Ryan Harley, a player that I have admired and always thought that we should have resigned him. I can't help but think that he will be the undoing of us tomorrow when he plays for Brighton. Given that he has played once and scored it that game I'm sure he will be looking to make that 2 scoring games in a row and score one against a club that released him. Think he would have been a great player in our midfield and is a very good set piece specialist
Our academy set up would have released Messi if they were given a chance! We need a whole new staff turnover at our youth level and a rethink of how our academy is working, because it quite simply isn't happening at the moment.
hey banksy i dont disagree but im good friends with one of the younger academy coaches and he works very hard, for the club and also supports us little teams where some players come from, so the work is put in at the bottom but i think its higher up, we get some great young players, so well done to the ones in the early stages
If you listen to some, we have a useless academy which is quite an interesting comment as we sold 2 players from it for £3m plus turned down very decent offers for a couple of others who hadn't even made it to the 1st team at the time... So, thats useless is it...?
We haven't produced any real decent football talent from that academy for at least 10 years, I have had first hand experience of the academy during that period and have seen many of my friends kids go through there and whilst I could turn this in to a mammoth diatribe about what I think the academy failings are, I would say one thing, I have seen them turn away talented skilful kids due to their lack of physical stature only and then watch our club buying in players like Neil Kilkenny, and Lee Johnson as diminutive 'creative midfield players' Well I think we have plenty of players like that and better on our doorstep and we should be nurturing them, not trying to find the finished article at 12 years old. I wouldn't actually question anyones enthusiasm or coaching ability up there, but we are definitely not seeing the fruits of an academy that has had massive amounts of money poured in to it. there is something wrong there and I have my opinions of what they are! Bristolcityforever, if you are referring to RB, He is a great bloke and is definitely the exception to the rule. If I remember correctly Leroy Lita came to our academy from Chelsea, the only player of any note to come through?
