28-05-2024, 08:27 AM
(27-05-2024, 09:19 PM)Lawrence Wrote: So I get the constant reasoning behind the expense of bridging the gap from the academy to the first team with an U-21/3 side that has been made by Hughes. I don't get agree with it, particularly as most of the championship seem to have them, but I'm not an expert and Hughes has buckets of credit in the bank so I'm not going to argue.
However, since we have an academy that is recognised as almost impossible to bridge the gap to the first team, then why have an academy squad in the first place? Unless we unearth the calibre of say a Drew Talbot, Carl Tiler or Michael Owen then none of them will make a dent professionally for us. Given a choice, as a parent, would you choose to develop your kid at a club where a) we have no recent track record of bringing anyone one professionally and b) the club have admitted they don't have the current resources to complete the connection? It's like building a railway line from both ends and not completing it in the middle. All we are doing is training up kids that, at best, will benefit clubs that do have the resources to bring them further along.
I know the academy is important and not advocating getting rid. I just don't see the point in the short term to medium term.
This part of the club hasn't been totally ignored just put to one side as the priority has been redeveloping the ground then the team.
Now that we are back in the Championship we need to be able to compete with clubs with established academies.
We need to get in a whole team to build up this side of the club with a transition from the academy to the U21/23s.
If you go back a few years we had Mark Chamberlain managing it as I remember & at one point Alex was on our books.
But due to our lack of resources Alex went up the road to our rivals.
Rich Hughes is a pretty astute operator & will have looked at the set up at other clubs.
We have a Billionaire owner & the expense of adding a U21/23 team shouldn't be a financial constraint.
This needs to be a 5-10 year project but feel it will be worth it in the end & I'm sure the owners can see the benefits.
At present our Academy is at Category 3 level the lowest level & we neede to get up to Cat 2 asap then in time progress to Cat 1.
To show what's possible take a look at Crystal Palace who've built there's up from almost nothing to be competing at the top level.