Reply With QuoteBut would they beat the women's world cup winners?
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I see from this that City have Under 7 and Under 8 teams. Whatever one's thoughts about the legitimacy of a professional club running teams at that age and our Academy's complete failure to produce first team footballers (or, to be more accurate, first team footballers for Cardiff City), it must have been a great thrill for all those youngsters to play a game at Cardiff City Stadium - best of luck to all of them in the coming years.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news...est-bluebirds/
But would they beat the women's world cup winners?
They'd batter them, those 7 year olds would be smashing into tackles, there would be broken bones and everything, I'd love it...Originally Posted by lardy
Is it easy to spot if a 7 year old is a good footballer? Or is it just pick anyoneand hope for the best?
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.
I reckon even Manuuuure would beat those little tykes
My immediate thought is a simple one , if other successful team apply those same structures so should we, its a competitive sport ,and activity that builds development into youngsters ,far better than having them watching TV .
I don't know a great deal about academies but do believe that there should be ages and number restrictions teams are allowed to have in accadamies.
I think 6 is too young really and maybe 9 would be a better age just keep them at local clubs until then .
at that age, the academies are cash cows, nothing more, nothing less, The parents know it, but they still go on the of chance that little johnny is in that 1 or 2 % of them that make it in the game, and why shouldnt they, if they can afford it, chasing that dream costs big money
We have a Southampton one in Bath, certain nights of the week the pitches are full at the STV with Southampton, I got chatting to a coach about the sheer numbers of kids who are involved and how i bet a very small % will make it, he laughed and said " but look at them ( pointing at the parents ) they all love it "
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.
i have read this thread with great interest .My lad was taken on at 7 years old and like those in the report signed for a year .
Just to point out don't mix an academy with a development centre like one or two are doing here .
Yes kids do get spotted at 6 and 7 years old and get invited to trials and they pick a squad of 16 at the start of the season . Not all kids make it the full season either even at that age . The debate is , is it too young to sign for a pro club at that age . I say an emphatic YES .
The kids get taken out of local football and expected to train at least twice a week with games on Sunday .I,m all for pro clubs taking on kids that age but not taken out of local clubs as the figure is now less than 1 per cent with actually go on to make it at pro level
out of the 16 kids at my lads age not 1 made it to pro level , and only looking at some photos last week only 4 of them still play football at some kind of level . when you look at thousands upon thousands of kids go through this process in the UK I have come to the conclusion it's a mugs game
I tend to agree with you Mozzer - shouldn't football just be about enjoying the game up until the age of ten at least?
That said, as has been mentioned already, it only needs one to break into the first team or earn a team millions of pounds in a transfer for the clubs to claim their approach is working and, leaving City out of it for now, this is what the current system manages to do for most of them.
The subject of players who do not like the game is one that comes up with increasing frequency (Danny Gabbidon was saying Bobby Zamora was no great fan of football on the Elis James podcast only a week or two ago) in online discussions and, looking at what now seems to be the typical route to becoming a pro footballer, I can imagine there are plenty who are heartily sick of the game by the time they finish with it.
The thing is, Once you're involved at professional level it becomes a job, and the enjoyment goes with it. I can only go on my limited experiences, i hated the whole process, i was completely out for myself, i didn't give a **** if we lost as long as i played well, if i wasn't in the team then i wanted the team to lose or atleast the player in my position to have a stinker, they were my competition and i wanted them to fail. It's not a nice environment.
It's bad it distracts the kids, they get cocky and don't pay attention in lessons because they are going to be a footballer, ten years later they miss out on University and other options often and face the reality that they weren't really that good and they've failed!
Obviously, not everyone, but I've seen it happen to a few, and as above it's often the parents that really want it more than the kids.
Personally, I hope my Grandkids are half decent and enjoy football for fun, rather than be excellent but not good enough!
It makes perfect sense, a few of my mates had boys in the Cardiff academies, one got kicked out at about 12, the other who was tipped for great things at about 15 or 16 before the chance to sign the first Dad was not too bad, but the second one was gutted!
I remember reading somewhere that most of the kids who are picked for these teams have early birthdays, which means they are likely to be bigger and stronger than the rest of their age group.
Agreed I didn't read this before replying earlier but feel the same, it's only a great thing if you're Ramsey or Bale, otherwise, you get sucked in and spat back out!
Having just finished my Football coach lv 1 badge, The English FA really are trying to get back to the fun side of grassroots football, the course was very heavy on putting the fun back into the game
After a tournament at Llanrumney, a Cardiff City scout approached my Grandson’s father who is also his Teams coach saying they wanted him to join Cardiff Cities Academy. The scout was apparently taken back when my son in law told him that he was too young at 7years of age and to come back in two years if they still want him.He wanted him to continue to play with his mates for a couple more years. He didn’t tell my Grandson of the approach because as a Cardiff City season ticket holder he would have been gutted!
However,I agreed that he was too young and as my son in law is a qualified FAW coach who has played as a schoolboy at Wembley and who was an Academy Player himself he knows the disappointment of not making it as a Professional and wants his son to enjoys his first couple of years as a Team Player.
I was told by a scout watching an u9 festival my boy was in that if they aren't in the system by 10 they have no chance as they believe they'll be too far behind the boys they've been coaching for a few years.
Early professionalism is always a negative for kids (say under 14) and this is definitely a factor that coaches and parents don't appreciate enough.
In my opinion kids are far too often treated like commodities in academies and human side of the clubs decision making is lost as the coaches get hardened in the process.
However there has been great efforts by some academies to change this along with the DNA programme and incorporate things like street football and bring the fun back into for the children.
My lad plays and loves it. Will he be a professional footballer? The chances are NO.
But what would be the alternative? Gone are the days where kids come home and are out with their friends playing football or on their bikes. He'd probably spend the majority of his time on the xbox playing fortnite or on his phone!
Like Mozzer said, the differences between the academies and the development system is chalk and cheese. The development system is largely a cash cow for clubs and it often gives parents and children a false impression that they're in the "academy".
There is definitely an ethics issue regarding an 8 year old boy being 'released' and I believe that clubs should be forced to show a greater duty of care in their recruitment process rather bringing loads of kids in before starting the deselection process!
A parents duty of care comes in choosing an academy with a good environment for a child to thrive as a person as well as a footballer and remaining grounded.
If in a good environment a kid will prosper socially, keep fit, learn discipline and inevitably get better at football.
I see qccfc point regarding multi sports and have read a bit of Epstein's work in this but I would argue this is largely unrealistic (at least where I'm from)
Granted, kids can pay rugby, football, boxing, MMA or gymnastics etc but it would be night on impossible to do more than one of these at the same time an realistically be picked to play as coaches would want commitment.
My work within coaching I am constantly being told that, within coaching its a more realistic aim to produce someone who will be a key member within your club than an elite athlete, the majority of coaches within South Wales will never deal with the development of an elite athlete.
Within RCT and with RCT sports and other organisations there are more opportunities for sports than there has been for any other period in my life. My attitude is with my kids is for them to experience whatever sport they like, even if that is then a sport i dislike or have no interest in.
As a season ticket holder at Cardiff i would love to see my son playing for Cardiff City, however my attitude to not exposing him to either the development centers or Academies are more than likely hindering his chances, with a preference to finding a sport he enjoys and being an important member in whatever sporting club he ends up at.
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