 

Not heard it but it seems to be coming.

 

Nope, Love Bally but he's failing in his role, not as much as Ged like, surely he has to follow.

 

Club needs a rethink on the academy and some fresh impetus. Bally needs to go and find his management feet at a club for a few years and move his career on now too.

I love the bloke as much as the next fan but sometimes you gotta let go.

 

Club legend and all that, but he has to take his part in the shockingly low amount of players coming through the academy, like Bri said if Ball goes I expect Ged will also

 

Aye, as long as he takes McNamee with him.

 

Bally is my all time SAFC hero, but there's no question the academy is failing, and if he needs to go, so be it.

Club always comes first.

 

tbh im not sure its his fault tbh i think some of them should of been given a chance but havnt been able thanks to the manager merry go round and havnt been in the posistion to give the young ones a chance to go in and see what they can do cause of the league posistions we have been in, but i suppose if they are good enough they would of been given a chance

 

and to add our u18s team preforms well at this level to a standard it competes with the chelseas and man city lot thats why i can understand why none of our youth players ever came through

 

It's up to Bally to recommend players for promotion mate, he is there to advise the first team manager every step of the way on a players development.

If he recommends a player, and Gus doesn't think he's good enough, he's failing.

If he doesn't recommend players for Gus to consider, he's failing.

We can't overlook it because it's Bally, you won't find a Sunderland fan who doesn't adore the man, but the quality of our academy, the catchment area, the profile of the club, to not be producing anything is a scandal.

4-5 players in 10 years? We'd have found them WITHOUT the huge cost of the academy, and the academy should be the clubs future.

 

Where ever he goes and what ever he does he will go with my best wishes..

 

yer love bally, and i have spoke to him a few times and he did say with the likes of noble and lynch that they were technically good enough just not physical enough for the premier league, yet they were banging them in for fun in the reserves, goal scores score goals where ever they are they dont need to be physical enough just look at messi, hes learnt with experience and age how to deal with being small they just need a chance

 

What`s going to be even more interesting (if the rumours are true of course) is who the club sees as replacement(s).

 

Yeah, you can manage with that, some folk don't physically develop until their early 20's anyway.

Noble, Lynch & Laing are the 3 that leap out, what goes wrong?

It seems there's a mentality issue at that level as well, and again, sadly, that buck stops with the gaffer, being Bally.

 

yer i know, i dont know at akk couldnt think of anyone id have tbh, dont know too much about youth coachs but if they could get the one that runs crewe or southampton or even boro would be a good start ahah even sporting lisbon they always having cracking youth development

 

Can`t imagine they won`t have replacements lined up.

Don`t know anything about youth set ups tbh.

 

The way I see it it's failing in three areas, recruitment, u18 and u21. If we're serious about restructuring the club so that every level complements each other, I think we need to get rid of all development staff and replace them with coaches who share the philosophy.

 

i think we just need coaching in the style gus wants that has been a problem through our youth system for years with a constant revolving door of managers the youth system needs to be playing the same style so when the make the step up they are ready and can be slotted in easy enough

 

we have the power to go recuiting from all over the world with our academy status all the big teams do it successfully, and bilbao do it the best as they dont even let players that dont come from there area play for them! imagine if every club did that in englang there would go our not enough english players playing in the pl

 

It should be 4-5 players a season mate, not all pushing for the first team, I mean of various standards that we can make small pockets of profit off, get the academy paying for itself, run it properly and sooner or later we'll get our golden generation of 4 or 5 quality senior squad players brought in over a two or three season period. It's the whole point of having the academy isn't it?