Article in the Times on our academy

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davey1889

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BushBlade said:
IdLiketoRogerMoore I think you’re right about using the academy to deflect from the first team being shite. These kind of stories don’t plant themselves.
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You might be right but the author of the article is an ex-team mate and long time friend of the head of our academy so equally possible that it came about because of that rather an PR thing.
 
BushBlade said:
IdLiketoRogerMoore I think you’re right about using the academy to deflect from the first team being shite. These kind of stories don’t plant themselves.
Click to expand...
When we were relegated to league one we filled the stadium for a youth game. Some of us even travelled 200 miles on a Friday evening for it 🙃
 
Totemic manager Chris Wilder. Harsh.
 
IdLiketoRogerMoore said:
Absolutely mate. Who'd have thought - someone in the Saudi Royal family using propaganda...
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"Propaganda" feels a touch harsh & disingenuous

At worst its PR and a much needed distraction for the suffering fan base. At best it's simply a positive article about some good stuff we are doing.

Like many, I'm fine with a bit of good news in this shit storm of a season.
 
(I haven't read the article, I can't get behind the Paywall)
I need to be careful in this post. I've been accused in the past of pouring water on the hype surrounding this current Academy crop. That is not my intention. Academy football, and the Shirecliffe Academy in particular, has never had such a light shone on it.
We have a dedicated Social Media "guy" covering all Academy Games. Team news. Goal updates. Manager quotes. Uplifting goal celebration pics.
The players themselves interact on Social Media, trying to demonstrate they're one of our own. 28 second clips uploaded to YouTube. Longer highlights available shortly after the whistle. And the occasional live stream. Surely, we'll only get more and more of that as time moves on. The glare of the Premier League has pushed our Youngsters into the view of international teams as far apart as Belize & Tunisia. It's all a nice virtuous circle. More exposure begat more recognition begat more exposure. Couple that with a First Team struggling for personnel & points. There's EVERYTHING we need for a Feel Good Academy. All Hail That. But, there's also everything we need to get mixed up. Previous U18 & U23 teams have had outstanding seasons & qualified for their National Finals. Previous players have been selected for their national sides. Previous players have had outstanding 20+ goal seasons. We didn't have a Twitter guy & a YouTube camera then, but it still happened.
I don't think the Academy hype is propaganda or deliberate distraction. I just think it's inevitable given we now have exposure we never had before. And that will continue. And it's good.
 
JJBlade said:
There is a League Table somewhere of the amount of minutes that academy produced players have played in the Premier League, Sheffield United are fifth.
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Sadly, most of these minutes have been played for other teams, which has historically been a big problem for us.
 

BushBlade said:
IdLiketoRogerMoore I think you’re right about using the academy to deflect from the first team being shite. These kind of stories don’t plant themselves.
Click to expand...
Sorry but you are wrong, you couldn't be further from the truth! Another source of tension as the investment promised has not been forthcoming.
 
Ball_Sup (Phil) said:
(I haven't read the article, I can't get behind the Paywall)
I need to be careful in this post. I've been accused in the past of pouring water on the hype surrounding this current Academy crop. That is not my intention. Academy football, and the Shirecliffe Academy in particular, has never had such a light shone on it.
We have a dedicated Social Media "guy" covering all Academy Games. Team news. Goal updates. Manager quotes. Uplifting goal celebration pics.
The players themselves interact on Social Media, trying to demonstrate they're one of our own. 28 second clips uploaded to YouTube. Longer highlights available shortly after the whistle. And the occasional live stream. Surely, we'll only get more and more of that as time moves on. The glare of the Premier League has pushed our Youngsters into the view of international teams as far apart as Belize & Tunisia. It's all a nice virtuous circle. More exposure begat more recognition begat more exposure. Couple that with a First Team struggling for personnel & points. There's EVERYTHING we need for a Feel Good Academy. All Hail That. But, there's also everything we need to get mixed up. Previous U18 & U23 teams have had outstanding seasons & qualified for their National Finals. Previous players have been selected for their national sides. Previous players have had outstanding 20+ goal seasons. We didn't have a Twitter guy & a YouTube camera then, but it still happened.
I don't think the Academy hype is propaganda or deliberate distraction. I just think it's inevitable given we now have exposure we never had before. And that will continue. And it's good.
Click to expand...
Try this link Phil

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times
t.co t.co
 
No propaganda for the board in that article and I can only imagine Wilder will sit back and see it as a result of bringing in Lester and Heckingbottom amongst others and those appointments have transformed the place. It is up to the board what they want from it next, invest, get rid of those who have followed Wilder’s blueprint with success. The academy is now in the hands of the board and if they choose a manager who wishes to build an academy in the image of his own style then it will mean the beginning of the end of its current upturn as the article states Wilder’s words ‘out run, out fight, out play’ are writ large.
 
Andy67 said:
No propaganda for the board in that article and I can only imagine Wilder will sit back and see it as a result of bringing in Lester and Heckingbottom amongst others and those appointments have transformed the place. It is up to the board what they want from it next, invest, get rid of those who have followed Wilder’s blueprint with success. The academy is now in the hands of the board and if they choose a manager who wishes to build an academy in the image of his own style then it will mean the beginning of the end of its current upturn as the article states Wilder’s words ‘out run, out fight, out play’ are writ large.
Click to expand...
Surely only if that doesn’t fit the new manager’s style too. If the rumours about Blessin are true for example then his style seems to be much like this so why would he make significant changes in the academy? Any manager will want athletic youngsters in the academy with good fitness levels and strong mentalities that have a chance to get into first team contention, and that’s what we’re trying to create it seems, then why would anyone dismantle that? Equally if we‘re on a limited budget growing your own is even more important
 
Thank you so much Yellarbellyblade
Lovely read. Numbers & Science. Lovely.
That bit about the players doing their own post match debriefs etc is wonderful. Look. I've posted this link dozens of times before. But, I don't make advertising money out of my Blog. So I'm not looking for clicks & likes. I witnessed Harrison Neal (now sometime U23 Skipper) giving the half time team talk to his Academy Brothers as long ago as Sep 2018. I loved that and I wrote about it in irreverent style. Linked here....

https://ball-sup.blogspot.com/2018/09/who-is-genius.html
 
Yellarbellyblade said:
Surely only if that doesn’t fit the new manager’s style too. If the rumours about Blessin are true for example then his style seems to be much like this so why would he make significant changes in the academy? Any manager will want athletic youngsters in the academy with good fitness levels and strong mentalities that have a chance to get into first team contention, and that’s what we’re trying to create it seems, then why would anyone dismantle that? Equally if we‘re on a limited budget growing your own is even more important
Click to expand...
Let's hope so!
 
Yellarbellyblade said:
Surely only if that doesn’t fit the new manager’s style too. If the rumours about Blessin are true for example then his style seems to be much like this so why would he make significant changes in the academy? Any manager will want athletic youngsters in the academy with good fitness levels and strong mentalities that have a chance to get into first team contention, and that’s what we’re trying to create it seems, then why would anyone dismantle that? Equally if we‘re on a limited budget growing your own is even more important
Click to expand...
If we’re going down the route I think we’re going, the academy won’t be the direct responsibility of the new manager. Lester will report directly to the “DoF” or whatever job title is given to the person who’ll be doing that role. Hopefully this person will concentrate on first team recruitment initially and leave the academy to get on with it, then look to get it upgraded. Lester has a good enough track record, he’s there on merit, not just because he’s a Blade, so it makes sense to keep him in the role for the foreseeable future.
 
Look the stuff going on at the academy isn't ground breaking. Hudl is a tool used across all academies down to cat3. Not knocking it but this is just football progressing at a rapid rate due in large to the amount of money in the game and the amount to be made from finding the youngsters they are going to turn into future internationals.

What will be more impressive is when we see 3 or 4 of these lads graduating into the first team and playing regularly. Hopefully this crop will produce those graduates but as Phil will tell you weve had numerous schoolboy internationals in the past who never pulled on a first team shirt. It's a long hard road.
 
On a positive note. Relegation might provide some of these talented youngsters a realistic step up to the first team.
 

Let's hope a few make the grade...we'll need the transfer money when the parachute payments dry up.
 
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