Quote Originally Posted by qccfc View Post
I'm in 2 minds when it comes to the academies that Cardiff City run for these age groups. Firstly they run one up by me and they seem very expensive per term. I then know of parents who go to the trials and the re-selection days and see it as a real achievement to get asked back. At 7 I don't really know if i approve of this type of pressured selection process for sport. I worry that at that age it should be about enjoyment. I also worry about the issue of a 7 year old specialising in football becoming a jaded teenager. There are lots of reports coming out in coaching that a multi sports approach is better for creating a well rounded sporting adult.

That being said the positive is the fact that we are not seeing lots of Junior academies sprouting up through the region where a better quality of coaching is being offered than the norm, and that is a good thing.
What a good post, you focus on the wellbeing of the child and into their teenage years and adult years. These things seem to be paid out of the parents pockets, theoretically subsidising very well off clubs, even if the clubs break even on these academies for kids of these ages but discover one kid that plays in the first team and is shifted on for 20 million every ten years then it's win, win. It's also a way of keeping these kids away from other clubs in the hope that they develop, a bit like you see in supermarkets when the food is reduced, there's always the greedy bastards hoovering up the cheap food and they never look hungry to me, makes me wonder why they do it. Maybe it's to stop anyone else getting their hands on the produce, even if they end up discarding it. I'd say that these football factories for 7 year olds are pretty similar, the kids are eaten up in a metaphorical sense.