upcoming talent

If that's the case you are basing your views on past events. Gone are the days when young players were only drawn from the local community. They are brought in from far and wide, even from abroad. And the people you choose to pour scorn on, do actually watch these lads. And say it as they see em perform, not guesswork. There are lots that flatter to decieve at a younger age. And fail to make the grade as they get older. Such is life. The stats prove that over time.
Potential is what it's called. Not amazing as you seem to think.

 

Give it a rest mate he's gone. Norwood spent most of his career in league 2 odd seasons in league 1 never played above league 1.

 

I remember watching a documentary a few years ago about Barcelona and there was a piece on their academy, it mentioned about how many times their next Messi went on to be released from the club and ended up playing in the lower leagues,

 

Apparently, he was rated higher than Messi too. Even by all his teammates. Had loads of set backs including lots of injuries, his name was Victor Vazquez. He was there when Messi and co were there

 

Yeah he was mentioned mate but they were also on about how many different kids had gone through the academy and they were head and shoulders above the rest at such a young age but then never kicked on.

 

Thing is what a lot don’t seem to realise is that as a young teenager we all develop at different rates and ages.
I always recall as a 14 yr old I was 5 ft 10 and one of the taller lads in the year, fast forward nearly 40 years and nearly all the lads I went to school are similar or taller as I’ve not grown (in height) an inch.
Oh and in terms of football we had quite a few including myself who were cited as being ‘pretty good’.
Out of the entire squad only 2 made a career in football, one became a CEO at a couple of clubs the other couldn’t get in our side but went on to have the best playing career out of all of us.

 

2 of those you mentioned have had bloody good football league careers. We should be proud.

 

I agree. I think a lot of people don't realise just how much skill, dedication (and a fair amount of good fortune) it takes to have any sort of career in professional football, even in the lower divisions. Plus the fact that it's financially pretty precarious any lower down than the top end of L1.

 

The difference between being a world beater and an also ran is very fine. All it takes is a bad injury or illness to derail a career. Some are overhyped when young and suffer mentally as a result - and some are discarded and work their way back into contention.

The best player I've ever played with was Kirk Jackson. As kids we played regularly and he was head and shoulders above us despite being younger - professionally he struggled with injury and changed clubs often until he helped Yeovil to promotion to the league. He left them to sign for lower league Hornchurch then Weymouth - but the package at those clubs was better than what he would get from a League 2 club at the time. Devoting so much time and effort to his football career left him unqualified for most other forms of work after he retired too - which is a major problem for many young footballers.

 

Jason Sedlan was a good mate of mine and the best player I ever played with. In warm-ups before school games he did things that you see the Brazilians doing before world cup matches. He was so much better than any of us it was ridiculous, and our school team included several players who were scouted by Lincoln City. But Jason was in a different league completely. Below you can see his entire career in professional football. Luckily he's a bright lad so getting a regular job wasn't an issue for him, but many others aren't so lucky.

 

It wasn't really a dig at Norwood, it was a dig at you and your argument.

 

Seem to recall Ronnie Branson or Mark Burton going to Barcelona to do a presentation on our academy setup and exchange ideas with their academy coaches. Might have been Madrid or maybe I dreamt the whole thing

 

I thought it might have been Benfica but that could have been something else

 

I know they went to a club that had a decent academy setup so they could try and bring those ideas back over here to implement. Sure it was when Stonesy was coming through because they changed the whole philosophy and got them playing a different style

 

My friend who scouted and ran academy training sessions at Burnley told me the best player, out of hundreds and hundreds, he ever saw at junior level, including players like Jay Rodriguez, was John Cofie, Liverpool tried to sign him for £200k when he was 14 but Burnley refused, he then refused to train and eventually ended up at Manchester United, and then drifted into a nothing career including time with us. Thought he was too good for Burnley, my mate said he had a really good chance of making it but blew it.

 

We seem to have some very talented young players. Some will make it some won’t. That’s the nature of things but there definitely looks to be some that aren’t a million miles away from the first team.

 

For me it's all about opportunities both getting and taking them, signing players like Shaw and Dallas wastes pointless money and clogs up the path for such as Marsh who is now coming to make or break time and will probably have to prove himself somewhere else.

 

I don't think he deliberately causes mischief.
He doesn't understand fully, some of these young boys ,chose us to develop their career, Over other big clubs ,knowing full well BFC as a great reputation for this.
This never used to happen in the past,which is paramount to what the coaches are achieving at this club.

 

Yeah loads of stories of people who could have for many reasons didn’t.
Best player I ever saw as a kid had trials with Watford boys who in the 80’s were the best youth set up bar none, they were that blown away by him they offered him terms there and then which was pretty unheard of, he turned them down because he wanted to join army like his older brother.

 

For all we know those 2 may be our next Morris and Dike. Probably won't be, but this constant berating of signing young decent talent is mental. Weve already established 99% of youth players dont make it, we can't not invest in other players and hang it all on a couple of kids and hope it works mate.