Anyone who has played in our academy is an academy lad, ssurely? Valery played in both the 18s and 23s so in my book that would make him a saints academy product. Ditto Stephens as well, for example.
The Academy takes in players in all age groups....as SaintsFan4Life said, Valery has had a few years under our tutelage.
Not for me, I don't think we can claim an academy product when another club has done the bulk of the work, same as I wouldn't consider Sterling as a Liverpool academy graduate. Valery ended up here because we thought he was a better prospect than what we were producing.
So if I got a lovely piece of wood and carved it into a statue...the forester should get the credit? Joking aside, I do know what you mean, but we polished him up and it is just a tweet.
I’m with Libby and I think the point he makes is that we sometimes make a fuss about the players we bring through, where as in truth, quite a few of them we steal from elsewhere when they look like they might be good. Examples: Bale l, Lallana (joined at 12) and JWP (joined from the maternity ward) have come through our system. Gallagher joined at 16 from Plymouth, so not someone we found and brought though our famed system. Someone we cherry picked.
Stephens had already played professional football for Plymouth. And we paid them a transfer fee of, what, £100,000 or so? There's no way in my book that he counts as a product of our academy.
Long shot but just a quick ask if there are any spares for this one, drop me a pm if so but won't be able to collect until Friday evening. You would have a friend forever
I'm with Fran and have always seen it in the same kind of way. Not sure why people talk as you are only a product of one academy. In other education you can be an alumnus of school, college and maybe university and I think they all deserve to take some credit for it. We call the products so like Fran said, it works that way for craftsmen too. A master Swordsmith is going to choose the best wood for the hilt, highest grade steel for the blade and highest carrot gold for the inlay. But he still needs skill to craft it into something beautiful and should get credit for doing so. I think it's just because of how tribal football is that we don't like to share credit.
its academic! move it along !!!! now as for west ham. i say we go their and stuff 'em i like west ham but not this day
I do think it makes a difference if they have made the first team or not yet. Chamberlain and Valery for example. Both left their clubs at 16, however, Chamberlain was a first team regular the season prior to him leaving. Valery however had never played a game of senior football in his life. You could argue both were Saints academy products as they both spend 3 years+ playing academy football as saints before playing senior football.
