Does the club get value from the Academy ?

By that, I mean when you hear about millions of pounds going into the Academy.. Would we have got the same result having just our standalone youth setup?

Either that or just poach good prospects from other youth setups into a development rather than developing from scratch?

I would like to see how the maths stack up ie - player sales for the likes of Stones / Butterfield versus how much money has been pumped into the Academy since its creation. I doubt we would be anywhere near break even..

Fair enough if we get a large sell on sum for Stones that may tilt the balance but I suspect only to maybe somewhere around the break even ball park but where is the next prospect like him. I've not seen anybody of his ability, he really stood out for me.

Time for a change? Especially if Mr Cryne is having to prop it up financially to maintain its category status.

Maybe a youth team setup where we send them out to conference sides for 6 months, then try league 2 sides to get them real game time and develop from there.

 

Once Stones and Mason are sold on it will all be worth it. Especially Stones.

 

Very few real prospects have been produced, and we didn't initially get good value for Stones. It'd be a long shot to think we'd ever unearth another like him. Meanwhile the youngsters play fixtures against other youth sides without gaining the hard experience they'd get from a proper reserve side (i.e. against men). Consequently they mainly struggle when they are tried at first team level (see Paul Digby).We'd get more value if we could re-establish the scouting system that operated during Danny Wilson's first stint.

 

Templeton, Wardle and Bree are the next big prospects. With the right management I can see them all getting big money moves.

 

Don't forget Walton

 

Don't forget Walton

 

When Ashley Ward was sold, we got £4.5m for him. We invested most of it in building a new stand at the north end of the ground and levelling the fields behind it to provide all weather training pitches. The new stand was built to provide academy facilities that would enable the club to compete with the teams in the Premier League for promising young talent. The new stand holds 6000 fans, but because it is used for away fans it has been 90% unused for most of the time.

In order to qualify as a grade 1 academy, we also had to have indoor training facilities. When Craig Hignett was sold for £2.25m, £1m went to provide this facility. We are no longer classed as a grade 1 academy and we have produced fewer player since the academy investment than we did before. Now, I think that as a matter of principle, that football clubs should train their own players, but I question where we would have been better investing the above sums in players, rather than in the academy.

Having said all that, John Hendrie and Nigel Spackman would probably have blown that as well, leaving us in the same position, but with no North Stand and no training facilities.

 

I don't think we could attract the likes of Stones and Butterfield if we didn't have Academy status. We draw talent from further afield because of this. For example, why would Mason Holgate sign for our youth set-up if his home-town Donny's youth set-up was on a par with ours (Yes I 'm aware of the Youth cup result) Local youths that sign for other club's instead of us, go to Academies not
Schools of excellence like Rotherham and Donny. Apart from us and the Dee dars, I don't hear of other local clubs producing anybody of note.
I think we do get value, perhaps if we weren't struggling in the league the promising Academy lads would be able make their breakthrough into a more comfortable environment.

 

Overall I don't think it offers good value. "Academy", to me, is just a name and I can't see much evidence of a return on what we put in. Even with a % return on any future Stones deal, the effect will ofset in a relatively short period of time.

Coaching and scouting are the priorities as I see it. No criticism of Burton and Heckingbottom, but our most sustained period of producing home grow quality players came with two muddy pitches, competitive Northern Intermediate League fixtures, kids cleaning boots. Hirst, Tiler, Watson, Eaden, Moses, Liddell etc. One common link. A guy called Eric Winstanley.

 

Players like Stones make it worth it but we just don't get enough of them.

 

Need the first team to be having success to bring them on ,if they introduced whilst team not doing too well and crowd on their backs its not gonna be ideal.
Need circumstances similar to Eaden,Watson,Liddel,Moses and Scott Jones eras

 

We maybe could but we'd rather loan other clubs youth in

 

Stones is a once in a lifetime product of the academy but even our average players aren't getting a look in due to loans which won't help their development one bit. The way we are heading with regards to recruitment strategy we may as well shut it.

 

The thing with the academy is that it's not just a case of putting down a few training pitches and getting the right equipment in a building. There is always going to be a period where you have to be able to recruit and develop, all the way from the under 10s. The academy is just now starting to see its investment pay off, and I believe slowly we'll see more and more home grown Barnsley players playing throughout the football league. The more success stories we have like Stones, Holgate and Butterfield, the more parents will want to see their kids come to us in what is a very competitive catchment area.

 

Yes. John Stones and to a lesser extent Mason Holgate prove that.

 

I personally think the big issue is the club don't know how to bridge the back between the kids & the first team.

I think we've had several players in recent years who wasted there main development sat in our reserves playing under 21's football.

Clark, RNL & Rose all fall into this category for me & Digby's going or probably gone the same way.

Got to get these lads out to league 2 / conference clubs earlier. The first loan spell should be at 18 not early 20's

 

Rotherham's next to the M1 and Donny's Cantley facilities are a hundred miles behind our own, counting for nothing at the minute mind.

I was at Sherburn High School last month and on their notice board was a "Heroes of the School" presentation. Pupils involved in various things, the only football related one was for a 13 year old lad who was in Barnsley's Academy, pretty impressive in a Leeds stronghold and considering they've the best academy set up in Yorkshire.

 

I'll take mason Holgate as one .John Stones different kettle of fish he was always gonna be a big player choose who's academy he came through.
So we've had one in mason ,when we were playing well we had all the above I mentioned in a short period .
So I'm nearer than you :tongue:
Unless Jacob counts ?