Ron remembers correctly. Kicking everyone out of the Airco was supposed to be while they sorted a bubble at BB, Cott or somewhere else. Yes, so it's proved to be just one more of their lies.. As for the youth set up, yes, it's in far better shape than it's ever been. But still there's next to nothing to show by way of legacy for the tens of millions the club has had from it's 3 PL visits / 5 PL years. The use of BB facilities arguably makes sense, but there should have been major lasting investment in our own facilities. Back to the OP, no, we don't even have our own bubble, just use of a stolen not really fit for purpose Airco.
Yes the youth system has improved but it’s more of a positive influence from the negative squad building of the Allams. Also the fact been in the Premier League we can attract better kids. If Bishop hadn’t come along or been improved they’d still have awful facilities? The development of Tymon, Bowen, Clark and Batty is down to the fact we have no one else to play.
And two of those came to us late on, didn't they? The two not born in Hull are currently in our first team.
Anyone who has seen our youth set up over the last twenty years knows it's light years ahead in the last five years. Not just the facilities but the coaching received, the amount of coaches and the coaching they do. We now have a set up that will produce players good enough for the first team.
And Bowen is nearly 22. So our academy polished him up . Is it the Hull way to try and **** on everything.
It was always my understanding that an academy product is someone who trained with a club for 3 years between the ages of 15-21. To that end Batty, Bowen and Cairney all would be classed as Hull City "products" (sorry). Also, regarding the ages that we signed those two, its quite normal based on what I see at work (secondary school) for youngsters to move around academies. It's my responsibility to liaise with our local clubs and the day-release programs in their academies. In the last year, one lad played for Walsall, Coventry and Blues before taking a scholarship with Cheltenham at 16yo. Personally I cant see how that makes him any less a product of Cheltenham than a kid who played there for 1 or 2 years before.
And City shelled out a considerable amount of money to get Bowen from Hereford beating the offers of several other clubs in the process. I thought he was 15 when we signed him ?
I never suggested otherwise. I think picking up promising youngsters from other academies can be a very good approach and I suspect the recent changes at the academies at Huddersfield and Brentford are likely to become common among many clubs. The only drawback with that, it when it becomes the norm, there'll be no academies left to pick up the promising players from.
We signed him in 2014 and he's now 21, we also didn't shell out a big fee, we signed him on a free when Hereford went bust.
I’m not sure I agree Chazz. A number of reasons which I won’t go into on here. But as a set up I think all round it’s very poor. Even down to identifying players locally. Our scouting for want of a better word is total ****.
Based on what? Where can you observe any of this? Given that it's the Allams that have always told us what a great job they've done with the academy, whilst it's all very hidden away from the public eye and difficult to verify, I'm sure you can forgive me for doubting that it's quite as great as they say.
For anyone who's been involved in the youth set up over the years, either playing and or coaching it's blatant and obvious that the youth set up is light years ahead of where it was. Is it perfect....god no as GLP said there is scouting and player turn around issues but all club's have it. But the hull city AFC youth set up in 2018 is a 100x better then the youth set up when the Allams took over. Its not all down to them at all but they have let the people who knew what to do, do it and have supprotee them. It honestly is the only thing they have done correct
Fair point. Hopefully if we keep playing our better prospects though we wont be back of the queue for aspiring youngsters. Regarding the dismantling of academies, I think the bigger clubs will always stockpile talent (Chelsea, Citeh) and loan out to championship clubs. If the rules surrounding outgoing loans change to limit the number of kids you can send out (Chelsea have 40 out on loan this season!), players like Hector or Loftus-Cheek won't hang around at the parent club for long.
It's a pity they didn't do that with the whole of the club and we maybe wouldn't have been in the **** like we are now.
Compared to a free transfer like you are claiming, yes it is a big fee and more than other clubs were offering. How many other 15/17 year olds have the club paid anything for ……………………….?
I think there's a couple, though I can't remember who, other than Will Mannion, who was £100,000 initial fee, plus further payments of up to £100,000 for first team appearances and up to £225,000 should be become an under 21 and full international in a competitive match.
