I think Saka’s the other one. https://twitter.com/watfordfcacad/status/1409893889704697857?s=21 Seems a similarly tenuous claim.
Surely it would be better if more and more teams actually go the opposite way or go down the B team route, then the FA might realise the system isn’t fit for purpose. I get the fact that it’s what they probably want in terms of weighting everything in favour of the big boys, but if it disadvantages everyone else to the point they give up on it completely surely they’ll have to look at why that is?
I hope not, what a waste of money that would be Anyone good is hoovered up by the mega academies before they even hit a double digit age. Anyone else any good is nicked before they can sign a pro deal We only develop non league players, what is the point
We need a secret academy so our players reach 16 and sign before anyone else sees them play. Perhaps a high security basement below the shopping centre. Only flaw in my plan is the difficulty in finding other secret academies to play games against.
New first-year scholars were announced yesterday. As expected, no Galvez or Debayo. https://www.watfordfc.com/news/academy-new-scholars-announced Vincent Angelini also set to sign from Celtic.
Top clubs spend millions of pounds developing a large number of talented youngsters, and paying them wages we cannot compete with. They know that there is a huge element of randomness in players development, so I'd guess they take on between 10 and 30 players for every 1 that makes it into the first team/ sells for an unexpectledy large fee. Surely it's cheaper for us to let them take on all the risk, and then poach the ones with potential that will never make it there? Sure it's nice to sing 'he's one of our own', but to be honest, I'd rather spend 5-10m every 2 seasons on a player like Jack Harrison, than spend over 3m a season on a system with no guarantees of unearthing a gem, and no protection if a top side wish to poach a youngster before they've signed their first contract.
Most of them don't turn out like Jack Harrison though - they could also end up a Jerome Sinclair or Rhian Brewster. and the frees that were released might be Bayli Spencer-Adams.
My point is that the rules mean that category 1 status for all but the richest clubs is a waste of money. It’s too expensive and the larger clubs can still steal your best players for peanuts. Most of the non-largest clubs now aim to take the players who look to be premier league quality at age 18, preferably on loan with an optional purchase fee, on a free when they are released, or for a marginal fee. That seems to be the best strategy, as such selling clubs are much more likely to offer players at lower than market value. Sure, we should offer talented players contracts earlier, if they are available. But it’s not financially viable to spend millions doing so (which we need to do to guarantee cat 1 status), for no guarantee of a return.
I always hated that City 'stole' Sancho but now, the 3 combined fees we will have got for him make it look a fair figure. The fact that City or one of the big boys is about to get a sensational young left back for a notional fee from us is angering me again. Perhaps this time they won't feel sorry for us and this time not give us an opportunity to earn from it further down the road.
As for Cat 1 status, it is clearly financially unviable. I can't be bothered to dig out the costs which were set out back when we originally got into the Prem and the idea was considered. We would have to have particular facilities (which we now possibly have), all various age ranges, a certain number of full time coaches per set number of players. All in all the cost was way higher than 2m a year plus an initial investment and as stated above the benefits just wouldn't match the investment. Players would still be tempted to sign for a big 6 team, a good example would be Chalobah who after he had been with us on loan signed an increased contract for 35k a week with Chelsea reportedly which ruled him out of coming back to us the following season. We cannot compete with them.
I agree with this bit. My issue and previous post was to do with your assessment of what you misleadingly claim to be the alternative: This alternative is not as simple or risk-free as you make it seem here and tried to claim with your Harrison example. The reality is that there are hardly any "players who look to be premier league quality" that the big clubs let go for cheap, marginal fees or on a free. Generally for any youth player who could eventually be premier league quality, they hold on to them, maybe with a loan or two, and don't sell unless a fairly sizeable offer comes in. Plus there are still no guarantees that the buying club will really be getting PL quality anyway, as the likes of Sinclair and Brewster demonstrate - smaller clubs can and do still waste plenty of money signing the academy rejects of the big clubs. Successful and reasonably priced signings like Harrison remain more the exception. Really it's pretty tricky for clubs like Watford whichever of those routes is taken, which partly explains why we've gone for cheaper foreign prospects in the past, and why we're currently trying to raid the lower leagues for emerging talent instead. It remains to be seen if such an approach will be more fruitful though either.
#Watfordfc have swooped to sign, 17 yr old out of contract goalkeeper Vincent Angelini after his contract expired at Celtic [Source: The Daily Record]
Bosun Lawal close to Celtic according to Croatian Football News on Twatter. That might be the most bizarre sentence I've typed on this forum. In all seriousness losing our academy player of the year isn't a good look for the club, if this random account is right. Gilligan and Johnson have a lot of work to do because we're haemorrhaging good prospects at the moment. It also makes me look a **** for my post above this one which I'm furious about.
This is such a depressing thread, I don't know why I came back to it. 95% of the players aren't good enough to play for us and the remaining 5% are taken away by our opponents for peanuts. Utterly pointless having any form of youth system, it can never produce any players or funds.
We only signed him a couple of years ago so he's hardly got much dedication to the club. With the laughable setup we have, it's no surprise he would want to join Celtic, a club probably far closer to his heart than us and with a infinitely higher chance of breaking into the first team there.
Plus it sounds like a poor contract offer from us, three years at Celtic or a year at Watford? No brainer.
He was never going to play for us anyway, even if he was potentially good enough. Don’t know why we have an academy to be honest.
This is what I don't get with our club. We offer him only a 1 year contract, with an optional 2nd year. He was POTY last season, so is clearly talented with a lot of potential. I'm surprised we've not offered him a better deal than that. So he's looked around and found Celtic are offering him a much longer contract. It grinds my gears when I see the club offering 5 year deals to deadweight players, yet when a good youngster comes along they only give them one year. It makes no sense at all. Surely these academy kids don't cost the club too much in comparison to the loss leaders like Gray, Success, Penaranda, Sinclair, Oulare etc.
Shame. Gets the game time he's looking for with Celtic and he'll be back in the Prem in no time. Also, regardless of the contract length being offered etc, what pathway does he have here? There is none.
Of course there's a pathway. You just need to be good enough to find it. You lose some you gain some it's the life of the Academy. No doubt he'll be replaced or bettered.
Even if you are good enough, you're either poached by a bigger team (Galvez) or realise the apparent pathway at Watford isn't worth sticking around for (Debayo/Lawal). Not blaming Watford completely as they are trying to change things up but it's near-impossible for kids to break through now because of how much is at stake.
This season Watford's Academy has lost: Romari Forde to Arsenal Tomas Galvez to Manchester City James Debayo to Leeds Utd. Bosun Lawal to Celtic I do wonder whether it is worth maintaining an academy if all the best talent is going to be taken away by other bigger clubs. Celtic will pay approximately £120,000 compensation for the training costs of Lawal during the two years which he spent at Watford (according to Adam Leventhal). It will be difficult to replace or better these players without a significant financial outlay. I hope that the appointments of Jimmy Gilligan and Richard Johnson will improve the situation. Clubs such as Birmingham (who developed Jude Bellingham) and Brentford have closed their academies and established alternative options.
Very disappointed with this decision. I have never seen him play, but it seems he has promise. Why not give him a reasonable contract and loan him out to get some experience? Perhaps he pushed for a move. It’s also a pity, as he is Irish and the club has had fewer links with Ireland in recent years.
We've seen three youth internationals leave our academy this summer already. Would they be leaving if they thought they'd get near the first team in the next couple of years? Pretty sure it was reported that the kid that left for Leeds did so because they offered him a route to the first team! We have some very good academy players that get picked up by other clubs partly because of their status and partly because they can give the kids a pathway. Then when we do get some who stay long enough to be offered professional deals we give them no security at all by offering one year contracts. If they sign that they then play in an awful U23 setup full of youngsters not good enough for the first team just wasting a year or two of their careers. Lo Everton is probably the next cab off the rank as he only has a year left.
