Academy costs roughly £1 million to run every year

Probably the facilities that attracted / recruited them. Without the facilities and recruitment policy Eric wouldn't have had anywhere to work his magic .

 

Only facilities at the time those guys came through were the two outdoor training pitches and a basic, small, astroturf pitch where the indoor academy is now. I don't think our academy as it is now was built until during the premier league season, maybe after that? All those players broke into the first team before then, Morgan during the Prem season.




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And what if we bought a £1million player each year? Wid be top of league I bet rather then *****ing it up wall

 

And back in the 80's & 90's we didn't have the huge influx of foreigners. Comparing the two era's is bizarre.

 

I totally agree. People who use the Eric Winstanley years as a comparison should realise we could never return to that.
Back in the old days of the Northern Intermediate League no-one had an academy - they just had a junior team.
Hence, in general, local talent signed for their hometown club or a club not too far away. However, that has been replaced by the academy set up and just about everyone in the top two Divisions has one.
So we couldn't go back to a Northern Intermediate scenario because as far as I'm aware there isn't one. Have Donny got an U-21 team and if so what league do they compete in?
We couldn't have a David Hirst, David Speedie or Carl Tiler if we closed the academy because with that amount of ability, they'd now be signing on at a recognised academy.

 

Don't disagree about not being able to return the EW era myself. The point I was trying to make is to do with the importance of the coaching staff over the "facility".

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The mark Robinson that we signed fron West Bromwich

 

Going through managers every 18 months and letting them fetch in their own bodies each time aint aided the youngsters coming through. Hill fetched in Wiseman when the well talked about Stones had just signed PRO forms for us. That Stones only played 24 games for us was criminal IMO and showed what Hill really knew about players.

 

Hill was the man that picked stones

 

My point is he used him too late we should have seen him a lot earlier.

 

But what I'm saying is that neither did the majority of clubs around us have top facilities, if they did have maybe some of these youngsters may have been tempted to join.
Not taking anything away from Eric at all he was a top coach and motivator not discounting that at all but if the raw talent had not come and gone elsewhere because we had inferior facilities to other nearby clubs he would have been hitting a brick wall . The talent has to be attracted either on their own steam or parent/agents etc then the top coaching can begin .
Also on another note would Eric have stayed if we hadn't decent facilities and nearby clubs had .? Choose how loyal or affiliated you are to a club if your efforts aren't being tested or invested in you'd more than likely move on.
So IMO we had decent compared facilities at the time to other nearby comparable clubs

 

That's a fair assessment Marlon to be fair, and a really good point about whether EW would have stayed if rivals facilities had been way ahead of ours at the same point in time. I think one of the recent positive changes made in our academy has been to increase the scouting and have regular open trials. One thing I've been critical of is that, outwardly anyway, the club haven't been seen to be really scouring local junior football for talent. My lad has played junior football in Barnsley for 10 years now, seen a Barnsley scout at 2 home games in all that time. Regularly seen them from SWFC, SUFC, Leeds, Chesterfield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Huddersfield, home and away. Whilst there normally be the better players at a few clubs, and also with Barnsley boys, I think there is so much competition from other academies now, as you say, that casting our net wider can only be a good thing. If we produce a couple of first team capable players per year then that's a good return.

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Can't agree with this. Hill used Stones very wisely and nurtured a young player well. Plus no one was calling for Stones to play, everyone wanted Hassell

 

The Academy does not cost BFC £1 million per annum, as under their Cat 2 EPPP status >£400k is funded by the Premier League. The downside is that the PL get easy access to buy the best young players. That 'easy' access means PL Clubs need only pay £3k for every year a kid has been at the Academy. It needs an astute CEO to ensure the potentially best youngsters are identified early and have the appropriate contract to stop them being poached on the cheap (as per John Stones). We've got Don Rowing to thank for that. On balance our Academy is good value. It also provides a vital connect with the local community when local lads are developed.