Feedback on Acadamy

[geoffwp]

Look up 'Chicken Lickin' Pete.....

As opposed to KFC of course. Oh, well done Tis, bleddy brilliant work on.........everything.

 

[John William]

Fascinating piece by our old friend David Conn in today's Guardian about the way Academy players who don't make the grade are (mostly not) helped to adjust to the fact that only 1% get to the top and few even make it to the professional ranks.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/06/football-biggest-issue-boys-rejected-academies

He notes that Huddersfield have just abruptly closed their Academy for under 16s - they are looking in future to sign players from abroad, notably Germany.

Interestingly one of the comments below the line is from someone who was in Yeovil's then our Academy and who joins in the general critical of the system. He says "I was in the Yeovil Town and later Exeter city academies but it isn't the fault of the players. The problem is, they make you believe you're going to make it, you never doubt you won't be a pro, but the reality is, even lower down the odds are really poor. You have to sacrifice everything to be a part of an academy, even education and that is rarely a cost worth paying."

We probably have a better than average record of players making it through, and I know our club is pretty good at making sure our young players are grounded and not led to believing they are bound to make it, but even with us most of our first team squad came from other clubs and only Pym and Moore-Taylor of our current first-choice matchday squad of 18 came through the ranks (though you could include Moxey). Though we do have a bigger number of ex-Academy players with squad numbers, a few of whom are knocking on the door.

 

[Antony Moxey]

but even with us most of our first team squad came from other clubs and only Pym and Moore-Taylor of our current first-choice matchday squad of 18 came through the ranks (though you could include Moxey). Though we do have a bigger number of ex-Academy players with squad numbers, a few of whom are knocking on the door.

That’s not entirely fair is it John? Not sure why Deano is bracketed, he is a first team player who graduated via the academy, and had we not been offered near record breaking fees then surely Watkins, Grimes and Nichols would continue to be regular first teamers too, along with Sercombe who gave years of sterling service. So that’d make seven of our starting 11 coming from our academy, a number I doubt many other sides could get close to, and that’s without including Ampadu who surely would have gone on to be a regular first teamer for us.

 

[IndoMike]

Sean Goss, too

 

[richard_portland]

We should be able to field a decent side of currently playing players who have come through our academy.

Keepers we are light on with Pym and maybe Rice

Defenders, Moore Taylor, Moxey, ampadu, seaborne, Bennett, friend

Midfielders , sercombe, grimes, sparkes, goss(who I forgot first time around)

Forwards, Nichols, Watkins, Jay, Reid,

Possibly missing a few there but that gives a pretty good starting eleven with a bit of a bench.

 

[Antony Moxey]

So only two regular starters for us but 14 playing elsewhere currently. I’d say that’s a pretty good record for the academy and probably a fair few quid’s worth too. We must have received the fat end of £10M for that lot over the years.

 

[John William]

So only two regular starters for us but 14 playing elsewhere currently. I’d say that’s a pretty good record for the academy and probably a fair few quid’s worth too. We must have received the fat end of £10M for that lot over the years.

I don't disagree, and there are also lots of other good ex-City Academy players plying their trade in other teams in the League, Conference etc. like Gosling, Frear, Riley-Lowe and others. An average of (say) two players a year coming through our Academy over a period of 10 years to become full-time professional career footballers is a pretty good record and as I said probably one of if not the best in the lower leagues.

David Conn's point was be about what happened to the many more that haven't made it, and whether they are being given enough support.

 

[Antony Moxey]

I don't disagree, and there are also lots of other good ex-City Academy players plying their trade in other teams in the League, Conference etc. like Gosling, Frear, Riley-Lowe and others. An average of (say) two players a year coming through our Academy over a period of 10 years to become full-time professional career footballers is a pretty good record and as I said probably one of if not the best in the lower leagues.

David Conn's point was be about what happened to the many more that haven't made it, and whether they are being given enough support.

Yep, but my reply was more to do with your paragraph about only having two academy players in the first team. I probably read it wrong but it did seem to come across as a complaint.

 

[John William]

Yep, but my reply was more to do with your paragraph about only having two academy players in the first team. I probably read it wrong but it did seem to come across as a complaint.

Not a complaint, sorry you took it that way. More a caution that we shouldn't get *too* smug about how successful our Academy is, as tends to happen - just a bit of context.

 

[WXF]

Fascinating piece by our old friend David Conn in today's Guardian about the way Academy players who don't make the grade are (mostly not) helped to adjust to the fact that only 1% get to the top and few even make it to the professional ranks.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/06/football-biggest-issue-boys-rejected-academies

He notes that Huddersfield have just abruptly closed their Academy for under 16s - they are looking in future to sign players from abroad, notably Germany.

Interestingly one of the comments below the line is from someone who was in Yeovil's then our Academy and who joins in the general critical of the system. He says "I was in the Yeovil Town and later Exeter city academies but it isn't the fault of the players. The problem is, they make you believe you're going to make it, you never doubt you won't be a pro, but the reality is, even lower down the odds are really poor. You have to sacrifice everything to be a part of an academy, even education and that is rarely a cost worth paying."

We probably have a better than average record of players making it through, and I know our club is pretty good at making sure our young players are grounded and not led to believing they are bound to make it, but even with us most of our first team squad came from other clubs and only Pym and Moore-Taylor of our current first-choice matchday squad of 18 came through the ranks (though you could include Moxey). Though we do have a bigger number of ex-Academy players with squad numbers, a few of whom are knocking on the door.

A thought provoking and challenging piece, which deserves wider circulation. Thanks for sharing.

"Better-off, middle-class parents had absorbed more clearly the bleak chance of their sons attaining a professional football career, had emphasised the importance of continuing education throughout and could draw on more resources to support their boys into alternative options. Many whom Oshodi knows from less advantaged backgrounds struggled to negotiate the system with that perspective"

"These are children, very young, they are not being given the time to play and enjoy their sport, before being taken into a system where they are seen as commodities, then discarded with too little concern about the damage it does.”

“As a young footballer, everybody is selling the same dream to you: if you work hard, you will make it. But that just isn’t the case,” he says. “You realise now that a lot of boys are kept there just to make up the numbers. Then for it to be taken away in one second, mentally, that was a lot to deal with, especially for somebody with no father figure."

To what extent does our academy exploit children and to what extent are we happy with current arrangements?