Category 1 Academy

[thehumblegringo]

I'm not pretending there aren't problems at youth level but I'm not aware of any great local talent slipping the net and none of the players we've released have played at a higher level than us yet so it's hard to say for definite that the club is doing anything wrong. We can't expect the coaching staff to turn water into wine, maybe we should be asking why the area as a whole is producing so little genuine talent. Is enough being done by schools and local authorities to encourage kids to take up football or is rugby taking the sporty ones? I've no idea. For the catchment area we've got I'd expect more local lads to be making it here but I don't think the club is entirely to blame for that.

When you talk about the schools and local authorities failing I don't think you realise how much time these children spend in the academy.
You are talking about 3 or 4 days a week for even 7 or 8 year olds.
After the age of 8 kids are stopped playing boys club football and they are only allowed to play for the club or their school.

Another point that you are dismissing when you talk about coaches turning water into wine is the club's record at the younger ages.

I know the u11s have beaten Arsenal (who pay their players up to £1500 a month) 10-1 and beat Liverpool 10-2 in the last couple of months.

These are not isolated cases as the kids tend to do this across the board at young ages.

I'm not saying we can read a great deal into these sorts of things at these ages but it definitely suggests to me that the raw talent is there but somewhere along the line it's going wrong.

I know Cardiff have tried to combat this by changing their philosophy to a more European system where it's more tactically based and moving the ball quickly has become paramount.

There are pros and cons with this as far as I can see. It's a good basis for youngsters learning the game as a whole and with our catchment area predominantly being of smaller less athletic kids this will help them long term to combat playing against bigger, faster players.
The cons of this is that sometimes kids are often robbed of self expression and imagination and it can be robotic and kids quickly lose their love for the game before they've even begun.

When I look at Sion Spence this season I personally feel that he has been mismanaged. Bellamy said the other night on the debate that if a lad is 17/18 in a championship club and he's not playing first team football then he's at the wrong club!

Well Spence was knocking on the door this time last year and this season he hardly even played u23 football.

[City123]

When you talk about the schools and local authorities failing I don't think you realise how much time these children spend in the academy.
You are talking about 3 or 4 days a week for even 7 or 8 year olds.
After the age of 8 kids are stopped playing boys club football and they are only allowed to play for the club or their school.

Another point that you are dismissing when you talk about coaches turning water into wine is the club's record at the younger ages.

I know the u11s have beaten Arsenal (who pay their players up to £1500 a month) 10-1 and beat Liverpool 10-2 in the last couple of months.

These are not isolated cases as the kids tend to do this across the board at young ages.

I'm not saying we can read a great deal into these sorts of things at these ages but it definitely suggests to me that the raw talent is there but somewhere along the line it's going wrong.

I know Cardiff have tried to combat this by changing their philosophy to a more European system where it's more tactically based and moving the ball quickly has become paramount.

There are pros and cons with this as far as I can see. It's a good basis for youngsters learning the game as a whole and with our catchment area predominantly being of smaller less athletic kids this will help them long term to combat playing against bigger, faster players.
The cons of this is that sometimes kids are often robbed of self expression and imagination and it can be robotic and kids quickly lose their love for the game before they've even begun.

When I look at Sion Spence this season I personally feel that he has been mismanaged. Bellamy said the other night on the debate that if a lad is 17/18 in a championship club and he's not playing first team football then he's at the wrong club!

Well Spence was knocking on the door this time last year and this season he hardly even played u23 football.

Hasn't Bellamy held Spence back from the DVP team?