The Academy

I have recently returned to the area having been exiled in Wigan for the last 11 years. I am a season ticket holder and I have also been taking my 10 year old son to the Reserve and Academy games.

I have been reading some of the posts written on this website and have been iritated by the attacks on the Academy in particular. There are several issues that I would like to address which have recently been discussed.
1. The costs of running the Academy.
2. Academy or Centre of Excellence?
3. Criticism of young players.
4. Opportunity for young players.

Several members have been stating that the Academy is costing the club in excess of £1 million per annum. These figures are well wide of the mark. Each club in the Football League receives a payment for the running of Youth football. This payment is in the order of £130,000 per annum. Without this payment, the much smaller clubs would not have any Youth set up at all. I have a friend who works at Wigan Athletic and he suggested that an Academy of Barnsley's size will not be spending much more than another £100,000 per annum. This sum is possibly less than the club paid Andy Johnson in wages this season!

Liverpool Football Club continue to invest in excess of £3 million per season in their Academy. They have 35 full time Academy staff and 115 part time staff including scouts. In the last six years the club has received less than £1.5 million from transfer income for Academy produced players - Stephen Warnock to Blackburn Rovers the largest sale - and there are no Academy produced player in the current 1st team squad - Steven Gerrard who is close to 29 years old was the last one.

The Academy Scholars are on a programme called M.A.S.E ( Modern Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence) This is a government run scheme and the scholars are paid around £100 per week. The club have to register a minimum of sixteen boys on this programme over the two year period. The costs to the club are minimal.

This is not the case at some of the other clubs that we are expected to compete with. At the Newcastle United game just before Christmas I was talking to one of the parents of the Newcastle players who told me of a player in their side earning around £1700 per week!

The best young players will always go to the big clubs either for status or for money or in some cases both! "Dyson" wrote about the "coaching" and the "raw materials" to work with. The facts remain that Barnsley will never get the first pick of the "raw materials" unless they spot them really young and even then the bigger clubs pay the compensation to buy the player out of the club.

Several members say we should down grade to a Centre of Excellence to save costs. Firstly there are no cost savings by being a C of E club. The difference in status is around the facilities. To have academy status you must have an indoor arena. Dropping down to C Of E would not save any money. You would be less likely to draw players as many of the C of E clubs do not have their own pitches and you end up playing on schools pitches (if they are fit) You are better competing with the big clubs on decent pitches.

There was a lengthy debate last week over "Red Rain"s criticism of Shaun Reid's performance in the game against Forest.(I watched this game too) I feel that it is wrong to criticise players at this level as I feel that it does more harm than good. The player knows he has not played at his best and he does not need reminding by many who may not have even played at this level. I feel these players should be "off limits". I feel that once you sign a professional contract then the rules change slightly. These reports should contain praise for the player who have done well but leave the poor performance alone.

"Dreamboy 3000" suggests that the Academy get "tonked every week" That is simply not true. The Academy are currently 5th in their league of ten clubs. How would our 1st team fair in a league that contained the same teams; Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesborough, and the others given the same resources at this level?

I took my son to the Reserve game at Leeds last week. Like "Barney" I thought the lads did very well against a very strong Leeds United team that contained 10 professionals who had over 120 collective appearances in the 1st team this season and over 2000 career appearances. Our 3 professionals had less than 5 careers appearances between them. We worked extremely hard all night and without the ball for most of it! It was no surprise that they were very weary against Forest on the Saturday.

In an age when one season as a Manager qualifies you for a long service medal, which manager is going to take a chance on a young inexperienced professional? Most would rather buy an experience stop gap. So how does the young player get his chance? The club signed Darren Moore rather than give Rob Atkinson the chance. I am not saying that Darren is better than Rob or that Rob was better than Darren but when do you take a chance on the younger player?

I have watched 7 or 8 Academy games this season and half a dozen reserve games. I don't think that the picture is as black as it has been painted. Most of the current academy team are 1st year scholars and I think that there are two or three in that group who have got a real chance. We should be positive. There are some encouraging signs. Get behind them. Go and watch them. See for yourself!

 

RE: The Academy -Well expressed. Academy critics take note/ nt

 

Thanks Ronnie nt

 

no comment on the standard of coaching then?

We can't compete for the best lads so we try to polish a turd, it seems to me youve written a great indictment on Academies in general. We should be scouting in Europe the best late teens that are 12 months or less away from actually making a first team impact, no feeding Grimsby and The Coach and Horses.

 

Nice hatrick mate still not been beaten.

 

It is clear that some people have unrealistic expectations of our academy and of the club to a lesser degree. We don't have the financial resources to challenge the bigger clubs in many ways. When you accept that fact, then you will stop blaming others for your unrealistic aspirations. I don't know Ronnie Branson, but it is clear that many of you think we need the best Academy coach in the country so we can attract the best player's. But it won't work that way. Manchester United recently paid over £0.5 million for an Irish boy who didn't make the starting line up in the recent Youth Cup match. How do Barnsley compete with that when you are offering only £100 per week?

 

I have not been present at any coaching sessions so I would not comment on the quality of coaching without seeing it first. It seems many of you are prepared to comment on issues without having seen them for yourself.

 

Thats is one of the best posts ever on the Academy and I agree 100% with your views. </p>

The muppets who come on here knocking the Coaching staff wouldn't recognize a good coaching session from a bad one. Or a good coach from a bad one.
</p>

To sum them up: if you win the coaching is great. If you lose sack the lot of them! </p>

That's the limit of their knowledge. </p>

 

Re: The Academy wish I had written that post nt

 

I do find it curious...

...that mention of the Academy seems to draw out all these users who only have a handful of posts to their name, particularly criticising Red Rains comments.

Given the abuse and potential threats, I don't know why the **** he bothers. He's only watching Grimsby Towns first XI for the season 2014-15, lighten up.

 

Well put wiganred, Not watching the academy i cant comment .

too many people on this site have tunnel vision, because we dont have a gerard coming through lets shut it down comments, well wiganred your not on your own in thimking as you do the problem is theres so many experts on here i wonder why we are not in the top tier paying big wages out with either alex or arsene breaking there necks tio manager us.

 

great post

it's not that i necessarily agree or disagree with everything you've said - it's just well written and nice to read something that you've clearly taken some time over and believe in. Thanks mate. I think you've got a strong argument.

 

Sounds like sense to me and I will take you for your word that it is based on facts known to you. Some people just like to criticise.

 

wigan i know one of the accademy coaches who signed butterfield from man u ,its dead easy to sit on ur pc criticising and being cynical.the post was well wrote and you obviously have watched more acc and reserve games than ius,the picture is not that bleak but guys on here are at their best when moanin,and havent a clue about the first thing about running a pub team let alone an accademy.

 

we don't deal in factual information on here sonny.

be gone with you.

 

clutch

you dropped the hint about the 31 goal scorer, got any more?

 

yeagh gatherd that last week wen i posted about signin new striker

 

no not tellin jack **** after the ***** i got from the ******* on ere i could say more but **** it

 

but you said we would be surprised at who we signed

never mentioned he was from Malta when you told us 31 goals in a season.

I do think that there are some more good players in Malta too.

 

i couldnt do that i would ave got sum 1 in trouble i spoke to boggy sat morn and he told me he was waiting for itc hes limping today got hamstring he played thru it tues