Academies

[BobTheCharmer]

Are rubbish.

Who has actually come through one and made it?

The FA School of Excellance at Lilleshall produced loads of top players.

All these academies seem to do is steal the top talent in the area and ban the lads from playing for their schools. They cost a fortune and produce very little.

Time to have a re-think?

[Morph]

are we talking independent academies, FA ones, club run ones or all in general?

[Resu]

If you`re talk about the LF academy it cost about £2M a year.
Of todays players there aren`t many that have come through it, but you don`t need many to make it good business.
A player like Carra every 4-5 years is enough, and Gerrard every 8-10 the same.

[BobTheCharmer]

are we talking independent academies, FA ones, club run ones or all in general?

sorry, clubs ones. When was the last Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U player to come through?

[Slim]

Chelsea don't need an academy. They just buy everybody else's academy players.

[The incredible igor]

Chelsea don't need an academy. They just buy everybody else's academy players.

and don;t forget they have football icon

[ronan]

come through to play first team regular?
come through to play at other clubs?
different answer...

[lfc4ever]

come through to play first team regular?
come through to play at other clubs?
different answer...

Absolutely, think of it as a feeder system and trickle down effect in the end, it saves the smaller clubs a huge amount of money and if that costs us £2M a year , then think of it as our club doing its bit for the hierarchal football system we have in this country, without which there would be no grass roots.

[BobTheCharmer]

Absolutely, think of it as a feeder system and trickle down effect in the end, it saves the smaller clubs a huge amount of money and if that costs us £2M a year , then think of it as our club doing its bit for the hierarchal football system we have in this country, without which there would be no grass roots.

thats bollocks. there's always been grass roots football. there were better english youngsters coming through before the big clubs formed their super academies. They pilfer all the top talent from around the country, promise them the earth, stop them from playing anywhere but for the academies and then the clubs sign foreign players and the homegrown ones are over looked.

What have we got out of all the money we spent setting up our great academy that we didn't have before? Fowler, Macca, Carra and Gerrard all came through before it. **** all since.

[The Glove]

We get transfer fees out of it.

3/4 youngetrs going out of there each year for about 250k and no doubt some sort of hefty sell on clause. Occasionally we'll get the odd player step up who'll then go for 500-750k.

Its there to find the odd gem and make us a tidy little sum.

[BobTheCharmer]

We get transfer fees out of it.

3/4 youngetrs going out of there each year for about 250k and no doubt some sort of hefty sell on clause. Occasionally we'll get the odd player step up who'll then go for 500-750k.

Its there to find the odd gem and make us a tidy little sum.

ok fair enough, but that wasn't mentioned in all the ****e that was written about the academy when it was first being mooted. One suggestion was it was be to englands version of the great ajax system. A team full of homegrowns in the next decade or so. blah de blah. It was a lie basically.

Thats not just us, that goes for many of these up and down the country.

I was speaking to Patsy Holland formerly of West ham not so long ago and he is heavily involved in youth football, he was saying theres a common opinion within the game that these academies have been a failure on the whole.

[Bob]

Are rubbish.

Who has actually come through one and made it?

The FA School of Excellance at Lilleshall produced loads of top players.

All these academies seem to do is steal the top talent in the area and ban the lads from playing for their schools. They cost a fortune and produce very little.

Time to have a re-think?

We'll have a re-think in twenty years. The results of this infrastructure were never intended to reap immediate dividends.

I'm disappointed we don't have more feeder clubs though.

[The Glove]

I was speaking to Patsy Holland formerly of West ham not so long ago and he is heavily involved in youth football, he was saying theres a common opinion within the game that these academies have been a failure on the whole.

Proably because everyone wants success now. Only the absolute best youngsters get a sniff of first team football at the highest level now. No team is gonna spend time bringing through the youth players. Christ we have lost 4 away games playing all our top plyers and people want Rafa out, imagine how bad it would be if we dared try and bring some youngsters in and lost a few games?

[Red Chilli]

Proably because everyone wants success now. Only the absolute best youngsters get a sniff of first team football at the highest level now. No team is gonna spend time bringing through the youth players. Christ we have lost 4 away games playing all our top plyers and people want Rafa out, imagine how bad it would be if we dared try and bring some youngsters in and lost a few games?

Precisely

[Red_Polo]

thats bollocks. there's always been grass roots football. there were better english youngsters coming through before the big clubs formed their super academies. They pilfer all the top talent from around the country, promise them the earth, stop them from playing anywhere but for the academies and then the clubs sign foreign players and the homegrown ones are over looked.

What have we got out of all the money we spent setting up our great academy that we didn't have before? Fowler, Macca, Carra and Gerrard all came through before it. **** all since.

Totally agree. The reason English youngsters are not coming through in the same volume as they should is not to do with the different footballing culture here or amount of foreigners in our leagues it's more to do with the fact that big clubs hoard young players without being able to give them the competitive football they need to fulfil their potential. That's partly the fault of big clubs and partly the fault of the agents and players themselves.