The answer is never. But there were some amazing players in that squad. Walcott, Dyer, Best, Bale (who was 15) in the Prem, Sparv in the Bundesliga, a few in the Championship, and the best one of all, Lallana. The U18's came second in their group last season so they must be decent, even though it's not about results, hence non-competitive development squad.
it is okay having all these good youth players but it is being ablew to play them aswell as looking after the fans expectations...... I think that is the difficult part.. i also think wityh Brightons new development, i can see some of the young talent going there..
I reckon that we would be lucky to get 3 or 4 through the ranks into first team football, some will fall by the wayside, some will filter into lower Leagues, but with our set up they will get the best chance to make the grade. Some may go bad yet still make it, Nile Ranger was thrown out because of his behaviour but ended up at Newcastle, plenty of lessons to be learned here, good luck to them all.
The later stages of the FAYC are crawling with media and senior scouting figures waiting to plaster the back pages with the next best thing. It can't be good for developing players' egos if their tipped for greatness before kicking a ball in anger against grown men. I don't suppose it did ours any harm, but it doesn't help anyone if the kids are in the public eye. I wouldn't be surprised if we fielded an U16 side for it.
acadamys kids are also taken on for proffit not just to maybe play for southampton.if the acadamy can produce a kid to a standard of div 2 and above they will be sold in the future for proffit.acadamys are run on a budget as a seperate buisiness and the coaches are acountable for who they take on and produce (bonuses!!!).saints want to be in the prem in the next 3 years or sooner so that means the kids they are taking on now would need to be capable of being prem standard in the near future ,there is no way they would be thinking all 15 will be able to be at that standard . even producing a couple would be a distant hope at a stretch .remember football is a buisness and proffit is what its all about the kids are just a currency.
The academy is a talent factory that we can use to produce kids that we can sell for profit or indeed use them in a role where we would otherwise need to pay a fee for a player. Given the premium placed on young, quality and British, integrating the youth system appropriately makes a lot of sense. The youth system at Chelsea produces a lot of quality, it's just that it doesn't end up in their first team and the first team is where the money is. Their develoment model is flawed, but the plan is that ours won't be.
I said this on another thread, but i'll repeat it here...I believe it is only a matter of time that we produce a crop of young players on a par with Manure in the 90s and West Ham 10 years ago. Everything is set up with a top scouting system and excellent youth development at the club. There is a reason why top young talent is joining Southampton FC and that is because we have the facilities (and reputation) to produce good players in the same way that youngsters in Holland join Ajax.
Alas the "golden generation" were the victim of the clubs miss management. Surman, Walcott, Bale, Lallana, Mills, Cranie, Dyer etc were all produced fairly close together and if it wasn't for the need to sale, could of formed todays team. The FA Youth cup is the big one in terms of the youth system, but i'm pretty sure Saints were FA Premier youth league champions two seasons in a row at around our relegation season. Lets hope that next time a fine crop appears we don't have to flog them for a quick buck
reading willo's comments on joining and everything else i have seen it certainly seems that the management have big plans for this current crop of youngsters, and from things NC has said previously they want to build our club around them = perfect platform for them to develop and as long as we dont sell we will get to the promised land.
Wouldn't it be great to have a team in 2-3 years time with 6 or 7 graduates in it. Fergie dominated Europe with that team of players that came through their system. It was the first thing he did when he joined Manure from Aberdeen; he got them investing in the youth system and it paid of handsomely. We would need to be brave and blood as many as possible, which is hard to do, because fans get on their backs early if they don't perform, but potentially we could have half a team of academy produced talent an thta would be awesome.
Alberto Seidi? He can't be bad if that was the case. I doubt we'd go abroad if he wasn't much good, so that's promising.
They've just posted details of initial 5 new academy lads on OS, including one each from Fulham and Chelsea. Interesting to see how many make it. The club must be impressed to take on 15 this year.
the young lads that go for the glory of joining a major club suffer in the end- unless they are potential world beaters. Take Jack Cork, he was with chelsea but was farmed out to different clubs over the last 3 years to gain experience as he has no chance of breaking into the first team. Whereas if he had been at our club he would have been playing first team football for the last 3 years. I think parents that care for thier kids will want them at a club like ours to bring thier sons on quicker
The important thing with these kids is that must hang onto them so that they do come through the ranks and into the 1st team and not sell them unless the preditors come in with massive cash offers - like the AOC situation, its £10m cash up front or "do one". This can then be funneled back into the academy for continued development and money to pay the youngsters to keep them at Saints for our future
