I know this has all been said before, but I will say it again and this time with the sincere belief that the Academy needs one serious and massive overhaul from top to bottom.
I am aware of a growing number of instances where our youth coaches are making huge blunders, where they are unprofessional to deal with, where coaches and parents are sending their kids elsewhere and where we are becoming a complete joke and laughing stock.
We should have the best youth set-up in the South West. We should have our pick of the players from this large region of ours, but alas we are slowly and surely becoming an absolute shambles.
I am not too sure how deep the problems go, but I'd argue they go from the very top of the youth set-up with Academy Manager John Clayton, right to the bottom with Recruitment Officer Trevor Challis.
We've been in the Championship for 5 years now and we have not produced a single home-grown player capable of playing at this level.
When we floundered in League 1 for 8 seasons, we had a few players come through, but how many of them were classed as genuine League 1 players - I can't see very many still out there playing at that level.
In the last 15 years, we've generally produced players who are capable of League 2 at best.
Questions have been asked before, but we really need to start asking some SERIOUS questions now!
There are some very sorry tales to tell.
One lad was recruited as a striker and was asked to play as a midfielder. After one year he was released as he wasn't 'progressing'! His parents took him to Southampton's set-up at Bath Uni and he's now 'progressing' very well as a striker and very likely to be signed by the Saints.
There is also the tale of the goalkeeper George Dorrington who went to Ashton Park School and played for City Junior Supporters Club. He was said to not be 'agile' enough. He attended some trials in Sept 11 and there was lots of interest and evetually Man Utd signed him on a 3 year scholarship in Jan 12 and he's now in Shanghai at the under 18's tournament. Remember - we didn't want this kid!! He lives on our doorstep and is now at Man Utd because we didn't think he was good enough. Does this make you question our recruitment under Mr Challis?
Speak to a lot of coaches in the local area (and a lot of parents for that matter) and they'll tell you that our set-up is a laughing stock. More and more kids are going to the likes of Southampton at Bath, Rovers or Exeter's academy, or the set-ups under Jamie Shore's Academy or Michael Meaker's Academy. Southampton at Bath Uni in particular make us look completely amateur.
I also understand that there is a 'face-fits' culture. They don't talk to some parents as they simply don't like them. Those whose face fits get better treatment - regardless of whether the kid is any good at football!
We've argued so many times on here before about why our kids seem decent up until a certain age and then they fail to progress any further. Is it the poor standard of coaching perhaps? I want to know directly from the likes of Clayton and Challis why we have turned down players like Dorrington, and why kids are seemingly able to make the grade for Southampton but not for us, and why the likes of Jack Butland's family didn't want him playing for City and instead chose Birmingham?
These are hugely important issues which we need to address as soon as we can. We are continually missing out on the best kids and those which we do attract do not progress.
We have the new Fifa Financial Fair Play regulations coming in, and as a result it will be imperitive to our survival that we are able to grow our own. We can't rely on SL bailing us out to the tune of £11m every year. We can't expect to go out and make multiple million pound signings. We can't expect to go out and pay top dollar wages to free agents looking for the best deal. We need to establish a culture where parents in the South West look to Bristol City as the number one youth set-up in the region, where they aspire to having their kids play for us, where we don't turn away the better players due to poor coaching/decisions, where we don't see the talented players progression stifled when they get to age 16.
I want everyone who cares about the future of our club to have a serious think about this. Our current set-up is a joke and parents and other coaches in the region are fully aware of this. It will only get worse unless we do something about this NOW.
The facilities at Failand are all in place, but it's like the Poison Apple. It looks all very nice on the outside, but once you look inside it is rotten to the core. We need to have some transparency. Who is responsible for the continual failure over many years? Why aren't we every parent's first choice? Why aren't kids at the Gloucestersire and Somerset trials recommended to City but instead coaches send them to West Brom, Wolves, Birmingham? (some of these coaches are City Season Ticket Holders and yet do not recommened their own club!!) That is scandalous!!!
We need to do something about this. We need to alert the club to this problem. We need to change the culture. We need to do this for the sake of our own future. I don't have the answers, but perhaps together we might be able to cause enough of a stir to elicit change within that department.
Help our club - post your thoughts on here about our Academy. The club HAVE to listen to us.
I am aware of a growing number of instances where our youth coaches are making huge blunders, where they are unprofessional to deal with, where coaches and parents are sending their kids elsewhere and where we are becoming a complete joke and laughing stock.
We should have the best youth set-up in the South West. We should have our pick of the players from this large region of ours, but alas we are slowly and surely becoming an absolute shambles.
I am not too sure how deep the problems go, but I'd argue they go from the very top of the youth set-up with Academy Manager John Clayton, right to the bottom with Recruitment Officer Trevor Challis.
We've been in the Championship for 5 years now and we have not produced a single home-grown player capable of playing at this level.
When we floundered in League 1 for 8 seasons, we had a few players come through, but how many of them were classed as genuine League 1 players - I can't see very many still out there playing at that level.
In the last 15 years, we've generally produced players who are capable of League 2 at best.
Questions have been asked before, but we really need to start asking some SERIOUS questions now!
There are some very sorry tales to tell.
One lad was recruited as a striker and was asked to play as a midfielder. After one year he was released as he wasn't 'progressing'! His parents took him to Southampton's set-up at Bath Uni and he's now 'progressing' very well as a striker and very likely to be signed by the Saints.
There is also the tale of the goalkeeper George Dorrington who went to Ashton Park School and played for City Junior Supporters Club. He was said to not be 'agile' enough. He attended some trials in Sept 11 and there was lots of interest and evetually Man Utd signed him on a 3 year scholarship in Jan 12 and he's now in Shanghai at the under 18's tournament. Remember - we didn't want this kid!! He lives on our doorstep and is now at Man Utd because we didn't think he was good enough. Does this make you question our recruitment under Mr Challis?
Speak to a lot of coaches in the local area (and a lot of parents for that matter) and they'll tell you that our set-up is a laughing stock. More and more kids are going to the likes of Southampton at Bath, Rovers or Exeter's academy, or the set-ups under Jamie Shore's Academy or Michael Meaker's Academy. Southampton at Bath Uni in particular make us look completely amateur.
I also understand that there is a 'face-fits' culture. They don't talk to some parents as they simply don't like them. Those whose face fits get better treatment - regardless of whether the kid is any good at football!
We've argued so many times on here before about why our kids seem decent up until a certain age and then they fail to progress any further. Is it the poor standard of coaching perhaps? I want to know directly from the likes of Clayton and Challis why we have turned down players like Dorrington, and why kids are seemingly able to make the grade for Southampton but not for us, and why the likes of Jack Butland's family didn't want him playing for City and instead chose Birmingham?
These are hugely important issues which we need to address as soon as we can. We are continually missing out on the best kids and those which we do attract do not progress.
We have the new Fifa Financial Fair Play regulations coming in, and as a result it will be imperitive to our survival that we are able to grow our own. We can't rely on SL bailing us out to the tune of £11m every year. We can't expect to go out and make multiple million pound signings. We can't expect to go out and pay top dollar wages to free agents looking for the best deal. We need to establish a culture where parents in the South West look to Bristol City as the number one youth set-up in the region, where they aspire to having their kids play for us, where we don't turn away the better players due to poor coaching/decisions, where we don't see the talented players progression stifled when they get to age 16.
I want everyone who cares about the future of our club to have a serious think about this. Our current set-up is a joke and parents and other coaches in the region are fully aware of this. It will only get worse unless we do something about this NOW.
The facilities at Failand are all in place, but it's like the Poison Apple. It looks all very nice on the outside, but once you look inside it is rotten to the core. We need to have some transparency. Who is responsible for the continual failure over many years? Why aren't we every parent's first choice? Why aren't kids at the Gloucestersire and Somerset trials recommended to City but instead coaches send them to West Brom, Wolves, Birmingham? (some of these coaches are City Season Ticket Holders and yet do not recommened their own club!!) That is scandalous!!!
We need to do something about this. We need to alert the club to this problem. We need to change the culture. We need to do this for the sake of our own future. I don't have the answers, but perhaps together we might be able to cause enough of a stir to elicit change within that department.
Help our club - post your thoughts on here about our Academy. The club HAVE to listen to us.
