Our Academy

Spotted this article and thought I'd share. A good piece on the prospects for our academy lads.
I think all PL clubs should be forced to play 3 current academy prospects in their starting 11.
This will help youth development no end.

http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/english-cabaye-to-come-through-newcastle-united-academy/?

hat Chance Kids Breaking Through To NUFC’s First Team via Newcastle United academy?

So far under Alan Pardew we’ve seen James Tavernier (22), Adam Campbell (18), Shane Ferguson (22), Haris Vuckic (21), Paul Dummett (22), Gael Bigirimana (20) and to an extent Dan Gosling (23) in the first team , even if almost exclusively in the Europa League, Capital One Cup, FA Cup games.

To my knowledge most are on loan to lower division clubs but once the loan is up, what next for these ‘up and coming stars of the future?’ I’m pessimistic that in two / three years time we are going to see a team consisting of a back four of Tav, Williamson, MYM, Dummett – so what is the option? Put them back out on loan?

Take James Tavernier for example, in the past with NUFC he has been on loan at six different clubs in three years. I ask, how is that progress? From the player’s point of view he is getting first team football but what next? A career on loans around the UK until he retires with a handful of appearances for his parent club under his belt? In Tavernier’s personal position he has Debuchy (28), MYM (24), Santon (22), not to mention Anita who can play RB as well, to compete with as first team contenders which I don’t see him breaking through into the starting 11.

On his loan to Rotherham his debut started with a MOM performance and a goal in an emphatic 4-1 performance, I saw a comment from a Rotherham fan saying, “great result Millers, have to say Tavernier was a class above today ,why are Newcastle not playing him now!”

Well because we have better at the minute. So what is the route into Newcastle United’s first team picture? Mr Ashley has recently stated there is a multi-million pound plan for upgrading the training centre and bring the best kids through the books?

Not since Andy Carroll from my recollection has anyone came through the youth centre into the first team, is the money being pumped into this training centre really a good idea? Is this the end of first team player purchases? Is there really a English Cabaye out there waiting to be taken on and trained through a Newcastle United youth centre?

I hope so, I just don’t see it happening!]

 

I'm not sure about having to play 3 academy players. What I would like is the system going to be introduced to the Championship. At current, a team has 5 subs, but that will be increased to 7 while 2 of them have to be home-grown players from the club (i.e. spent 3 years at the club before 21st bday) under the age of 20

 

I'm worried about the direction our game is taking to I think it is time for a bit of drastic action.

 

The "academies" rule follows exactly the same pattern as the FIFA financial "fair play" rules; only the rich will prosper. All the bigger clubs have to do is pump money into academy signings then farm them out on loan. Chelsea already have at least two European feeder clubs and one Brazilian club with players registered against the academy (Roda, Zulte Waregem, I think? Can't remember the Brazil club), so all it means is the rich will further ringfence the best talent. The shambles about it is the wider 'economic' picture of decent talent being wasted through being suckered - mainly by greed - into academies at City, Chelsea, Man U. Further problems are that all these kids will be from the rest of the EU and abroad; the stifling of English talent will continue, because in spite of football being a completely unique industry, it is still bound by the same EU employment regulations as corporations are.

Football Associations have absolutely no concept of wider economic pictures; all they see is $$$$'s. All that corruption we all know exists within FIFA, the despotic numpty at the top and still they sit there, untouchable. Brazil makes International news for football violence, the silence at FIFA is deafening. Workers dying in slave-like conditions in Qatar, again nothing. Whilst we have a game governed by these greedy fat cats, so nothing will change.

 

Makes your blood boil when you think how much the fat old numpties that know nothing at all about football are taking out of the game.

 

More rules regarding academy players the better. We've tried the PL approach and it hasn't worked out for the clubs or the national team. Clubs are running up debts spending wildly, the national team is still not where it should be. A rule enforcing the use of the academy is put into place, you can bet all clubs would take a serious look at their approach and actually buy into the process. There are plenty of examples how it can be done both here and abroad. Our next opponents for instance

 

Interestingly I was having this conversation with an ex-footballer (not naming him as he is now fat and old) who has connections with a mid table championship side.

The financial restrictions being imposed on lower league teams means that the sniff of a premier league club for one of their players is dealt with by effectively "offering" the player on a plate to them, for cash in the hope of loaning him back. They get the cash injection, needed. And they get the player for the rest of the season. win win?????? for the club maybe in the short term, but not the player?

A perfect example here is Saha at MANU. He is clearly a talented player but is being held back because at Utd they expect results. When I say they, I do not mean the fans but the board, shareholders etc.

Saha could easily move to a mid table premier league club and get regular first team football.

I can think of many players who have moved to the so called big four that are good players for the old clubs but bench warmers when they arrive. Sinclair springs to mind as the one that makes me wonder why on earth he moved to Man City to play nearly no football...... But the reason my freinds is MONEY MONEY MONEY.

Our best young players need time to develop, will make mistakes and learn from them only if they are playing regular TOP FLIGHT football. If the big clubs loan them out to championship clubs all the time they will most likely shine at that level but not actually learn anything other than being roughed up. They have the quality at that level but will never enhance on that because they are not playing top class players.

A perfect example is Jack Wilshire. (For the record I think he is a little ****) he is a very good player. Arsenal loaned him out to Bolton and he developed very well. Made a couple of mistakes, bad tackles, bad passes but in general developed well. He is now a first team regular.

People say cream always rises to the top, well let me tell you cream goes off quick if you dont use it when its opened. The exact same thing can be said for these young players.

At 17,18 & 19 they have the ability, speed, fitness and talent.... What they lack is experience, direction, focus and education. At this point the cream of the young players is at the top...... But then they stagnate, eventually become disinterested at the lack of first team opportunites and then lose interest and are then motivated by the green stuff (money). Finally they move on after 3 years of prime development time wasted and end up playing championship football. What a waste!

Because of European Law, there is nothing the powers can do to stop clubs buying in expensive foreign youngsters or players in the hope of unearthing a gem. Crikey we as a club are one of the worst for buying foreign players so we are as much contributing to it than the big four.

The only way there will be a change is if there are financial incentives for the clubs to do so. The premier league could introduce a rewards system whereby end of season winnings based on league appearances could be enhanced if they use home grown players, youth players etc. This would mean the clubs are not instructed to use them, but are financially rewarded for doing so. This would be in the interest of the english game. This is the only way I think it could work. It would ensure that the clubs are not over relient on foreign players. What it could mean is you could potentially receive more money for finishing say 6th with 20% of players being products of the youth acadamy than finishing 5th with 10%. Its an idea, maybe a starting point. What do you think

GG

 

They could even award 0.25 points per appearance (defined as playing more than 45 mins), per academy player in the EPL.
That would focus the clubs mind and act as an incentive for those who invest in youth.

 

I'm not sure about this bit. I think some of our best young players have learned their trade at lower levels. Defoe when he went to Bournemouth, Beckham at Preston, more recent examples of Barkley to Sheff Wed. I just think they need regular football.

 

One thing for sure is that we've never really had a strong youth set up.

Bobby Charlton once went on record to say that he questioned Wor Jackie about the youth development at St James's - and while Jackie obviously wanted Bobby to sign with us he inadvertently dissuaded him from doing so by slamming our youth set up (especially in comparison with Wolves and Manu, the most successful clubs of the 1950s).

 

On a brighter note Adam Campbell is off to St Mirren for the second half of the season.

Good move because he really needs game time.

 

I'd hate to see him go somewhere permanently, he's got a really good game in him.

 

So did Shola, but it took 9 years to see it.

 

I'm afraid that this would fall as foul of European law as banning imports.

I have always said that the problem isn't that there are too many foreign players in English football - - it is that there are too few English players in foreign football.

One way to change that would be to state that no player, English or foreign, could play in the Prem until he had played 40 games of top flight football in another league. That way all those academy products would have to be shipped to France or Belgium or wherever to spend a season or two developing their skills in a competitive (and probably technically superior) league prior to warming a Premiership bench. Some would make the grade up to the Prem. The rest would be playing top flight football somewhere else. Good for the players, good for the English team.




(I also have plans to sort out peace in the middle east if anyone is interested.)

 

Is that all, it seemed longer.

 

I think rather than worrying about European law, you have to look to take the approach the likes of Spain, Germany, Holland or Brazil have taken. You need buy in from the clubs. Clearly this is much more difficult here due to the power of the PL and the fact we sold out our top league so long ago it is pretty hard to reverse the trend. The answer is and always has been a stronger FA. You need a big cultural shift from the clubs and only they can drive that. Until they find ways of regaining respect and re-establishing their authority on the game here, it'll be difficult to see what we all want - English teams dominated by English players who are good enough to represent our league in a positive manner.

Our FA is a pathetic entity compared to our most of the other countries. They have clearly conceded too much ground to the PL and the money men. Its not rocket science to work out that these guys are more concerned about their product than the English national football team and football in England in general. You have to burst the little bubble they are operating in. You need to get the big clubs on board to really change the culture. Those inside the game know opportunity is a problem - one that can't be so lightly dismissed as it is by many. They know better than any old fart or fan looking in from the outside.

The Spanish and Germans clearly mapped this out when they wanted to modernise their game. They targeted the likes of Borussia, Bayern, Barca, Real because they knew it is like chess, there are key pieces to the game.

The European law angle is always entertaining. Our government and those around Europe contravene European law when it suits them. They find loopholes and ways of interpreting these laws whenever it suits them. It is not the noose round our neck that everyone thinks. As I say the easiest way is to get buy in from the clubs and then the rest will fall into place.

 

It's an interesting take and hard to argue with it. However, I think there's a wider human economic issue at play here; in Spain, for example, they are not in a buoyant economy - nor have they ever been - and so football offers a route where education and capitalism don't really play such a big part. It's always been that way across the Atlantic in South America as well; weak economies, poverty, there's little escape for many of the youngsters bar football.

Germany is of course the polar opposite - sporting excellence is encouraged and rewarded throughout an excellent scholastic system, but access to football is also balanced, economically, by sensible governance that we still have no control over in the UK. "Fit and proper owners test" does not extend to keeping prices down, making football affordable, boosting local economies, and so on - it's little more than a credit check, to ensure they have enough money to pay the taxes, there's no wider scope.

So compare the UK to both extremes; in South America and Southern Europe, there is no government handout scheme (at least not on the scale we have here), there is no free housing, no get out of jail free. The desire to make the best of a bad situation and fight your way to something better simply doesn't exist. How many of today's English elite can share a story with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Lionel Messi or (fat) Ronaldo? In Germany, there's reward through betterment within the schooling system, whereas here we have kids all getting the same coloured plastic medals in sports day so that kids who lose don't feel left out. It's breeding an acceptability of failure. Don't try, don't bother, because frankly it doesn't matter - everything's free anyway. In Germany, you get more rewards the harder you work. Your limitations are supported, but if football is your forte it is not a case of saying "well, it's either that - in your own time - or education. Now sit down and do some goddam sums, thicko." There's no concept in the UK that children might be better with their hands, or their feet, than their mind - they are excluded if they can't do things with their brains, and it's up to them or - worse - their parents to give them the guidance to something better. But it's expensive, and it's full of pitfalls, and it's uneducated, and it's unstructured.

There are far, far wider problems than whether Man Utd give a fck about England or not. But no-one in this country has either the £££'s, the wisdom, or the interest to fix them. Self-preservation society.

 

A fair point but it overlooks the fact that the FA is not a government but just another company at the end of the day. If it decided to ignore European law it would be sued by whoever was out of pocket as a result. It would have none of the privileges of being a sovereign nation when it came to defending that claim - - it would be just another defendant up before the beak waiting for a god awful award of damages to be handed down.

 

Our FA couldn't do it. Unlike the Italians, Spanish or German, our government takes very little interest in our national sport. Our FA has become so weak it has no powerful allies. The government would use the "outside of our remit" excuse so as to not become attached to a failing company like the FA. However if you are a dynamic company with a great product, our government is more than happy to find ways to bend the rules for you (look at the tax situ we have with large multi national companies). A decent starting point would be to get some ****ing charisma in the place with an ex footballer! Look at the likes of Beckenbauer or Platini, they tie these things in their country to the higher powers. What do we have? Greg Dyke? Trevor Brooking? I'm not having a go at those guys, Brooking has done more to move forward the development agenda than anybody and at Dyke has pulled the knowledge of someone like Hoddle. There is just not the real clout to pull in help and buy in from all quarters.

Any quota system will be a short term fix in many eyes. I can see the logic in this. I can also see the logic in encouraging players to seek opportunities abroad. That will be an incredibly difficult barrier to break down though, far more difficult than many realise in my opinion. One you have the cultural issue within our own country in players having a natural "home bird" mentality, then you have the issue of the rest of Europes view of England as a country (its real, we're not exactly loved ) and the stigma attached to the players we produce. We've waited a long time, buried our heads in the sand. As a result I think both the short term and long term approaches are required.

 

seems a good game at North Shields tonight

(Wrightson 6') North 1 -2 toon, (Gillesphe, (Campbell after 23 mins)