his point still stands we have prodiced some relative decent players, and the managers of our club have overlooked them. added to our fans turning on the home grown players.
Maybe luck that he got picked when he did But that luck doesn't alter the fact that his ability was there and had been coached by our academy and although we may have got the 'market price' for him, I still think that it was low with regard to the fact that we did not get enough to be able to properly replace him and by that I mean that all we've been able to afford is lucas (too old to be any kind of realistic replacement), letheren (looks crap from what i've seen) and the less said about him with a punch so good that fighter jets were scrambled to stop the ball until it bounced off a player and went in the back of the net the better. I think that we are producing players with enough quality in the academy. The academy is doing its job, tonge, austin, kay, atkinson, maybe even joynes are all testiment to that (i'm sure theres one or two others that i've missed out). Where we are going wrong is somewhere between the academy and the first team manager, either the maanger is just really crap at seeing talent (i dont just mean davey) or somebody at oakwell isn't watching the academy/reserves properly, telling the manager how well the players are doing and reccomending them for the first team.
I think Tonge is more than capable of playing in our first team, if not starting then definetly should be on the bench, the fact that Mattis will be on the Bench again at the first opportunity is pathetic and reflects more on avey than is does Tonge. Same cannot be said for the likes of the likes of Wroe. Jarman up front for the reserves looks good but hasn't been played there for the first team where he mostly plays on the wing and out of position. Jarmen has shown flashes of what he can do but hasn't yet had a real chance. Thats one of our problems, who's to know if he's up to it? How many other young attackers have left to make a good career of scoring goals because we didn't give them a chance. At the end of the day our Academy has nothing to do with Premiership Clubs as its ours. Maybe more Premiership Clubs should instead of creating partnerships with rubbish clubs abroad do something simular with Football League teams. But then again theres only so many Premiership clubs about so that would maybe have to extend to the Championship clubs with the lower league teams. And as a Chmpionship club this could maybe be a good idea for us.
As I said earlier Simon Davey clearly stated at the supporters trust meeting that we had a problem in bringing through young players..we were not bringing them through quick enough and letting the also rans hang around for too long after they had reached a plateau in their developement. He reckoned we had to toatlly re-evaluate our methods in getting these players to make the successful step up.
Academies are everything to do with Prem clubs. They are funded from Sky money and the Prem clubs decide how much goes to them. They have decided to keep more for themselves so causing clubs outside the Prem to consider downsizing their academies/COE's. Even Crewe, always held up as an example of a club that brings many good players on is cutting back.
But Tonge had made the step up And Davey has pushed him right back down. The same with Williams I guess. Davey felt that he was good enough to play in a local derby (when there were more experience options available) and now suddenly he finds himself at blackpool.
RE: but not as daft as thee I'll have a dig about things I don't think are right. Unfortunately I think there are quite a few of those.</p> You it would seem, if Davey came round and crapped on your living room floor would probably say 'Thanks, that'll help my roses a treat!'</p>
