If SL thinks DM is doing a great job with the academy why not give him the post full time and let him bring the kids on,and through to the first team. Then go out at get a top manager for the first team. Let's be honest we as fans are only interested in the first team,and how they perform.We are not really interested in the academy's and second string squad. What concerns me, we see Del once again signing up youngsters looking as if all is rosy,it seems from the vibes coming out of the gate all is well and dandy. I think this would go for 98% of all football clubs in this country we pay are hard earned money to be entertained by our first team squad,not the kids in the acadamey.
Did you really think we were going to win the league this year...? The way we started it looked like we might make it to the play offs but realistically, this year was always going to be about improving the squad and rebuilding the basic fabric of this club from the bottom up so we have something better going forward and to push next year. You are clearly one of the "I want it and I want it now" short term brigade who can't see further than the end of their nose. People are not interested in anything that takes more than 5 minutes these days. There is no patience, just a demand for instant gratification and sod anyone and everything else. Never mind the fact that our kids and grand kids will be 5 foot under water in 30-40 years time so long as I can drive my car now... The one thing that we ALL agree on is that this club was severely broken when Del got here after a couple of years of poor management and clearly it still is and this is not something that can be fixed in 12 months, especially on our budget... I have tried to avoid naming generally as these players were signed by, and still represent OUR club and this is someone's livelyhood that we are casually dismissing on here. Just imagine it was your customers talking about your performance at work and maybe you wouldn''t be so quick to critise. Saturday however was a bit different and I think one or 2 have probably reached the end of the line but the news is that we DON'T HAVE A BOTTOMLESS PIT OF MONEY TO SIGN REPLACEMENTS unless you play the kids. Most of us would be happy to see our youngsters play but there are some that would relish their failure and who would then brand this the final act of desperation on the part of the manager. So, heads you lose, tails I win....
Nothing to do with wanting things instantly and I don't think anyone relishes failure on anything. Del has and is failing in all departments as a manager of this club. What we don't want instantly is getting relegated from this league. Even if he stayed and took us down, you will still make excuses up for why he should remain here. Toss the coin Prem, Dels head will be on both sides. Heads we go down...
There is no way on this planet that you can say we are relegated after less than half a season, especially with this clubs history of digging itself out of the mire in the last 4 years. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if I am the only one who has noticed that most years, we have just done enough. Its like the players get to a point where they realise that we could lose their championship status so time to do something about it. I GUARANTEE you we will not get relegated as the players will raise their game enough to survive, same as they have every year. This is what needs to change, that point of view but you can't do it with half of the old squad with this attitude still around. The clear out has to be completed and then we can go somewhere. Relating this to the business I am in, I have a customer who I work closely with who has got fed up to the back teeth with taking on people with an ingrained, fixed and blinkered attitude and has taken the decision to only employee promising youngsters who will take direction that can be bought up to do things in the style that his company wants. It is hard going sometimes and they make mistakes BUT, in a year or 2, he will have a workforce he trusts and knows he can rely on and he will be infinitely better placed than his competitors who continue to enployee grisly, inflexible, stuck in the mud employees. INFINITELY better and the business will flourish as a result. Work it out....
You're not getting Prem, this is football, any youngster that's any good will always move on to a better club, not a strugglng one like ours. And so would you move on to bigger and better things. This is a dream of yours in a dream world not reality. Take a good club like Everton, good academy, premiership, well run.......youngster Wayne Rooney....did he stay to help build the team?
'There is no way on this planet that you can say we are relegated after less than half a season' but you can say 'I GUARANTEE you we will not get relegated'. So what Planet are you on ?
I think this is a short sighted comment, or a very narrow vision, of a person who is a fan and pays good money to go to see and be entertained but cannot or will not see the bigger picture and it is quite a much bigger picture than 90 mins plus the usual 5 extra at the gate or elsewhere...... Before agents and foreign players "spoilt" the game IMHO...but we have to accept them.....every football league team had a first team, reserves and youth set up ...well most anyway...Reserve games at the gate used to have 4 figure crowds! more in fact sometimes than some of the the then DIV 4 clubs ! Football has become survival of the richest, clubs even buying players to stop others getting them! the new rules are supposed to even out the playing field, so it will be of paramount importance to have home grown players coming through the ranks, we've had a couple in the past few years on loan from prem clubs...did you see Danny rose on the weekend...wow if we could have kept him..lol We have a couple at present that are in the squad or out on loan...academies will be "PART" of the way forward....Like Burnley many years ago sold a player or 2 , homegrown to balance the books...Crewe seems to do the same?
The big difference between us and Crewe is that they have an absolutely fantastic academy with a strong infrastructure and some of the best youth coaches in the country. A lot of their recent successes, from Nicky Maynard to Nick Powell, came from one or two coaches. We do not. To make things worse, Crewe and numerous clubs have a strong history of playing their kids in the first-team. Again, we do not. If we're worried about relegation then the best thing that the board can do now is to force McInnes to play youth. If his failings are clear for us to see then I'm sure they're probably thinking it too.
I can bet if we were playing youth and loosing then we'll be saying he should be playing them. Damned if you do, damned if you dont. We haven't played youth because either they are not good enough or we don't have a good captain/leader to mentor them on the pitch. Bryan has got to put up with Fonts bless him! Compare that the the quality and leadership the Caulker grew up with at Tottenham (ie Scott Parker, Richards, Robinson etc).
[QUOTETake a good club like Everton, good academy, premiership, well run.......youngster Wayne Rooney....did he stay to help build the team?[/QUOTE] Ummm technically he helped massively by getting cash-strapped Everton £30m for him. I'd much prefer that than having a **** academy which doesn't produce players we can sell on.
There is some really crazy thinking going on here, god it's hard work! All this academy stuff is driving me mad. Do you lot not get it?? An Academy will not give you a good team of any sort when you're in our situation fighting relegation every season. Any decent youngsters will be poached by better & bigger clubs. The academy will train & teach for others. The likes of Danny Rose & Caulker came to us for only two things, first team experience & help pay their wages. If we are VERY VERY lucky we may well produce a promising player that will be sold on for decent money, that's it. Crewe uses it to survive, They will never come close to getting into the Premiership with it's academy.... You are all living in a bloody dreamworld if you think the Academy will sort our problems out. If we EVER manage to become successful over a period of time, is when it will be the right time to have a good academy as the youngsters that are produced will want to play for us.
**** it then let's just get rid of it now, because it's not been working in the past 12 months, and I don't want to take the risk that we might have the next Rooney that those big nasty big boys buy for £30 million.
Actually, whilst I am not deluded enough to think we would win the league, I was stupid enough to think we would do well this season. We ended last season scoring goals and I really thought we could go on and surprise some pundits. However, we are now in exactly the place we were predicted to be - which actually annoys me the most! @
Palace were fighting relegation, their team includes four players from their academy which includes half decent Zaha. Watford pre Italian take over could field seven and eight. One Bryan is more cost effective than Anderson & Morris Use of academies should be an "aspect" of long term thinking at a club like Bristol City. It can obviously make good commercial sense, and provide a ladder for local kids into the club, which fulfils a community based role. City need to be the club of choice for all West Country talent. Coaches at kids level should be able to tell parents that City offer the best in the region.
What, when we're in League 1? Kids won't be interested in us. As for Watford, thay have a good manager, with talented players that are able to show the kids a good level of football.......................we don't!
Ha Ha, us produce a Rooney!! More like a Rodney (Rooney) from only fools & horses. What club will ever buy a player from us for 30m...........None
I would say your 99% correct we won't get a player worth 30 mill, but let's just say we have 2-3 players in 4 years time worth 10% of that. Fuuny enough I was chatting to Cardfiff City supporter yesterday who said Cardiff did so why can't we? Two he could name, Gunter and Ramsey and he thinks there was another who came through their academy. The problem we do have, is that none of us know at the moment!
Kids are always interested in football and their parents want the best for their kids. If parents are impressed by the ethos in place their kids will join. Crewe has been a conveyor belt of talent acting as a gateway into professional football. Parents have not shied away from their less than "big" status. Years back City picked up Rob Newman [Devizes saints kids team] when going into freefall. That is what the club needs to find more. By starting younger, casting the net wider, and being more thorough and professional the club can create a stepping stone into the first team, other other less than glamourous clubs have done it i.e Crewe and Palace. I would rather see a local kid in the first team v some of the mercanries there are there now. Above all I also think the club needs to be part of its community, and providing a clear path for local/west country kids with talent is a very good way of defining itself.
I would rather see a local kid in the first team in an ideal world, but more often than not if their any good they will move on to either a succesful Championship club or a premier one. Some are even poached by the age of 14. What I'm saying is, I don't think it should take priorty to our Championship status. It's no good saying our manager has done wonders for our club when we are 3rd from bottom, not knowing when the next 3 points are coming from.. League 1 is a distinct possibity, of which we will NOT get out of, relying on the academy.
