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I remember us signing him for what seemed like a lot of money when Hammam first turned up; then he was always injured.
Seems to have a good pedigree in coaching though.
Positive news.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news...t-david-hughes
That does seem to be a decent CV he's got - hopefully, he can breath some life into an organisation which has failed so dismally in its primary duty for the last decade.
He's got a really good CV. Villa and Southampton especially have outstanding academies, let's hope he can help at us. Welcome back! I remember everyone was excited when he joined the first time!
Seems like a very positive move forward for our Academy. No doubt both Southampton and Villa have Category One academies, not sure about Watford. I wonder if this is an indication of us moving in that direction. After all, we can develop some outstanding young players up to a point but if a Club with Category 1 Academy comes along and takes them off us for a pittance then there doesn't seem much point.
It's happened once in a decade to us with Matondo and it'd be interesting to see what would have happened if he'd stayed here - the lad who turned Man City down to sign a deal with us at the time Matondo left decided he'd had enough of us when that contract ran out and I don't blame him in the slightest for that.
I'm not knocking the David Hughes appointment because, as I said earlier, that's an impressive CV (Watford have a category 2 Academy - we play them every season in our league) and you'd like to think he will improve things, but it seems those who have been failing in their jobs for years will still be there.
Glass half-empty:
We have heard similar on different dates from different mouths that what feels like four or five times in the past ten years. Very easy to say but we need to show commitment to the idea now and get results from it.Whilst refining current playing and coaching styles, David will be entrusted with aligning all age groups within the Academy to create consistency in play and progression across the three phases of Academy development.
“Development is more than just grass-based practice; education and holistic growth is essential for young players, as is understanding what it takes to be successful as an individual on and off the pitch. Establishing our identity and playing style as a club across age groups is also critical.
Glass half-full:
Just maybe this time it works? Stars aligning between what appears to be fresh expertise at youth level, a manager who wants to make use of that structure and an owner who now sees the risks of ignoring that part of the club.Head of Academy, James McCarthy, added: “This is a hugely exciting appointment for the Club, and I think David’s track record at his former clubs speaks for itself.
“His passion and enthusiasm for youth development and working with our young footballers is evident and I know how much they and our coaches will benefit from his experience and expertise.”
Wales needs at least one Category One Academy. Maybe this is part of plan to make sure we're part of that.
The trouble with football is it is difficult to look into the longer term. There aren't many managers anywhere who could survive losing 8 games in a row even, so there's obviously a big focus on the here and now, and the longer term strategies get sidelined.
When we appointed Trollope we were making noises about becoming more stats driven and playing with a certain philosophy, making big changes to what had gone before - 12 games later we had thrown it all out the window and brought in Warnock - the complete antithesis of what we were trying to do.
Warnock is fantastic in the short term, but his focus on older players and one dimensional play inevitably builds up problems after a while.
In these straitened times we can’t afford to take on another member of coaching staff just like that so who is getting the boot to make way and balance the books ?
Presumption on my part. Whilst I think we all agree that something needs to be done about our youth system/Academy I find it difficult to believe that we would be going into the 2021/22 parachute payment free season with an extra person on that particular payroll when I would imagine we would be looking to cut costs across the board
There was a story about the Hammam era where we sent a fax (remember those?) to Shrewsbury offering £450,000 which they accepted. Apparently there was an error when we sent the fax and we were only meant to offer £45,000. Probably not true but a good story.
Also we offered on Fortune-West and their chairman said he'd get back to us in an hour, and about an hour and a quarter Hammam rang him back and offered £300k, and they only were going to ask £100k for him. Knowing the Hammam era these stories sound ridiculous.....or are they?