Frankie Bennett Matthew Robinson Andy Williams Kevin Gibbons The above would have only of played a handful of appearances for us and then dropped down the leagues. Matthew Robinson went to Portsmouth and is now a policeman. Always interesting how clubs claim to have produced players. I know we purchased Blackstock, McGoldrick & Kenwyne as under 18s and they would have featured for our academy sides, but McGoldrick had already featured for Notts County 1st team at 16.
Leading Goalscorers 185 Mick Channon 1966–1977 & 1979–1982 161 Matthew Le Tissier 1986–2002 160 Terry Paine 1956–1974 156 Bill Rawlings 1920–1927 154 George O’Brien 1959–1966 145 Derek Reeves 1954–1963 145 Eric Day 1945–1957 134 Ron Davies 1966–1973 97 Rickie Lambert 2009–Present 97 Martin Chivers 1962–1968 Top Appearances (Excluding Top Goalscroers) Nick Holmes England MF 1972–1987 543 Tommy Traynor Republic of Ireland ‡ FB 1952–1966 487 Jason Dodd England DF 1989–2005 483 Bert Shelley England HB 1919–1932 448 Claus Lundekvam Norway ‡ DF 1996–2008 413 John Sydenham England FW 1957–1970 402 Francis Benali England DF 1988–2004 389 Quite a number of the clubs legends above began their careers with Saints. Even Traynor and Dodd were bought in as teenagers. Some of the above are before the days of academies and youth teams but began at Saints. I don't know if other clubs would have a similar picture
Kenwyne Jones didn't come through the academy. A lot of people seem to have this misconception. We signed him from W Connection as an already established 19 year old and he'd been capped by Trinidad and Tobago before he even came to us. He's definitely not a product of the academy.
But he played for the development teams, certainly at U21 category. I know because I watched him play. Which means we developed the lad. In a sense, we bring a lot of players on, rather than them being a complete product of the Academy. Blackstock, Best, Walcott can all be said to have been developed as players. Jones wasn't the finished article, even if he was considered so in Trinidad.
But the OP says 'Yoof" players which would suggest academy yoof ... a 19 year old international footballer is not an academy player. We could argue we developed Frank Worthington; I mean he had never finished second in the league before
But he didn't play for the Academy team. I'm not saying that Jones is a product of the Academy. I am only saying what I've said. Jones played in an Academy team quite a few times. It's quite easy to see why some people think he was a product of it.
