Cardiff Academy or Swansea Academy

[J R Hartley]

Football academy’s are a bigger pile of bollox than X factor.

Let’s invite every kid from the age of 5 up to attend our academy so we don’t miss out on the next Gareth Bale.

Whatever happened to playing in a local team with a bunch of team mates, winning trophies, or just winning a game to some lags, but it gives you a purpose, and you make friends for life.!?!

All that has been lost to supplement the 0.0000001% who make a career out of the game.

Local Junior football is dying on its arse but hey the Cardiff City academy is thriving with gullible parents paying stupid money for kit and travel expenses in the deluded hope their child is “speciall“

[THE DON]

Local Junior football is dying on its arse but hey the Cardiff City academy is thriving with gullible parents paying stupid money for kit and travel expenses in the deluded hope their child is “speciall“

I personally think local football is actually thriving and there more kids playing football than there has been for years. I coach Ely Rangers under 7 and last Saturday we had over 30 kids turn up. Some of our older age groups actually have waiting lists to join and this is a Common theme replicated throughout Cardiff. There are so many opportunities for kids these days it is quite amazing. In Cardiff we have fantastic facilities for grass roots football which are available to everyone. Every Saturday we train in the new house of sport bubble in Leckwith and it really is fantastic. We have kids coming as young as 4 years old and we can play in any weather as the 3g pitch is under cover. When I was a kid (many moons ago) I couldn’t play football until I was 8 or 9 years old. We had to play on full size pitches and games were always called off as the pitches were bogging. Nowadays as much of the football is played on 3g hardly any games are called off.

I agree that academies and ADC’s take in a lot of players but most parents these days are realistic enough to know the chances of their boy or girl becoming pro is miniscule. The way I see it is that my little lad is getting good coaching and he’s enjoying it. The reason I asked about the two academies in the first place is because at the moment he is attending both Cardiff and Swansea and at some point I’ll need to make a choice between the two because I cant keep them both up. Since I started the thread both clubs have asked him to stay on and for the short term I’m happy to attend both but eventually something's got to give. As this is kids football I’m not really interested in the whole Cardiff Swansea thing, he’s 5 years old and just loves football.

[TH63]

Well firstly good luck to your lad.

Secondly, surely at five years old it is way too young to assess their potential? If I were you I'd ask him which he had the most fun at, and go with that. He's far too young to evaluate which is more professional, and if he's that talented then I would imagine that either one of them would be good for his development.

Also consider that by the time he's old enough to sign professional terms, the jacks will be back in league one.

[THE DON]

Well firstly good luck to your lad.

Secondly, surely at five years old it is way too young to assess their potential? If I were you I'd ask him which he had the most fun at, and go with that. He's far too young to evaluate which is more professional, and if he's that talented then I would imagine that either one of them would be good for his development.

Also consider that by the time he's old enough to sign professional terms, the jacks will be back in league one.

Haha!

The jacks fleeting affair with the top flight will no doubt end one day!

You are right, It is amazing that they are assessing kids at his age. That said some of the youngsters I've seen over the past few weeks are incredible. Whether they will stay like that is questionable but some of these kids are so skilful, it's amazing to see.

Ultimately we will be led by him. He will go where he has made friends and enjoys it the most. Whatever happens it's all good experience.

[waynekerr55]

Haha!

The jacks fleeting affair with the top flight will no doubt end one day!

You are right, It is amazing that they are assessing kids at his age. That said some of the youngsters I've seen over the past few weeks are incredible. Whether they will stay like that is questionable but some of these kids are so skilful, it's amazing to see.

Ultimately we will be led by him. He will go where he has made friends and enjoys it the most. Whatever happens it's all good experience.

Neither is my honest assessment. Academy football generally does more harm than good to kids. It's not coincidence that the quality of players in Britain has deteriorated post academy as opposed to the Lilleshall days

[valley boy]

For years Swansea have hoovered up all local talent and the vast majority do not make it.they raise the hopes of the kids parents so be aware they are not really interested in your feelings its a business and its dog eat dog.
if one kid out of scores makes it to the youth team they have done their job.SWansea had Robert Earnshaw at youth level he went to the wrong ground at his first match and they ditched him.He went Cardiff and the rest is history.

[MOZZER2]

first of all it's a great experience for any kid to be part of any football league academy , COE or development centre but has been mentioned less than 1 per cent actually make a pro footballer these days . if any kid makes academy level at around13/14 that's when it comes serious and the business side comes into it . it can then be a bit tricky when a player gets rejected at that age . my advice would be take him to cardiff if it's closer for you . at 5/6 is far too young anyway to really matter . I do wonder where the future of elite athletes / footballers is going tho . I notice Gordon Strachan raised a few eye brows regarding the genetics of the Scotland squad but he is right !! elite athletes are now almost 6 foot plus robots . and with rugby it's even worse . can't imagine what top level sport is going to be like in 10 years time

the only player I can think of when I saw very young at 9 years old is emyr huws that's actually made it when he was playing for Swansea city COE against us . was a fantastic player at that age knew he would make a pro even then