Official Site : Bobby Hassell Appointed Academy Head of Recruitment

And yet not getting a chance because a youth player on loan from elsewhere is taking up the space in the team?

 

Correct. However, I'm not sure what that has to do with the selection of John stones

 

for the most part i couldnt disagree more. If our players ar good enough at whatever age or stage of development they are at they will find their way to the first team. thats a simple fact.

one aspect that maybe is true is sometimes we have no choice, due to whatever reason a kid gets thrown in and sinks or swims, i dont think George Smith is a good player yet at the level. he may well go onto be but if we sign aidy white then smith might end up at another club.. back to one clubs cast offs is another clubs new signing.

 

Ha I knew it was the mention of booby that had upset you.

So when said my post was ********, you actually meant you agreed with the post but took issue with one line.

Why did we suddenly start playing John stones then in your opinion? Mine is because the manager didn't want to play bobby hassell and had no alternatives. What's yours?

 

Thought Danny gave some of the better young uns a chance, Holgate and Bree at reight back, did we fail to bring anyone in or did Danny have confidence in the 2 youngsters?

 

Failed to bring anyone in in my opinion. He did attempt to play Reece brown instead of either of them if you remember

 

Firstly I have for years been saying hassell should be part of the management team secondly John stones was picked in the side because he was OUR best player.

Finally please refer to me my previous post where I state that's a terrific appointment and then stop putting word in my mouth regarding a clubs great servant

 

Welcome home Sir Bobby. Get thi booits on lad

 

Maybe yer reight but he did say that he weren`t going to play them every week cos he wanted them ease them in gently, said same abart Smithy too.

 

Good news.

 

I actually agree with super tyke apart from Stones and Keith Hill.

Managers since he was gone others before our own. Wilson never was actually wanting to play our young players it was that he had to. Reece Brown made so many appearances over Bree and Holgate. I could go on and on about it.

We should place trust on them and it will give them confidence.

Players don't have confidence when there played because there the only fit right back in the squad.

 

Did Keefy not know what he had under his nose tho. Took him long enough to introduce him.

 

Stones was played straight after he became a professional footballer. Okay he was never played whilst in the academy or never regularly but that maybe down to how physically developed he was.

 

I had just got through a piece that in effect was calling the Barnsley FC academy a failing organisation, and I switch on the BBS to find a club legend has been brought on to its staff. Last month we also saw Martin Devaney appointed to oversee the step up from U18 football to U21 football. What does this mean?

Last week, Dyson reposted the link to the Cryne/Mansford night at the No7 and I took the time to re-listen with the benefit of hindsight. During that long interview, one of the subjects discussed was the academy, the lack of accountability and the frustration that the board felt. Since then, Jay has written that it costs £750k per season to run. I am assuming that this figure is after the grant from the Premier League (EPPP). I calculated recently that in the last 14 years, the academy had cost £11m and that we had only seen £6m back in transfer fees. All of this is suggestive that there is something deeply amiss in the academy organisation.

This season, the academy lies bottom of its league of 11 teams. It has accumulated just 9 points, with the team above (Hull City) on 19. This suggests that there is either a problem with the coaching, or there is a problem with the quality of the players.

Clearly, something has to be done, and it looks like Mr Cryne has decided to throw more money at it in the hope of fixing the problem. He appears to have accepted the argument that the quality of recruitment has not been good enough, and has decided that Bobby Hassell has a strong enough name in the town to act as ambassador for the academy. That the name and reputation of Hassell will tip parents into choosing Barnsley FC for their child's ongoing football education in preference to the long list of local and national alternatives. I hope that he is right, because I get a sense that this is the last chance saloon for our academy. If he does not see any results in the next 4 years, I can see only a reduction in size or closure on the horizon.

 

Reece Brown was his reight back that he fetched in then.

 

That is a big mouthful to spit out, but it is perhaps more indicative of your own prejudices that it is based on actual facts.

If you had seen John Stones at youth level, it would have been obvious to you, just as it was to me, that Stones was going to be a very good player. He was not brought into the team because the manager hated Bobby Hassell. This is in your mind, and nowhere else. It is because Stones was quality, a fact that was justified soon after. How it is possible to twist the available known information into a diatribe against Keith Hill/David Flitcroft says much about you, and little about anyone else.

 

When weighing up the cost of the academy, you've got to look at more than what we receive back in transfer fees, haven't you? For instance, I don't believe we received any money when Antony Kay left the club. However, we got almost 200 games out of him. He was in the team that got us promoted back to the Championship. He scored what proved to be the winning penalty in the play-off final. How much money did he save us by not having to buy someone for his position during the four years he was pretty much an ever present in the side? How much did he save us when we paid him the wage of a young lad instead of the inflated wages of an older journeyman? There are more players like him that have progressed from the academy, played a number of games for the first team, but not commanded a wage when they left. I'd argue that the primary purpose of the academy is not to produce players that command a transfer fee, but to fill the first team with such players. Maybe we're not very good at that either, but there's definitely more to the equation than academy cost minus transfer fees received.

 

Could you give us a break down of the £6m in transfer fees. Not disputing it or owt just poor memory.

 

Apart from the 5 academy lads (Bree, Digby, Abbott, Holgate, Smith) he played in the 14/15 season ? It was a difficult enough season without throwing untried youngsters in all at once. Wilson was trying to manage their introduction to League football - Bree a massive case in point.

In addition giving Adam Davies his league debut.