Well forget the sorry rubble of the 1st team at Hull. It was nice to see the youngsters beat Southampton 4-0. With the lack of strikers maybe Liam Henderson will get a place on the bench at worse after scoring 2 yesterday?
Lets just consider our youth products over the last few years: Doyley - barely Championship calibre unless on form (ie only the first few games of any given season) O'Toole - unable to pass a ball straight and a total headless chicken - time on his side for now though. Bangura - zero development since his debut in 2005 McNamee - League 1 standard at best Diagagoura - League 2 standard midfielder Parkes - jury very much out. 1 sub appearance at Brentford in a month says a lot. Campana - on trial at Luton. League 1 at best. Blizzard - League 1 on a good day Grant - bit part Conference player Robinson - no longer playing regularly on loan at Hereford in League 2, maybe has one more season to make the step up or out the door. Bouazza, Young and Forrester are the three of undoubted pedigree. None of them play for us any more and we only got one top class season out of the first two (05/06 for Young and 06/07 for Boozer) before they were snapped up. It seems to me that for all our academy is much vaunted it's been going through a real lean patch over the last 3-4 years. The players coming out of it all have promise but their careers seem to follow the same downward trend on the whole. The Harefield Academy is a worthy cause and an excellent example of pioneering in the field but it's surely at least another 2 or 3 year til we see the benefits of that? Don't get me started on the young players Aidy has brought in - all crap to a man...
My worry is they seem to play "football" in the Youth games to various degress of success (they have been well beaten a few times also) but ofcourse Aidy's style is not really to play nice footie (and no I don't exactly expect Arsenal/Man U type!) so will they get a chance? Has Henderson only been kept on because he is another tall striker to "hoof" the ball at? BTW I thought when O'Toole was in the Youth side he was quite average - with Bangura and Tiggy much better for example. Ofcourse the lad who went to Villa was a class apart.
We seem to have a lot of kids NO WHERE NEAR ready to make the step up Woudnt it be nice to see someone come through with a bit of enthusiasm like that kid at West Ham
I don't see how Forrester is undoubted quality UEA. And how can Lloyd be championship quality when on form. He is head and shoulders above Mariappa and Bromby in ability and usefullness.
i dont know how u can say doyley is better than bromby. frankly thats the most stupid opinion ive heard in a while
That's probably something to do with the really top young playings choosing the big named clubs unless we got lucky or as we saw With Forrester being picked up by one.
Forrester is undoubted quality because (a) the tribunal set a fee of up to £1m for a 15yo (b) he ran the show a fortnight ago for an England youth team and (c) Villa's academy staff are absolutely raving about the lad. Given that compared to his predecessors he's not playing for Stockport, Aldershot or Barnet on loan I'd say he's quality. And as for the Doyley comment... :dismay:
I'll agree Forrester was a class act , sh*tty attitude tho , youth team do try and keep the ball on the floor , can't see how that helps them if they get near first team tho ? Must admit did see Southampton game and 3 of the goals were great pass and move ones , so where does it all go wrong if their taught to play like this at youth level , then just lump it forward in the first team ?????????
anyone see the video raphael brown sent in to soccer am shows skill and team spirit if you didn't see it http://www.skysports.com/socceram/media/video/0,21631,,00.html different gravy
It's pretty bittersweet as he probably watched it whilst lying in his pyjamas eating tub after tub of ice cream. Poor bloke
Lee - Championship class at best. Unlikely to ever establish himself as a Premier League goalkeeper. Probably the best product we still have...
http://www.skycast.com/socceram/pgVideo.aspx?docid=-5360330163271213895&side=1 try this link for youth team changing room headers..
I meant Raphael Brown, who was released after the making of the video but before it airing on Soccer Am
I think you are all forgetting WE ARE A CHAMPIONSHIP SIDE!! Why the hell would we be producing leagues of Premiership players?!! Until two years ago none of us even thought we would see the Premiership again. Just because we spent a solitary season there doesn't mean we are set for life and should be producing millions of top class academy products. People like Robbo and Gifton - they were only good enough for the Championship too you know. Its not like they left and set the world alight for Chelski is it? We produce players for our own level. Which is Championship.
Erm...take at look at my list. Then tell me how many of those are competent Championship players. Lee yes, Doyley maybe. That's poor, whichever way you look at I'm afraid. As I said, I'm only talking about the last 4yrs or so. Before that we did well but those times are long gone. I feel the academy has been drifting since GT left and has only now, with the Harefield project, got back on track.
So do I, but I think you are being overly harsh. Also, Gibbs was the best thing to happen to our academy in a while and he got given the boot.
