knicking promising 12 year olds from the conference now, wow... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16601927.stm
The 'big deal' is that smaller clubs - including the one that you and I support, at one time survived by being able to sell on their younger players for profit and thus fund their business. With the latest rules on Academy players transfer fees and recruitment of youngsters etc that source of funding is diminishing - ultimately there will be no talent left outside the big clubs - and the lads that don't make it there won't have any smaller clubs to go to to establish a football career further down the leagues.
Or you talk to the player and get them to understand why they are wanted and why it would be better for them to stay with you. Barnsley could have lost a few of there current second year scholars but the PE teacher (deetee's words) and first team talked to them and they stayed.
well tom Cleverleys at biggest club in world and would be playing i it wasn't for injury. Fab Delph was in villa first team and since injury he's struggled to get back fit. Both very good players.
But the point is those discussions will become more and more difficult to 'win' If we all adopt your 'I'm alright jack' attitude then football will suffer.
yes but you have to get players pro contract. You do that and they might stay. barnsley have RNL, Butterfield, potter. To go with Stones and clark and rose... Thats what you have to do. If you don't do that then why would they want to stay. Are they fans of the club? if so then you have a massive advantage
They aren't the first nor the last players that scouts from bigger clubs have sniffed round. As for branson his record at taking players past the youth team is excellent isn't it? Barnsleys academy has failed for a number of years costing millions yet on one has been held accountable for its failings. Now the rules have changed its going to be even more scrutiny. Feel free to tell me they went to a youth cup semi though.
The tip of the iceberg, there are examples of the premier league and Sky killing football, as I and many more on here once knew it, everywhere you look in the game.
Is it time to bring in a draft system for the young uns Just like the NFL. Up to 18 they have to develop at the nearest geographical club (at the time they are signed to prevent clubs just moving families) in the scheme. All the names then go into the pot and then working down the league each team has one pick until all the clubs have had a turn then start again. All the clubs in the scheme can concentrate on producing great players to benefit the national team in future and it stops the big boys signing any kid with an ounce of talent.
12 and 13 ...... Pffftt ...... positvely veterans ! ! If you're gonna get 'em young, get 'em at 5 ! ! http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/16/arsenal-robin-van-persie-son?newsfeed=true
Re: Is it time to bring in a draft system for the young uns Eh? They don't have NFL youth set ups. They are at their high school and then go into the college system, it doesn't have to be anywhere in their locality. Ignore me.....I misread your post!
Re: 12 and 13 ...... Pffftt ...... positvely veterans ! ! This has happened for decades, Barnsley were afetr a young lad in the fifties I think it was,but Wednesday gazumped us by buying his mum a new gas cooker.
How do you work out the Academy is a failure? Barnsley are amongst the elite of youth set-ups and the kids consistently do well in the various competitions at their level. If there was a similar set up for the youth as there is for the seniors, we'd be in the Premier League top 10 and we'd have been there for some time. We've beaten the likes of Arsenal, Man united, Spurs etc in recent years and just like the first team, we usually beat Leeds United by a decent margin. We spend nowhere near the amount that Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs et al spend on their set ups yet we compete well with them. At least 3 or four a season are blooded in the first team and there are some cracking players in the current squad - Digby, Rose, Clarke for example. Scott Flinders was sold for a £1 million, Butterfield should have fetched that amount but we've let his contract run out (Nowt to do with Branson). Neil Austin, Dave Mulligan, Robbie Williams, Nickie Wroe, Rory Fallon, Antony Kay, Jon Parkin and further back Dave Watson, Andy Liddell, Adie Moses, Nicky Eaden, Scott Jones, Carl Tiler to name a few - have all gone on to have good professional careers and most of them have brought in a fee. How much would they have cost if we'd recruited them? Discounting the players they purchased from other academies, how many youth players have Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea brought through in the last 10 years? If you're looking for an England international that we're going to sell for £5 million then it just ain't going to happen but if three or four break through into the first team every season then in my opinion its money well spent.
Just to address some of those issues The academy isn't there to be a successful team in its own right. The fact that we've beaten the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal at academy level is pretty much meaningless. Results at academy level count for nothing. The academy is there to bring young players through to play for the first team. That is the be all and end all. You mention Digby, Rose and Clarke, but they haven't got half a dozen games in the first team between them. The success of an academy is judged by how many players you have playing week in, week out for the first team or how much money you make from selling them, not by the fact that one or two have made substitute appearances. Neil Austin, Dave Mulligan, Robbie Williams, Nickie Wroe and Antony Kay all left the club for free and have played their football at a level below Barnsley. Getting no money to provide players for the lower leagues can hardly be judges as a success for our football club. Jon Parkin has had a decent career, but we let him go for free, so again it was no benefit for our club. We got £75,000 for Fallon. I suppose if we could produce players like that regularly then the academy would start to pay for itself, but it just doesn't. Fallon is very much an exception to the norm and even he hardly went for big money. You then mention Dave Watson, Andy Liddell, Adie Moses, Nicky Eaden, Scott Jones and Carl Tiler, but all those players made the first team well before the academy came along. If anything they only serve to highlight what a failure the academy has been. Under the old youth set-up we used to produce good players on a regular basis. But since the academy has been built that production line has more or less dried up. The two success stories to date from the academy are Scott Flinders and Jacob Butterfield. We got big money for Flinders and Butterfield is attracting all sorts of interest, while putting in some fine performances. Maybe we'll be able to add Noble-Lazarus to the list, but it's too early to judge as yet. Even if we do, 3 players from 15 years of academy status? It's been an absolute disaster.