While waiting for last festivities to start on YouTube I noticed some under21 games from 8 years ago. So out of interest I watched a bit of the Barnsley-Forest game. To see how many players made it to the first team and beyond.. The answer was one, James Bree. All the rest playing id never heard of. Oh and a George Marris. I think who got near the first team then faded away. My point being is how can a club our size run and persist with such a fruitless academy, ( yeah yeah John Stones) when the board is putting 10 million in to keep the club going.. Loko asked twice last night..wheres the money going ?.. Is it the academy, is it a Black hole and that's where all the money goes..? Neerav and JAQ both saying last night that 'it takes a lot of money to run the club'. Remember PC or JD saying it takes a million a year to run, is that still the case.. Genuine question does anyone know how much the academy now takes to run..?
Seems a waste of money to me when we continually bring in youngsters from other clubs. It’s certainly not paying for itself in terms of fees brought in for players coming through it.
I don't think it's fair to say that the academy isn't producing regularly. Many may not make their mark on our first team, but there's tons of Barnsley academy graduates in the football league. Danny Rose, Paul Digby and Luke Waterfall, are just 3 that have popped into my head. Is the purpose of it to make money, like we have off Stones, or is it to produce talented young footballers, because if its the latter, we've certainly done that. I don't know the full extend of the costing of the adacemy, and I'd imagine it is a bit of money pit, but how much of it over the last 15 years has been paid for by the sale of just 3 academy graduates? (Stones, Holgate, Bree). I don't think it's realistic to think that we'll churn out a player who becomes a regular in the top 2 divisions every couple of years. I guess it could ge going through a bit of a lull, not helped by the guidelines which favour Premier League clubs.
Is just a John Dennis fantasy hanging around our neck.. all the best intentions but it's been a waist of money. Would love to know how much it costs..
Short answer is it’s difficult to justify based on purely monetary and playing results. I think PC said he was subsidising it by a million a year to maintain its catergory which he didn’t want to lose. Despite all the above I’ve just put I do get why as developing a few is where the potential funding comes from in time. The issue I have and have said this on here previously, I believe we are actually good at identifying players with potential but not very good at developing them further. I don’t mean the players who come straight into the first team squad but the ones for the future U23 etc. Look at how many over the years we have signed against developed into first team regulars for us, it’s not very good. Then look at how many of those leave us and go onto have a decent career, which there are a few. My big question if I was the Board is why are they developing after they leave us and not whilst with us, crack that and it becomes a completely different ball game. edit: Bear in mind 1 in 200 9 year olds who sign to an academy go into have a Professional career.
People really are moaning about everything atm Our under 18s have just had a brilliant season and won the league. Some great talent there. RNL, Digby, Stones, Bree, Holgate, Rose, Smith, Marsh, Wolfe - the first that come to mind who got good game time for us. Players like Jordan Clarke out there too
Repeating.. with the board having to put 10 million in... It would be exactly what I'd be judging it on..
It’s hard to attract those players who have left other academies if we don’t have one though, and we’ve had a few of those.
Get rid and have a squad of 22 players plus a few trainees. Arrange regular games with other clubs for the players not involved on match days and the trainees to play.
Stones, Holgate, Bree, Brown, Clark, all playing/played Premier League football. Jalo and Dyer looking good, Chapman, Ravenhill will probably make the first team, then loads of others like Moon, Rose, Wolfe etc who will have decent EFL careers. Oh, and the best team we've ever put out was supplemented by great home grown talent like Watson, Eaden, Moses & Liddell. Daft thread.
Watson, Eaden, Moses and Liddell were before we had an academy. Nothing to stop us still bringing through young players but without having academy status. Not sure what’s daft about that when we clearly have no money.
Not moaning.. just asking how much of our income goes on a sparsely successful academy.. And as for your under 18s point. Just cos a player is decent at 18 doesn't mean they'll improve enough to ever get near the first team. History proves that.. I'd say it's closer to 10/1 those that fall away to those that make it.
With respect to some opinions on this thread, maintaining academy status at Cat 2 is hugely important for our model. Things have moved on a lot since the 90s. It gives us recruitment, retention and development opportunities with players that we simply wouldn't have with an old fashioned YTS type set up. The best talent would go to Sheff U or Huddersfield over us without quibble. I think our Academy has been fruitful. Stones, Holgate, Bree, Brown will have generated £15m+ for the club in the last decade. But not only that, we develop a good reputation. Parents see that their kid could be the next Stones whereas other local clubs haven't got that to boast. Premier League clubs trust us with loaning out their promising talent as they know we develop them and we get a good pick of youngsters released from that level. Plus the likes of Jordan Clark and Paul Digby probably should have been first team players at Oakwell for longer than they were, rather than us paying for the likes of Ritzmaier or Thiam. From what you hear, things have been improved since Hassell stepped in to manage the set up and we're now seeing the benefits with a title winning U18 team moving up a level. We might be here in 5 years talking about the transfer fees generated from that crop, or more importantly the core of a stable first team squad that it's given us.
