I know I keep on piping about the Swans Academy , and the fact we ain't got one , but there is an interesting interview by Rickets about the importance of investing in the infrastructure of one for the future of our club. News is very slow in this, the cricket season is over and unless somebody can tell me different we haven't started on building one in plasmarl/landore. This is so important for the club I am getting impatient with all these delays! Anyway here is a link to the interview http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15500165.stm
I totally agree with him, we should have had one up and running well before now IMO. While we are waiting the local talent are going elsewhere and that should not be happening....
Yes I agree to a point jackdan , but the expansion of the stadium should take place providing we got enough points on the board come the new year. But there is no reason why both can't be done IMO
i agree both should be done but at this minute in time i think one NEEDS to be done and that is the academy. As you point out if we have enough points on the board that suggests we are going to stay up (which i think it will) then the expansion will move onto the NEED list haha
I've given up on this one, and I think it will go on the back burner if we stay up, due to Stadium Expansion taking precedent!............... please log in to view this image
Ricketts is right about the Academy, but as far as training grounds are concerned is he aware of the newer facility at Landore or had he already left us when we started using that?
I cannot see both expansion and academy/training facilities happening this year. Given the choice, it's the academy/facilities that needs to be prioritised. Ricketts has a little pop at HJ. He questions whether HJ has actually seen the type of facilities posessed by other clubs. I don't know if it's all HJ's fault, but if we do want to become an 'established premier side' then it is imperitive we get this sorted.
Swimaway I can guarantee that neither will be done this year, what with only 2 months left lol . Anyway the problems are the legal ones surrounding the landore site, the cricket club are not playing ball, and they have us by the balls so to speak. In regards to the faculties rickets is dead right, in comparison to the rest of the premier league clubs and a fair few lower league clubs, ours are substandard , we need a huge investment into the setup, and not just monetary but personnel and bringing on players. We are a joke in this area to put it bluntly and it must rectified as quickly as possible, the investment is about £2m a year I believe . As for the stadium expansion that is completely different thing and one is not dependent of the other
please log in to view this image Agree with you here Swim, but knowing our club, they will go with the expansion!!.............. please log in to view this image
Forget the expansion surely an Acadamy and better facilities is a must have for us now! nice to have 30,000 jacks all happy and together(though we could well struggle to fill that every week ,especially as you can watch in the pub and get drunk for the same money) if we dont have an Acadamy soon we will loose alot of the kids that could be the very lifeblood of our club for years to come!we are never going to compete on transfer fees and wages so the only way to it is to find the next Aaron Ramsey,Gareth Bale and Joe Allen!! This will ensure a bright future for our club not an extra 10,000 seats! lets be honest with ourselves, if relegated then our attendence will drop and we will be down to about 16-17k we have some of the most fickle fans in football down at swansea and while we are growing our hard core every season there are still alot of people that will desert the football when/if we started to struggle. Its the main reason the club are tight with money and budgets ,they know that they cant spend money on what the attendence might be next season as there is a difference of about 5000 people depending on staying up and relegation! Im suprised an acadamy hasnt been built already , there is obviously alot going on behind the scenes that we dont know about ,but what ever it is im sure the guys at the top have the future of the swans at heart!
The board need to get some property experts on the case...or have they? Huw Jenkins has more or less said it's due to the snails pace being shown by the council. Surely the right property/legal/ Assembly delegation could roll it out of the council long grass. C'mon messrs Morgan,Jenkins, Dineen...we need the red tape untangled and some positive news on the academy !!!
Agree with Norway and others on this. If we extend the stadium and get relegated, all we'll have to show for it will be thousands of extra empty seats. Build an Academy, however, and that is an investment that will continue to reward us for as long as the club exists. It's a no-brainer, really. We can always look to extend the stadium when we seem to be secure in the Premiership.
Or do both Ivor the cash for the academy has already been put aside I believe from the money we got for Martinez and Scotland , so we are just waiting on the legal side of things to be sorted. With the expansion, we must first hit the criteria of staying in this league, if we get another 12-15 points by the new year I can see it being put forward to be done, at the very least the groundworks can be done with no interference of the stadium at all
Needs must lads, and you should know by now that we always give priority to the first team support, so the Stadium expansion will come first in my view, though it's gone very quite on the academy front, I don't think we have the mind set to give this the priority it should have, but we shall soon see!................ please log in to view this image
forget expansion for a few years yet its not a priority, the academy and training facilities are much more important because without these we are at a disadvantage, If we go for expansion first then it could all end in tears and a big white elephant, we should go for the benefit of the clubs immediate future whether we stay up or go back down...
Dai it's going to happen, if the swans are in a strong position come the new year it will go ahead, if you are in business and something is selling hot you strike while the iron is hot. We meet the first criteria set out by huw by the way, is our stadium selling out ? Yes it is! The second is it likely we will stay up, well we will find out in the next 2 months or so, if we have another 15 points on the board after the villa game on the 2nd of January I can see the board making a calculated gamble on going ahead with this. Still I agree that the academy must be a priority also, we desperately need the school of excellence built, so we can get academy status after, it will take at least another two years before that happens though.
