Academy - A false dawn?

[paddy20]

With our apparent lack of any transfer activity so far and the loss of experienced players does it appear we are looking to move forward by cutting costs to the bone and relying on Academy prospects to lead the way?

In my opinion this will be a short road to disaster. Whilst some players do make the grade there are rarely more than one or two at any given time that do. At the moment I reckon we need at least 5 new players just to keep us in the division. Whilst football clubs have to balance the books there are many cases where lack of investment have lead to total collapse. Lets hope the football people at Reading win over the accountants and start signing good players!

[Coppelled_Streets]

With our apparent lack of any transfer activity so far and the loss of experienced players does it appear we are looking to move forward by cutting costs to the bone and relying on Academy prospects to lead the way?

In my opinion this will be a short road to disaster. Whilst some players do make the grade there are rarely more than one or two at any given time that do. At the moment I reckon we need at least 5 new players just to keep us in the division. Whilst football clubs have to balance the books there are many cases where lack of investment have lead to total collapse. Lets hope the football people at Reading win over the accountants and start signing good players!

Exactly, and there aren't many 'football people' at the club, SJM included. Nigel Howe is pulling more strings these days and that's not a good thing either. An over reliance on the kids will almost cetainly backfire on us, so lets hope we add at least three experienced players around them, otherwise it could be League One football next season, and that's a bastard to get back out of.

[SCIAG]

Whilst some players do make the grade there are rarely more than one or two at any given time that do.

Two points.

Firstly, the operative word there is "rarely". About six years ago, we had seven players come through and forge careers in the Championship or higher (arguably Church wasn't good enough to, but 150 appearances at this level...). Our current U21 side is better than our reserves were then.

Secondly, "at any given time". Our current "Academy" players are spread over six age groups as opposed to the two that our last big crop were spread over (McCarthy and Gylfi in one, the others in the other). Even if you rule out the chance of anyone from the U18s playing next season, that's still a much bigger pool than you'd normally look at - essentially we have four "given times" at once. Obita and Samuel are guaranteed to be involved with the first team next season barring injury or transfer and both are good enough. Then our U18s will pessimistically provide six first teamers between them over the next two seasons.

At the moment I reckon we need at least 5 new players just to keep us in the division. Whilst football clubs have to balance the books there are many cases where lack of investment have lead to total collapse. Lets hope the football people at Reading win over the accountants and start signing good players!

The issue isn't "balancing the books" or "accountants" as such, it's whether the Thais will actually give us money. We already tried spending money we didn't have and it caused our biggest crisis for a generation. Never again.

I'm pretty confident they will give us money, because otherwise they have no reason to waste loads of money buying the team. Remember the window doesn't open for another two weeks, then there are eight more before it shuts.

Edit: lost track of time

[tidus_mi2]

Another panic thread, so far this summer we've let some unwanted players and tried to keep some good players but on reduced terms, all but Kelly have rejected those contracts, whereas Kelly is still unknown, perhaps he's still weighing his options. So we haven't brought anyone in, by what I can see, and I just looked for any signings on each club page on the BBC since the end of the season and by that, only 8 clubs have made signings so far, that's a third of the league.

[No Fixed Abode]

With our apparent lack of any transfer activity so far and the loss of experienced players does it appear we are looking to move forward by cutting costs to the bone and relying on Academy prospects to lead the way?

In my opinion this will be a short road to disaster. Whilst some players do make the grade there are rarely more than one or two at any given time that do. At the moment I reckon we need at least 5 new players just to keep us in the division. Whilst football clubs have to balance the books there are many cases where lack of investment have lead to total collapse. Lets hope the football people at Reading win over the accountants and start signing good players!

An over reliance on the kids will almost cetainly backfire on us, .

You'll never win anything with kids.

[linkenholtroyal]

With our apparent lack of any transfer activity so far and the loss of experienced players does it appear we are looking to move forward by cutting costs to the bone and relying on Academy prospects to lead the way?

In my opinion this will be a short road to disaster. Whilst some players do make the grade there are rarely more than one or two at any given time that do. At the moment I reckon we need at least 5 new players just to keep us in the division. Whilst football clubs have to balance the books there are many cases where lack of investment have lead to total collapse. Lets hope the football people at Reading win over the accountants and start signing good players!

An over reliance on the kids will almost cetainly backfire on us, .

You'll never win anything with kids.

Sorry I have sir Alex on the phone he sais your wrong. also Ipswich were predominantly made up of youth products last season and haven't bought heavily and almost made the prem

[Coppelled_Streets]

With our apparent lack of any transfer activity so far and the loss of experienced players does it appear we are looking to move forward by cutting costs to the bone and relying on Academy prospects to lead the way?

In my opinion this will be a short road to disaster. Whilst some players do make the grade there are rarely more than one or two at any given time that do. At the moment I reckon we need at least 5 new players just to keep us in the division. Whilst football clubs have to balance the books there are many cases where lack of investment have lead to total collapse. Lets hope the football people at Reading win over the accountants and start signing good players!

An over reliance on the kids will almost cetainly backfire on us, .

You'll never win anything with kids.

We threw a lot in last season and under Adkins, whom you would expect would be ideal to coach them, we struggled and quite possibly could have gone down. We'll use them and more next season. United are an exception to the rule. It is very unlikely we'll come up trumps with several youngsters taking the league by storm, in fact it often goes the other way when introducing so many so soon. Lets hope not!

[Silver Fox]

We threw a lot in last season and under Adkins, whom you would expect would be ideal to coach them

How so?

[Pepe the Horseman]

Sorry I have sir Alex on the phone he sais your wrong. also Ipswich were predominantly made up of youth products last season and haven't bought heavily and almost made the prem

Really? Their team for the first leg of the play-off semis:


Bialkowski - 27. Signed from Notts County.
Chambers - 29. Signed from Forest.
Smith - 25. Came through the youth team.
Berra - 30. Signed from Wolves.
Mings - 22. Signed from Chippenham.
Bru - 26. Signed from Levski Sofia.
Skuse - 29. Signed from Bristol City.
Varney - 32. On loan from Blackburn.
Bishop - 18. Came through the youth team.
Sears - 25. Signed from Colchester.
Murphy - 32. Signed from Celtic.

So that's two youth products, one of which is 25. And only two players under 25.

[Vision]

Sorry I have sir Alex on the phone he sais your wrong. also Ipswich were predominantly made up of youth products last season and haven't bought heavily and almost made the prem

Really? Their team for the first leg of the play-off semis:


Bialkowski - 27. Signed from Notts County.
Chambers - 29. Signed from Forest.
Smith - 25. Came through the youth team.
Berra - 30. Signed from Wolves.
Mings - 22. Signed from Chippenham.
Bru - 26. Signed from Levski Sofia.
Skuse - 29. Signed from Bristol City.
Varney - 32. On loan from Blackburn.
Bishop - 18. Came through the youth team.
Sears - 25. Signed from Colchester.
Murphy - 32. Signed from Celtic.

So that's two youth products, one of which is 25. And only two players under 25.

You're forgetting veritable youngsters Jay Tabb and the Hunt Brothers .

[Coppelled_Streets]

We threw a lot in last season and under Adkins, whom you would expect would be ideal to coach them

How so?

He has a good track record of bringing youngsters through, and his encouraging demeanor and style of football was very well suited to that of Dolan's which the kids are famaliar and successful with.

[linkenholtroyal]

Sorry I have sir Alex on the phone he sais your wrong. also Ipswich were predominantly made up of youth products last season and haven't bought heavily and almost made the prem

Really? Their team for the first leg of the play-off semis:


Bialkowski - 27. Signed from Notts County.
Chambers - 29. Signed from Forest.
Smith - 25. Came through the youth team.
Berra - 30. Signed from Wolves.
Mings - 22. Signed from Chippenham.
Bru - 26. Signed from Levski Sofia.
Skuse - 29. Signed from Bristol City.
Varney - 32. On loan from Blackburn.
Bishop - 18. Came through the youth team.
Sears - 25. Signed from Colchester.
Murphy - 32. Signed from Celtic.

So that's two youth products, one of which is 25. And only two players under 25.

You're forgetting veritable youngsters Jay Tabb and the Hunt Brothers .

ok sorry hands up I go it wrong

[SCIAG]

We threw a lot in last season

No we didn't. I don't believe there was ever a time in the league when we had more than three recent graduates on the pitch at once under Adkins, and only a few minutes under Clarke.

(Recent graduate: someone aged 21 or under who made their debut last season after coming through our youth system)

we struggled and quite possibly could have gone down.

There was no bigger risk of that than any other season. At no point in the season were we below 19th, but we did hit 6th place early in the season (at the point we were most reliant on our young players).

We'll use them and more next season.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a single player from the Academy make their début next season. There's a chance Cardwell might play, maybe Sweeney or Griffin, but it seems more likely we'll use the players who didn't fully establish themselves last season, our senior players, and new signings.

[ZacNaloen]

In hindsight I feel we looked more competitive when the youth players were closer to the first team.

[Hoop Blah]

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a single player from the Academy make their début next season. There's a chance Cardwell might play, maybe Sweeney or Griffin, but it seems more likely we'll use the players who didn't fully establish themselves last season, our senior players, and new signings.

I agree we might not see any further debuts next season, but I also agree we'll probably see more use of recent graduates than we did last year, especially under Clarkes management.

Cooper played in 15 league games, Kuhl and Stacey both 6. Apart from that it's a just a splattering of appearances and I expect that those players and the others like Tanner and Samuel to rack up more games this season.

[ZacNaloen]

Don't under estimate the fact those guys all came through as a team. They'll have an understanding, so it's not like plopping in a bunch of new signings if we are forced to start a number of them early on. Stacey looked comfortable, Tshibola did very well on loan, Cooper we all know about, and Fosu flew out the gates. That's pretty much three quality signings there.
Sweeney, Keown, Dickie, these three are also decent players.

Kuhl is a solid midfielder, although he'd REALLY benefit from a 6 month loan.

Moore is an unknown quantity for me, but I'm very uneasy about young goal keepers in general...



My view is we aren't actually short of young talent, of the sort we used to sign for pennies. What we need is experienced players who aren't dicks to help them mature. Been too many sulkers just taking a wage and going through the motions the last two years.

[Hoop Blah]

Absolutely agree on that last point and Kulh probably needing a good loan like Tshibola had last season to help him kick on.

[Ian Royal]

I could see Owusu possibly making his debut with the odd cameo, maybe. But on the whole I'd agree we won't be seeing many academy debutants.

I want to see Kuhl, Tish, Tanner, Samuel and Stacy regularly making the bench and getting plenty of sub appearances. Cooper should be a bench fixture.

More cameos as needed from. Fosu, Keown, Sweeney and Nova

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

I'll stick by what I have said before, Cardwell is by the far the standout diamond.... that boy is going to be a household name.

Having said that , we have a decent "crop" of young'uns.... and I would much rather see them be given the chance and pull on the Hoops than bring in a load of "promising journeymen" .... and go down fighting in a blaze of glory (69 guns).

Unfortunately, unless we bring in four or five really seasoned pros who have the "muscle and bustle" to make a difference, relegation is a stark reality.

On the bright side, League 1 is easier to get out of than the Championship.

Disturbingly, I've read a few posts over the past few days that find me in concurrence with both Ian Royal and RR....

[andrew1957]

I'll stick by what I have said before, Cardwell is by the far the standout diamond.... that boy is going to be a household name.

Having said that , we have a decent "crop" of young'uns.... and I would much rather see them be given the chance and pull on the Hoops than bring in a load of "promising journeymen" .... and go down fighting in a blaze of glory (69 guns).

Unfortunately, unless we bring in four or five really seasoned pros who have the "muscle and bustle" to make a difference, relegation is a stark reality.

I don't think the club agree with you about Cardwell. He is about the same age as Novakovich but the latter has already played for the first team whereas Cardwell has been nowhere near yet. I hope he comes good but at the moment Nova is way ahead of him in the pecking order.

Agree with you about needing to sign some experienced players.