All the talk of our current crop of talented youngsters has got me thinking. If you look at the former Charlton players in the premier league seem to be the end of a group that started with Rufus and newton and went through parker, konch, bowyer and Defoe. Then there is a big age gap to the likes of Jon Jo and Jenkins, plus Solly. Now this group of under 21s. What happened in the ten years between? Considering we were a premier league club for most of that time where are the academy players that would be 23-30 and should be at their peek now? What went wrong? Honestly the only players I can think of are Lloyd Sam and Charlie mac. Hardly in the same class as the previously mentioned groups or have I just got the ages wrong?
We had John Cartwright running the Academy when we were producing Parker etc. He was then replaced by Mick Browne, who failed completely for 6 years, not surprising since he had failed everywhere else he'd been. Now we're back on track with Steve Avory and Paul Hart, who expects us to get Cat. 1 status. Credit to Slater and Jiminez, and now Roland, who is making the Academy a priority.
I dont think it helped that we were a Premier League side... Managers just cant take risks with youngsters in that league... Plus now we're seeing FFP coming into force more so this is just the beginning of having Youth Players coming through I reckon
I don't think he ever revealed why he left. He used to write a weekly column in the Mercury, which was very interesting, and quite educational for those like me whose knowledge of the game is more limited. I had a work colleague who was a scout for Charlton, and was ITK about most aspects of football. He was shattered when Cartwright left, even more so when Mick Browne replaced him. He gave me a history of Browne's failures, and predicted that he would mess it up at Charlton, which he did, highly qualified though he might be.
I am currently reading Harry Redknapp's book and he tells in one of the early chapters how during his time at West Ham he watched their Youth Team being beaten 5-0 by Charlton's and as a result Harry persuaded the man responsible to join West Ham in a 'if you cant beat em, get em to join you' kind of move. I will check tonight if this was Cartwright, as I cannot for the life of me remember the name in the book.
The people the carry out the Academy are a Belgium company. (Read into that what you like), and they were throughly impressed with Steve and Paul. However they were told it was just the facilities that are holding us back. Therefore a new building at the academy is too be built in the hope we can pass an audit in the near future and gain higher academy status.
There was a item on Eurosport recently about the academy at both Barcelona and Chelski,,,,,, they had facilities even our first team can only dream about.
Interesting. Any building will be a sizable investment, be interesting to see this develop. Surely with Roland's emphasis on youth he needs to get hart et all on renewed contracts too.
SuperChris I do believe coaches in the Academy have been offered contracts in January. With Avory accepting I do believe. Paul Hart I am unsure of though.
Could be there was a gap because the players in the youth set up at the time simply were'nt as good as what we have now. The best coaching set up in the world won't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
That is certainly a valid excuse for the coaching team. I do rate Nathan Jones, but it could be that he was also fortunate in that he inherited a particularly rich batch from the u18s. Of the eight kept on in 2012, Piggott, Harriot, Cousins, and Fox have already made their first-team debuts, while the centre-half (forget his name) went to Arsenal. That only leaves Jordan, Azeez and Osborne who won't make the grade, That is a very high success rate. But it is not an excuse for the club as a whole. It is up to the scouting set-up to ensure a sufficient flow of potential stars compared to other clubs of the same size and means. That now seems to be happening.
I understand that your not going to produce first team players every year but not to produce a championship level player in ten years is outrageous! Especially when you produce multipal internationals either side of the gap.
We've had young players who may not have been outstanding like say Gomez or Poyet, but they could have done a job as squad players. During our slump pre-Lord Powell we always had a noticeably bigger squad than our opponents, if you looked at the program. It was because we had our own youngsters who were not allowed near the first team by managers who favoured experience, plus the loanees who were at Charlton for a jolly. During this period I used to think that if I had a son who was a talented player I wouldn't send him to Charlton, but now I think we are a very attractive prospect for an aspiring footballer. One thing we've always done well is to look after the ones who don't make it with us, or who suffer a bad injury. If Gus Poyet told his boy to stick with us we must be doing something right.
We produced Harry Arter, and how we could have done with him over the past three seasons when we have been playing Pritchard and loan flops like Jonsson, Razak and Frimpong. I am sure there have been one or two others, but my memory is awful these days.
TA, have you had a chance to check if it was indeed Cartwright? I want another stick with which to beat 'onest 'arry.
Did we have someone called Macdonald. Seems to me we let a few youth products drift out of the club wo are plying their trade from here downwards, though I don't see any of ours in the Premier.
Charlie MacDonald went into non-league then clawed his way back to make a good career in the third and fourth tiers. I have a lot of respect for him but he hasn't really proved he was consistently Championship quality. Arter went one better, into non-league but now a regular pick for Bournemouth (when Kermit isn't).
