I know this has all been said before, but I will say it again and this time with the sincere belief that the Academy needs one serious and massive overhaul from top to bottom. I am aware of a growing number of instances where our youth coaches are making huge blunders, where they are unprofessional to deal with, where coaches and parents are sending their kids elsewhere and where we are becoming a complete joke and laughing stock. We should have the best youth set-up in the South West. We should have our pick of the players from this large region of ours, but alas we are slowly and surely becoming an absolute shambles. I am not too sure how deep the problems go, but I'd argue they go from the very top of the youth set-up with Academy Manager John Clayton, right to the bottom with Recruitment Officer Trevor Challis. We've been in the Championship for 5 years now and we have not produced a single home-grown player capable of playing at this level. When we floundered in League 1 for 8 seasons, we had a few players come through, but how many of them were classed as genuine League 1 players - I can't see very many still out there playing at that level. In the last 15 years, we've generally produced players who are capable of League 2 at best. Questions have been asked before, but we really need to start asking some SERIOUS questions now! There are some very sorry tales to tell. One lad was recruited as a striker and was asked to play as a midfielder. After one year he was released as he wasn't 'progressing'! His parents took him to Southampton's set-up at Bath Uni and he's now 'progressing' very well as a striker and very likely to be signed by the Saints. There is also the tale of the goalkeeper George Dorrington who went to Ashton Park School and played for City Junior Supporters Club. He was said to not be 'agile' enough. He attended some trials in Sept 11 and there was lots of interest and evetually Man Utd signed him on a 3 year scholarship in Jan 12 and he's now in Shanghai at the under 18's tournament. Remember - we didn't want this kid!! He lives on our doorstep and is now at Man Utd because we didn't think he was good enough. Does this make you question our recruitment under Mr Challis? Speak to a lot of coaches in the local area (and a lot of parents for that matter) and they'll tell you that our set-up is a laughing stock. More and more kids are going to the likes of Southampton at Bath, Rovers or Exeter's academy, or the set-ups under Jamie Shore's Academy or Michael Meaker's Academy. Southampton at Bath Uni in particular make us look completely amateur. I also understand that there is a 'face-fits' culture. They don't talk to some parents as they simply don't like them. Those whose face fits get better treatment - regardless of whether the kid is any good at football! We've argued so many times on here before about why our kids seem decent up until a certain age and then they fail to progress any further. Is it the poor standard of coaching perhaps? I want to know directly from the likes of Clayton and Challis why we have turned down players like Dorrington, and why kids are seemingly able to make the grade for Southampton but not for us, and why the likes of Jack Butland's family didn't want him playing for City and instead chose Birmingham? These are hugely important issues which we need to address as soon as we can. We are continually missing out on the best kids and those which we do attract do not progress. We have the new Fifa Financial Fair Play regulations coming in, and as a result it will be imperitive to our survival that we are able to grow our own. We can't rely on SL bailing us out to the tune of £11m every year. We can't expect to go out and make multiple million pound signings. We can't expect to go out and pay top dollar wages to free agents looking for the best deal. We need to establish a culture where parents in the South West look to Bristol City as the number one youth set-up in the region, where they aspire to having their kids play for us, where we don't turn away the better players due to poor coaching/decisions, where we don't see the talented players progression stifled when they get to age 16. I want everyone who cares about the future of our club to have a serious think about this. Our current set-up is a joke and parents and other coaches in the region are fully aware of this. It will only get worse unless we do something about this NOW. The facilities at Failand are all in place, but it's like the Poison Apple. It looks all very nice on the outside, but once you look inside it is rotten to the core. We need to have some transparency. Who is responsible for the continual failure over many years? Why aren't we every parent's first choice? Why aren't kids at the Gloucestersire and Somerset trials recommended to City but instead coaches send them to West Brom, Wolves, Birmingham? (some of these coaches are City Season Ticket Holders and yet do not recommened their own club!!) That is scandalous!!! We need to do something about this. We need to alert the club to this problem. We need to change the culture. We need to do this for the sake of our own future. I don't have the answers, but perhaps together we might be able to cause enough of a stir to elicit change within that department. Help our club - post your thoughts on here about our Academy. The club HAVE to listen to us.
Serious answer...that sounds really worrying for you. I looked at OTIB and it seems you're not alone in thinking this. It would also put into perspective two half-time 'signing-ons' of promising youngsters at recent Rovers' home games. Flippant answer... Trevor Challis??..that wouldn't be Agent Challis by any chance!?
Our academy has been awful for years and needs addressing very soon. Rovers, Exeter and even Yeovil are ahead of us.
"There is also the tale of the goalkeeper George Dorrington who went to Ashton Park School and played for City Junior Supporters Club. He was said to not be 'agile' enough. He attended some trials in Sept 11 and there was lots of interest and evetually Man Utd signed him on a 3 year scholarship in Jan 12 and he's now in Shanghai at the under 18's tournament. Remember - we didn't want this kid!! He lives on our doorstep and is now at Man Utd because we didn't think he was good enough" His father Lee is a friend of mine and I am made up for them both that George has been spotted by a "proper academy", I haven't had a chance to chat to him about it but the word is, he is at present very highly thought of and is very much anticipated to be a prospect.. If I remember rightly he started playing as a striker as a kid and was alright too, one of the reasons City rejected him was his kicking wasn't up to scratch, Im assured by mutual friends that is one thing he doesn't struggle with. But, you're right Lew our academy is shocking, I could bang on about this for hours really but I am truly amazed how our scouting system for kids is done by rank amateurs like, postmen etc.
YES! Given our geographical placement building a nationally recognised academy should be at the very top of our plans. I remember when we were in the playoff final and the BBC interviewed Stuart Pearce about how he thinks should go up to the Premier League and he said Bristol City because at the time the South West, a quarter of the country, is barely represented at the highest level.
The problem with football now compared to 20 odd years ago is everyone wants instant success and clubs now more money to go buy what they want. If you took Man Utd if it wasnt fod youth player, players like Giggs, scholes or Beckham wouldnt have ever played for them. Unfortunately it has been awhile since we had a manager who has looked at our youth players. Danny Wilson just before he was released as manager was in the process of bringing younger players to the club. Then johnson came along and let them go, preferring experience to potential. We got promoted but we have no exciting young players to look at. Our brightest young players like wilson and ribs could be top players but come with the issues of injuries. Currently we are considering whether to keep or let Holloway leave and he is getting linked with a number of prem teams including Stoke. So us as a championship team dont want him but premiership clubs do. What does that say. To me he looks like a solid player to have
Southampton's accademy has been taking the best players from this region for over 30 years and their set up has long been regarded as one of the best for a very long time. Course it helped that they were in Div 1/the Premier league for most of this time, made it a far more attractive proposition than league 1... Sadly Gary Johnson contributed to the decline in recent years by never playing our youngsters however whilst it could have undoubtedly have done better, there have been successes in recent years so I feel the critism is over done;- Lita:- sold for £1m Cotterill:- sold for £2m Bradley Orr:- played in the Prem for QPR and Blackburn Luke Wlkshire:- now playing very well (watched a few games) in Russian premier league for Dinamo Moscow (who recently spent €19m on one player) Ribeiro:- offered £500k by Everton before he even played, I'm still shocked we let him go Keogh:- left as he didn't fancy it under Johnson (I rated him) - looks like we might pay £500k plus to get him back Henderson:- left as he didn't fancy it under Millen, unlucky Basso was so good for us but got the last laugh as now playing in the Prem for West Ham Scott Golbourne:- left to follow Leroy to Reading, now playing in the NPC for Barnsley Ryan Harley:- now playing in the NPC for Brighton and of course, our local hero Cole Skussssssssssssssssssssssse..... Plus from what I've seen in Wilson, Edwards and Bryan, we have some exciting youth breaking through These were some that either properly started their careers with us or are now doing better elsewhere and are just the ones I can remember, probably more but thats not too shabby really is it....?
Lita? wasn't he released by Chlesea academy and just picked up by us an 19 year old? (we can hardly claim that success) Not sure Bradley Orr was ever with our academy? (started his senior career at Newcastle) Cotterill -- very lucky to get £2m for him.. that was a steal. (but can be regarded as a rare success!) Keogh, through our acacademy? (just checked, never at our academy?) Riberio -- good player but described as "not believing in his own body" ie; a ****in wussy. and released by Dell who's opinion is good enough for me! he may go on to become a great player but he has been given every chance. (with regard my last paragraph) Luke wiltshire -- never with our youth set up according to wiki? Stephen Henderson? -- youth career with Aston Villa. Ryan Harley -- If you think he is that good it sort of proves Lews point in the fact he was released? and you could make the same point for Scott Golbourne are these both players that could have been wearing our shirt instead of expensive flops like Nicky hunt? Its just my opinion but its hardly 'The Crewe Production line' And kids like Scott Golbourne and Ryan Harley should have been given time to mature and settle, Its the "they must do it now" attitude that is preventing them from developing, after all, we spent all that money and then just watch it walk out of the door.
Willie Mcstay announced as Academy chief (after I posted above) "Only Louis Carey and Cole Skuse have come through the academy to hold down regular first-team places in recent years and the lack of players able to bridge the gap between youth and Championship football has caused some to question investment in the club's youth system" We all forgot Louis... It seems to me the issues that most of us seem to share about our club are being addressed as we speak about them. I for one am finding some renewed optimism in things..
Like I said, "properly started their careers with us" Trevor Francis was rejected by the City as a youngster, no one regards him as one of our products - he made his name with Birmingham same as those I listed did, as part of our accademy/youth team. By the way, Bradley Orr never played a game for Newcastle, Henderson never played for Villa and Leroy never played a single game for Chelsea either. You still have to have the eye to pick up players like this too. Anyway, the point was that it wasn't quite the total disaster its being made out to be. I do however agree that we let players go who shouldn't have over the years....
Exactly Banksy, yet when I criticized the new recruitment I was shouted down We needed sweeping changes but we got half measures again
No BRR, for me you were criticising before the changes have even started. Lew made some very salient points about the academy being pretty woeful and I agree fully, but the club have obviously seen this issue and are in the process of addressing it, it wont happen overnight. They literally cant just sweep the existing staff out of the door, we are applying for level 2 academy status which requires us to have a pro license level coach at the helm (as I understand it) that would be Willie Mcstays role and presumably we will be very lucky to be able to employ him? The way its shaping up looks ok to me, but I'm no expert. All some people are saying is lets give it a chance before we all start shouting it down. lets give the new brush time to sweep clean eh!
I think we all agree the Acadamy has not product much talent for our first team. The appointment of McStay (plus Russell etc) shows the club agrees Strikes me this is a DM inspired appointment - looks like he has real power in who comes and goes
