Seems a very unprofessional thing to say at a Press Conference / Fan Forum or whatever, surely they risk libel action for making accusations such as that?
What's the ideal, though? What system could be implemented that would be fair for all four divisions worth of clubs, and for the players themselves? Best I'm aware, the German system actually has the opposite effect...while their academy age is later (12 vs 9), almost all of the top talent in Germany has come through the academies of Bundesliga clubs.
This is something we have to come to accept, I guess. We're one of those evil EPL teams that lower league fans moan about even though they'd like nothing more than to be in our position. It's like poor people who hate the rich for the simple reason that they're rich.
This won`t encourage many Saints fans to invest with Hargreaves Lansdown - bit of an OG there. Somewhat libellous, these statements ?. Anyway, Bristol is a far bigger city than Soton, so why don`t they get their act together and get into the PL for once - hey presto, Lansdown`s problem solved.
Yes, they have a regional rule, where the best players within the region go to the best clubs and the rest filter down. This does however give the smaller clubs a little protection, albeit that the cream goes to the top. Where it works is if there are say 30 good players and the top team selects 15 of them, the next 15 go to the next level down, and so on... I think. Not 100% on this one.
How is it fair on Saints to of had half there catchment area in the sea? There is plenty of raw talent out there and this is a poor excuse from a mismanaged club. You don't hear Crewe moaning that they have to share areas with Liverpool, Everton & Stoke. This type of bitching and moaning is the reason why English football is so far behind our European cousins. Clubs just expect an 8 year old wonder kid to fall into there laps instead of trying to nurture and encourage young kids into the game and coach them good footballing principles.
I haven't got the time to go into why this is so, so wrong. You need to understand a little of how the European work their systems before you start saying this is why we are so far behind the Europeans.... I have a soap box for that topic, but it has nothing to do with bitching and moaning. Crewe is a long way from Everton and Liverpool in footballing speak, and they are delighted to be near Stoke as they get all the players that aren't big and can't kick it along way
I can't see how clubs can be defended on this issue. Some clubs seem to operate perfectly respectable academy systems under the same rules and regulations as everyone else. I'm watching James Ward-Prowse & Calum Chambers at the moment and i'm not seeing players blessed with extraordinary natural talent. They're young men who have had good coaching since 8 years old and a great attitude to get the best out of themselves
I think the only thing that really matters is the kids themselves. These are people we're talking about. Would you rather your kid was offered the chance to train in world class facilities at Southampton or at a lower league team with less impressive coaches and facilities? Obviously, as a parent, you'd want your child to have the best. This means that a very small minority of the players available to lower league teams will be taken away and given (hopefully) a better chance of making the big time. That still leaves a hell of a lot of young people for the team to look at and take a chance on. It's not like we have ten thousand kids in the youth team. Yes, some kids are special at ten - and no lower league team will hold on to those - but there are plenty who bloom later that the Bristols of this world can uncover and make a good profit from. If every club put the resources into their youth set up, then the country would be a better footballing nation as a whole - and maybe we wouldn't be so desperately worried about the odd superstar as we'd have lots of good, talented pros instead.
Not sure what we are supposed to be doing wrong here, are we not giving youngsters a good education and the possibility of improving themselves, not many come through to the next level, the rest can use their experience to attempt to get into one of their own local sides. If there is one gem that comes through and makes the grade our finance will be looked on as an investment, there are no guarantees that it will happen, so a lot of the money could be just in effect be wasted, but those that have benfitted won't complain.
If I were a parent I would want my kids to keep away from the anguish and disappointment of football. Too many kids are pushed into it with the thought that nothing else matters and in the end it makes the kids feel over pressured and a failure if they did not make it. Would much rather they had a childhood they enjoyed playing football in the park. Clubs wont be encouraged to develop academies if players can be cherry picked from then.
Not sure how else we are supposed to find out which players are going to be good enough, everyone saying there are not enough home grown players in the Premier, there never will be if there isn't a mechanism to sort the wheat from the chaff, it's not like scouting down the park and looking for possible candidates in the local pub teams after all. There has to be a system to find the talent, it's out there somewhere.
