Between us and cardiff . http://theswanseaway.co.uk/2015/07/all-academy-age-groups-from-u9-u21-to-play-cat-one-fixtures/ Great news for all age groups ,now we're playing with the big boys , a higher standard of opposition will show how far the Club has come and although somewhat daunting a great indication on how far it still needs to grow . and this : http://theswanseaway.co.uk/2015/07/video-swans-u9s-sign-on-dotted-line-in-cutest-induction-ever/
Personally I don't really care how much of a gap there is. What I care about is our club progressing players that can make our club a thing that can be looked at with pride. We need to progress local talent rather than spending hugely on foreign imports all the time, this not only will be good for the club but for the Welsh national side as well.
There has been a huge gap between us and them ever since Tan the man took over and probably before that with the riddler. they showed how poor they were at running the club when they finally got to the premiership as they were never in it and were whipping boys for most teams.....That has nothing to do with the players that was and still is bad management from top to bottom. They dont have a philosophy or anyone that can put one in place.....they have had the players good players but without proper leadership the wont get anywhere and have more chance of relegation than ever joining us.....
IMO It is important to the future development of the Club that there is a gap and we maintain it , until very recently our Development /Academy players has predominately been made up of youngsters from a narrow catchment area , with this news and the expected award of Cat 1 status then that has to make the Club an attractive proposition to kids who may otherwise have stayed within the confines of e.g. cardiff , and with the next nearest Club with Cat 1 status being Reading to the East and West Brom to the north we're ideally placed to be able to offer a decent level of coaching and facilities . It'll be interesting to see how well Bristol City do this season who's potential for growth is far greater than either us or cardiff and are a Club looking to progress.
No it's important that we concentrate on our club and not worry what they are doing in Cardiff. They imo should strive to be a stable club and have an academy that achieves Cat 1 status. There is to much of a catchment area just for one club and looking at this with a Wales cap on, it's important that Cardiff achieves that as they have great facilities to offer that now. Though I doubt they have the funds for a Cat 1 academy right now.
I'm sorry if you think I worry about what Cardiff are doing because I don't but as they're the nearest professional Club to us then it does have a bearing on how we progress , and if as aside that improves the Welsh squad then so b eit but to be honest the Welsh FA haven't exactly bent over backward to help us out over the years so I have little interest other than watching how our current players perform at international level .
But you should consider where the Welsh players will come from in say 5 or 10 years as well, being shortsighted because of a rivalry of clubs will not gain Welsh talent in the future.
Interesting that you're not worried about what Cardiff do but then it' being short sited for not considering the International squad , you assume this is about club rivalry but it's not it's about the best for the Swans's future , we've recently sold 3 Welsh international players all of whom can through the Academy, all localish to the Club and who lived no further East than Neath , theres a wealth of talent within South East Wales /South West England , if the Swans had been better structured do you think Adam Matthews would have gone to Cardiff ? Cardiff have a development centre in Swansea ,do you think thats good for us I don't "We need to progress local talent rather than spending hugely on foreign imports all the time,' i agree but I think we disagree on what we consider being local .
It has to be said that Cardiff led for many years in the development of home grown talent, they were always better than us until now, but make no mistake our young academy players are in for a shock as they take on the best in the country, the standard we have is poor and that will become evident as the results start to come in.......... It is progress in the Academy setup which is long overdue, but it now needs the advancement in development on the field that hopefully will come in time.
When we look at Wales National team, Swansea currently contribute a significant number of players, with Ashley William, Ben Davies, Neil Taylor, Joe Allen, Jazz Richards etc, not all academy players but still developed by Swansea.
Noticed I was getting a few views off here and got all nostalgic having a look around! Cheers for linking to the site. Thought you'd all appreciate this as a follow up: http://theswanseaway.co.uk/2015/07/...anseas-youth-recruitment-continues-to-expand/
You need to make up your mind, I'm not worried by Cardiff at all, we have progressed they if anything have regressed. So it means we will in future will be making strides, the reason is that to be Cat1 academy the club must invest at least £2m a year into it, I think the club will put a lot more than that. There is to much of a catchment area , you mention Adam Mattews who went to Cardiff . Wouldn't it be a damned shame if a possible future starlet wasn't picked up because there was no room in our academy ? Better to have a future star progress even if it was elsewhere.
Some of the age groups have already played against Cat 1 clubs , Wolves , Southampton Arsenal and to say their standard is poor is based on ? and imo doing them an injustice ,and yes I've watch them home and away , it maybe a better standard if you compare teams like Arsenal / Southampton but when you play the likes of Wolves for example their players compared to our equivalent age group are much more physically developed but not as technically gifted as a group and that's not slighting Wolves they using their resources as they see fit. No side that I've watched have come away after having being heavily beaten and at the moment although positive results are nice they're not the be all and end all , that comes as they get older and enter into league competitions such as the U18's U21's have shown .Results against Cardiff have never been spectacular but the gap at all age groups has definitely narrowed and with Swansea now having quite a few Cardiff based players within our Academy then I expect that we will overtake them .
I stand by my previous comment Bony, and it's based on many seasons of watching our under 18's 19's etc, I'm not talking about the kids, where winning is not such an issue. We'll see who's right on this soon enough, and I hope they prove me wrong, but anything outside our first team is poor to say the least.
That's a very good read and gets my blessing , good to see we are now spreading our wings in development centers far and wide, Ireland is a very good one to develop as is Merthyr, nice article Scott.
I appreciate what you say and yes we have previously made a fist in some aspects of players development but if as we are now testing even the Development U9's etc to play against "better" clubs academies than ours then hopefully we will see the benefits and I although watch more of the younger age groups then I'd say the future is looking good .
Yeah I have heard of those ones, just nothing official on the site yet. Waiting for them to send me a list of all the sites, will do an update if necessary. http://theswanseaway.co.uk/2015/07/...ow-fairwood-the-liberty-landore-have-evolved/ Did that just now, worth a look.
