Watched Worksop Town demolish Stamford town 6 - 1 and what a debut this lad had. Begs the question what are we doing getting rid of high quality youngsters? The standard down in the lower leagues gets better and better as it is all young British Talent who fail to make it at the professional clubs; too many foreigners augment pops up again . Well impressed with this young man. 'Jake Scott, 20, has joined the Tigers following his release from Barnsley. The midfielder who can also play in defence is no stranger to Tigers fans having spent a month on loan with Worksop last season during which time he became a fans favourite. Earlier this season he spent a period on loan at Guiseley'.
We were probably right to let him go if he's had to drop that far down the leagues for a club. Start worrying when we release a youngster who gets picked up by another league club and then does well for them.
Disagree. What level a young player gets picked up at after being released doesn't matter. It's the level he settles at after a few years that shows you how good he is. If half of our first team got released tomorrow they'd end up in league two
It's madness. Jakes a good player and if I really say what I think of this then I would get the why do you always say that rubbish. Jakes a good player who will only get better. Really improved when he left oakwell to go out on loan last season.
The problem at Oakwell is, and has been for years, not the academy but the bridge between the academy and the first team and it is my firm belief that the lack of a reserve league, and when we had one a lack of effort put in by both players and management staff alike in the reserves, is a major factor. Add that to a manager who has an addiction to signing new players means that we would rather bring in an untried player from elsewhere than give our own youth a chance until eventually it becomes easier to just release them.
This u21 leagues meant to d that ST but it never can. Unless the club makes a big effort and goes to been a cat 1 club then it's not right. The club also signed a few in the summer and the back end of the season and players like jake aren't getting a chance.
I don't think the under 21 league will ever do that because it will always be seen as another meaningless youth football. They need to scrap having 7 subs in first team games and go back to having a much lower figure (I'd got to having 4) so that more senior players are 'spare' and not being kept around the first team squad every week with no real chance of playing. That would mean that the reserves have more of a mix of experienced players and youth and if clubs insisted that they put effort in then you'd be able to see which players deserve a go. It would also mean players recover from injuries much quicker instead of being in training but not fit enough to start for 6 months like we see now. If we had a proper reserve team and players had to put effort in then Jennings would be 5 times as fit as he is now.
One of the problems of having a big squad is our young ones don't get much chance to breakthrough to first team , Jordan Clark , Lazarus , rose , digby are all decent prospects but seem miles away from breaking in to 1 st team now . Surely worth a chance to play them instead of fox and Kennedy , who seem to get picked weekly despite not performing well
Yes but when you add the fans reaction to anything other than what they thinks correct and the obsession over results rather than progress and performance and a manager fans (yes only the ones who haven't got a scooby doo) are talking about sacking then he might not be thinking young.
If you are not bothered about results then stick to the meaningless U21`s then Phil, because results DO MATTER in the first team !
Recently, I was bored, so I reread Keith Lodge's book covering the Premiership season. Among the players mentioned within those pages were Nicky Eaden, Scott Jones, Adie Moses, Andy Liddell and Chris Morgan. All of those players came through the youth team and played for Barnsley in the Premiership. The success of that team persuaded the then board to invest heavily in the creation of an academy. How many players has that academy produced in the last 15 years, players who have gone on to play 50 or more games at the level of second tier or above. Not many. OK, there has been Jacob Butterfield and John Stones (who has not yet managed 50 games), but I am struggling to remember any others. The Youth Cup is the flagship tournament for academies. You have to go back 10 years to our best run in the tournament (semi finals), and none of that team made it to the professional level as defined above. Recently, the team that included Noble Lazarus, Stones, Clarke and Rose did well enough, claiming the scalp of Spurs on their way to defeat at Chelsea, but I can also remember inglorious surrenders at Swindon and others. The fact is that, for all the investment in the youth system, the return on that investment has been poor as measured by the number of good young professionals produced. There is something wrong, and that something is measured by the likes of Jake Scott and others, who the club invested in, and who in the end, were not good enough to earn a contract. It is a scandal that with the first team squad so bereft of meaningful investment, the club continues to pour money into the academy with no apparent measure being applied to the success of the academy management and staff. At one time, our club could guarantee that there would be other players coming through, even as we sold the current crop. The youth team was the way the club was able to stay alive, because it subsidised the first team with the transfer fees the club was able to harvest. For the last 15 years, in spite of the two recent fees received, my guess would be that it is the other way around. Do not get me wrong. I support the idea of training young professionals and that that training is best done through an academy. The thing that I do not support is the management of the academy which is clear failing both the club and the players who have put their trust in them.
So you don't think the clubs been successful in whats its doing at Academy level. Must be the only one because I speak to people when I'm down there and they all seem to think we are doing a good job. From Parents of the players at the club to other people who watch to parents of opposition. My child tuned town 2/3/4 clubs to sign for barnsley or i wish my child had the chance to play for Barnsley. Barnsley seem to play football the right way. RNL Digby Clark Rose ...... Non of these guys done well then? Just Butterfield and Stones then, ha brilliant. Digbys in the u19 squad with people from Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester united. That not a good thing then?
Er let's think - Rory Fallon, Mulligan + a couple of other NZ lads, John Parkin, Anthony Kay, McClare, O Callaghan (was that his name the Irish centre half?),that striker who ended up going to Grimsby lol ..... There must be some more - all had chance of first team football with some having better success at other clubs
Agreed. We've struggled to produce youth team players for the first team for years. Ironically since the academy was founded! There is a serious issue at oakwell with academy players turning 18 and failing to kick on. From memory only one has made a career at championship or above. And that was only for a few seasons. Ten years ago McCabe sent his minions to oakwell to check out our set up. I'd say we are now ten years behind them.
Our academy is ****. It costs millions and yet produces very little in return as Red Rain said. You mention four players who are never seen in our first team so how have they done well for our first team? We produced more kids for the first team before the academy came along. It's draining our resources when the money used on that would be better spent on the first team squad.
I don't need to watch youth games to know we've spent millions of pounds on it for very little return. Don't you think the millions spent on it would have been better spent giving the manager a bigger budget? Do you think it's worth spending millions just for our young lads to languish in meaningless developmental games or to be sent on loan to the likes of Scunny?
