Yeah. I guess argument is category 1 makes is harder to poach. And some smaller category 1 teams don’t seem to have a problem partially filling their teams with some required quality youth players so there must be a way. The middle/lower ground we go for, we might as well not bother at all though,
It’s just yet more gaslighting by the club. Lapped up by people like you when they say it, then vehemently defended by people like you when they predictably renege on a promise they could never deliver on. I bet they can’t believe their luck.
TBF whilst I doubt they would get in the team anyway baring a major injury crisis so it is a bit meaningless I suspect the target was more of a long term goal this season rather than have them in the squad for the first game but then maybe the club ought to make that clearer?
The problem has been compounded by the introduction of the EPPP which that ratbag Southgate was so supportive of.
Agreed. To a large extent I'd say it caused it. Terrible short sightedness from the Football League to agree to it in exchange for a slightly bigger share of the TV money pie. These arseholes at the top of the game will always push for more...
All our best academy players are taken the minute they show any promise. Academies are useless unless we want to go back to being a lower champ survivor with the Hodsons, Ashbys, Sheppards etc playing.
There are some in the game who continually push the agenda that the game needs to develop players for the benefit of the England team. This myth has been around since before the formation of the Premier League and was one of the reasons cited for it. It's a myth because very few people actually care about the England team until it comes to an actual tournament. And of course those that care least of all are the big, rich clubs.
It also overlooks the fact that the current system is clearly doing a pretty darn good job of producing players for the England team based on our more than respectable showings in the last couple of major tournaments.
Some clubs make it work and produce plenty of first team players of premier league quality. You need to invest properly in it and be category 1. If you are defeatist like your outlook then fair enough but in that case no point having any academy at all. Ours is a complete waste of time.
By and large, all countries that have strong national leagues will always have pretty good national teams, although whether they are strong enough to challenge to win tournaments naturally goes in waves. Even countries we have lauded in the past for having brilliant development systems (France, Netherlands, Spain) have these fluctuations. African countries, on the other hand, sometimes have very good teams when they have a group of players good enough to play in the big European leagues, but at other times their level drops far further.
We're not suddenly going to have players from the academy able to make the step up. Maybe they're looking at some that given a decent season for the U21's they could make the senior squad
Maybe the three they've looked at as possibles for the senior squad they feel are not quite ready but hope that this will change through the season. I don't think he said three for the very first game of the season
I have to say I do find it a strange thing to say. More realistic would have been to say in one to three years we aim to have three academy products in the first team squad. I do wonder if he thinks before he opens his moth sometimes
Thank god we're finally giving youngsters a go. Signed him while he was playing League One football, stuck him in the U23s for a season, now we've loaned him out and will probably never see him again. #culturechange2022
I guess that's the end of him then. Worth a punt though. Only £150k from Rochdale and home grown. Exactly the type of deal a club like Watford should be doing all the time. This one didn't work out but I'm sure we'll make some money out of him, which is what it's all about really. He was never going to fit RE's system. Good guy and I hope he does well.
Another young player who will come and go without getting any games? Shame really . Last season was a waste of time for him . https://mobile.twitter.com/AdamLeventhal/status/1552966211419373570
I mean, he broke his ankle I think so not entirely the clubs fault. But he should have been integrated down the stretch once we obviously were going down. I’d still rather we have opportunities to players like him over buying complete dross like Kalu.
Yes that was unfortunate and naturally didn’t help at all . Seems disappointing thought that we aren’t even seeing him as part of the future .
Shame. Not completely against a loan, but would’ve liked to have seen him given a chance. To include a buy option doesn’t sit right at all. He performed well (albeit over a small sample size) just one division below where we are! Strange we didn’t look to loan him out last season when he was clearly not in the first team picture.
The club didn't even tell us if Kucka was a loan or permanent did they? We don't really need to know these details.
I’m disappointed by this as he was a player I had high hopes could break into the matchday squad regularly, especially now we’ve dropped a league. However I won’t moan for the sake of moaning because I realise RE must have had a look in pre-season and decided Baah wasn’t for him or his system. Whether or not there’s a buy option in the loan deal is kind of irrelevant I feel because once we loan a player out, we very rarely see them again. I’m trying to think of anybody in recent times who has come back from a loan and built a career with us? Wilmott did get a few games after coming back from Swansea, but not that many. Am I missing anybody obvious?
Whereas I can understand this view and it’s likely to be true… …if Sarr stays, he will play…. …and what if the Edwards era ends badly and quickly? Then a new incoming manager has a system based on wingers and we have sold them all? We have to keep a base level of all positions surely?
I'm living in hope that this is really the new era of not hiring and firing. Agreed with Sarr but compared to Baah he's on another level. You tweak a system to get a player who can win games on his own if he's here and focused.
I've only seen him several times so not a rounded picture by any stretch but I'll be honest, I'm not totally sold on him. • A strong looking young man who liked to hit the deck too often, similar to Isaac Success. • Pacy but rarely used to great affect, either with the ball at his feet or knocking it forward to skin his marker. • Looks confident but his head seemed to drop very quickly when he wasn't involved, gave the impression he was hiding too often. • Looked cool in front of goal when presented with chances but lacked an all-round killer instinct to his game. I hope I'm wrong about the way he presents himself and he is in fact a person with a natural swagger but inwardly lacks the confidence to show just how good he can be. Maybe it's a fear of failing in certain situations, such as taking on players or using his strength to get the better of markers, I don't know. Maybe he just didn't feel at home with Watford? I couldn't see him making an early impression this season.