I would say that clubs do go about it the right way for them, however some clubs do not worry what is good for the kids. If I were a parent, the whole idea of agents, media and clubs building up dreams before shattering most of them is not what I would want for my child.
I am a parent of a 12 year old who at parents evening last week, when asked what he wants to be, said "footballer". He has not got it by a long way, but he is 12 and who am I to stop the dreams of a 12 year old?
Mmm I'm not sure what you are saying. Can you elaborate please? I may have missed what you mean, sorry? If you are saying that a club should just give good coaching to normal, not "exceptional" footballing kids, then that is very misguided. First point, JWP should have been left at Portsmouth. Second point, if that is all it takes then why does a club take boys from far away? Just roll up at the nearest two schools, take 30 kids and coach them well... Bingo, good players.... Not. It doesn't work like that. Ist have what you've said incorrect though.
Well yeah. But you'll know the difference between dreams and reality, & consequently so will he. With some families thats not the case. Most youngsters, even the ones with real talent, never make it, & if they're not prepared for that it can be a crushing blow.
Is this your evil way of trying to tell me that I'm not in MPs plans? You are correct, I had a lad play for my team for five years and his parents took him to any 'club' training day or week and would call it "a trial| The sort where a private company rock up in half term with an association to a club and charge 50-100 quid for a weeks training. They believe more than the lad that he is destined to be the next England striker.... he is 12.
The thing is though that we weren't a greedy, talent grabbing Premier League team when many of our current crop of youngsters first joined us. We were struggling in the lower leagues. It shows that if you do things the right way you can still attract good players.
This surely is sour grapes..........Cotterill and co have the opportunity of creating their own academy equal to anything Saints can offer, there is nothing to stop them. Surely it is up to the student and his family. Is it any different to any academy offering someone the opportunity to study at the highest level. When you are looking for uni places someone with "8 A's" is going to be offered a better uni than someone that only got "B's or C's". Saints developed and improved their academy while in the lower leagues although I agree we now have a top division pedigree, non the less we kept the academy open during our times in the lower divisions. Nothing to stop Bristol or anyone else from investing the same as Saints but they won't. Then they complain when others do!! I haven't heard Plymouth or Exeter or what about Rovers have they complained?
How true is that.......The best I ever got was 5......and they were not "A's" I scraped through but I got them!!!
On another interesting note, 9 players from Le Tiss/Franny's training school have gone on to sign with Bournemouth or Saints. Good work.
Really Beddytare? How much did we invest in ours? Don't think a Bristol City can afford to do that. I disagree that we did our academy work "while in the lower leagues" as one, we were there only briefly; two, we had the foundation of a good academy from a long time back; and three, would we have continued that investment and improvement had we not been purchased by a very rich man? Too many people looking at this through Saints tinted glasses. I took mine off to look at this and apart from some perhaps ill chosen words (cheating), I think they are right to moan. Bath is on their doorstep, so if an area is to be divided up, how on earth do we get Bath over a Bristol club?
You're not wrong but even so, we continued the work whilst sliding down. Whether we could have continued it without the injection of money is another question. Crewe were mentioned earlier on. and they produced player after player despite never reaching any giddy heights themselves. Funnily enough, I had a mate who was a Tyro League manager and even he was moaning about Saints nicking his best players (I'm talking 15/20 years ago). He reckoned they would have learned more staying put and going to Saints later on if they were good enough.
Southampton hasn't done anything wrong as such. they're just using the system to their advantage which is weighted in favour of Premier League clubs so it's really the system that's wrong (and it's gonna get a whole lot worse when the catchment restricts are discarded). And tbf Southampton do have the disadvantage of half their catchment being underwater and Bath isn't that far away from Southampton really but what really annoys me is when clubs just move in to areas which are miles away without any real reason except to hoover up talent..... e.g. Chelsea have moved into Portsmouth, seriously wtf? London is nowhere near Portsmouth! Takes an hour and a half or more by train to get to Fratton from Waterloo! Maybe English football should copy the NFL and instate a draft system! League 2 clubs have first pick, Premier League clubs have last pick (with whoever wins the Premier League having the very last pick)!
So Pompey get first pick next year? How common are "satellite" academies like ours in Bath? Do, say, Liverpool have one?
Nah, we're gonna shoot up the table so we'll end up getting 8th or 10th pick! Probably, I'd imagine they're fairly common. I know Chelsea have one in Portsmouth (as I mentioned) and I think they have one in Aldershot too. As for the comment about giving a kid's parents a house to encourage him to join the side, I bet that happens all the time with Premier League clubs, especially clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelski, Man U, etc.
With all due respect, it doesn't make much sense to have the best prospects playing for the worst teams in league 2!
Not our fault who ever allowed us a satellite academy in Bath. You can't really judge a club when the higher ups have agreed to it. Yes it may effect Bristol, but do you really think if a youngster was good enough he would stay there anyway? I used to help manage a Tyro team and it wasn't Southampton that came in and took 4 of our players(one was outstanding) it was Chelsea. If in Bristol"s eyes we are cheats then Chelsea are far worse. They even have coaches from their academy come down every year to do sports day.
If they wanted to do a NFL style trade there should be 5 different groups of players. Group A would be the best players which the Prem leagues choose from and so on.
Who was the last good youngster to come through the Bristol City Academy? Also, if we're not allowed to pick players ahead of Bristol because it's nearer them, why are they allowed to pick players over teams within Bath? The argument can't be because Bristol is a bigger club, because we're a bigger club than Bristol. If a player is good enough to play at the top level, then they should be given the best opportunity to do so, with the best possible facilities and coaching. The worst part about the new rules is how fees are to be calculated, meaning a fixed price is given. It reduces the chance of Crewe getting big sums for the likes of Nick Powell, and will mean that more Premier League clubs will take a gamble on younger players because they can get them cheaper. It will destroy the desire for most smaller clubs to even have an academy. This is a bigger issue than the locality of academies in my opinion.
