Team for today

[larkymasher]

Must be a Sheffield thing then. One day we'll find something we're good at apart from making steel and moaning.

Of you look at any academy there is very few academy players who come right through from academy to regular first team player.
They may play a few first team games but generally they move on to a career else where....

 

[Grappler]

Must be a Sheffield thing then. One day we'll find something we're good at apart from making steel and moaning.

Beer

 

[BushBlade]

Of you look at any academy there is very few academy players who come right through from academy to regular first team player.
They may play a few first team games but generally they move on to a career else where....

I agree, in the main, although some clubs do produce more players than others. Players move around a lot these days so it's very rare for any youth team player to be in the first team for more than a couple of years. Either they're better than the club and they move on upwards, like we see at the Lane and even the likes of Southampton, or they're not quite good enough and move on, like Mason and Livermore going to Hull from Spurs, or drop down the leagues.

On a separate note, when KM put Binnion on that transfer committee he seemed to be sending a message that he didn't think we were using academy players enough. But since we've been in L1 we've gone from a Cat 1 to a Cat 2, as you know. The reality of that is we're investing less in the academy so it's logical it isn't going to do as well as it did. And we won't be able to sort that out until we're promoted as we need to concentrate our resources on getting up.
I don't agree with Silent that we should close it but I think by cutting investment we've kind of half put it on hold. We've kept staff and the facilities but we're almost playing at it. I suppose it's a bonus that despite this we've still produced DCL and have a couple of others that could make it.

My priorities, if it were owt to do with me, would be
Get promoted.
Establish ourselves back in the championship.
Carry out a full review of the academy to ensure when we reinvest in it, the money is used wisely so that we're more like a Southampton, capable of producing players good enough for the level we're at and above, than a club that just has an academy but rarely uses any of the players.

 

[BushBlade]

Beer

Sorry, I should be shot for forgetting that.

 

[albinonick]

I think we need an academy so that they may find a nugget and that nugget may have a great future with sheffield or get sold on! Its only the ones who have desire to succeed that will!!

 

[mancunianblade]

Never had much to do with United Academy, it was SOE When I was a kid ,I did however spend time at the wrong end of town and it was a poorly run affair. Put it this way my coach was none other than Tony Moore..... says it all.(according to my old man)

As for scouting from what Very little experience of scouts I have ours seems to be streets ahead of theirs. I went with a mate of mine to watch his son play his first game (in a tournament at Niagra) nipper is only 7 any way within 5 mins of the 1st game our scout was asking who he was after a few More games at the same tournament Wednesdays scout turned up.

 

[larkymasher]

Never had much to do with United Academy, it was SOE When I was a kid ,I did however spend time at the wrong end of town and it was a poorly run affair. Put it this way my coach was none other than Tony Moore..... says it all.(according to my old man)

As for scouting from what Very little experience of scouts I have ours seems to be streets ahead of theirs. I went with a mate of mine to watch his son play his first game (in a tournament at Niagra) nipper is only 7 any way within 5 mins of the 1st game our scout was asking who he was after a few More games at the same tournament Wednesdays scout turned up.

Best scout we have is a chap called David Doxey. Been at the club for 25 years.