Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
The most ludicrous thing of all is that anyone who has seen the current crop of youngsters coming up through the age groups, will now that the methods they were taught during that time were completely contradictory to what awaits in the first team. It's easy just to look at the careers of the many talented footballers who have come through the ranks at Cardiff in the last decade and more and say they weren't good enough because they didn't break into the first team, but all that proves is that they weren't suited to the "Cardiff way".

Keenan Patten's older brother Robbie was released by the club after injury disrupted his progress and I know he had teams interested in him at National League level, at least, who didn't offer him a contract because his footballing education at Cardiff had taught him to play the game the "right way". He was too much a footballer for the way these clubs were going to play!

It's been a joke at Cardiff in recent years - you get players coming through who are unsuited to the way the first team has played in the last ten years or so. Therefore, you have to ask why are we spending so much on the Academy?

We may, finally, be about to see a return on all of that investment, but my impression is that nearly all of the promising crop of players coming through will fail to fulfil their potential if the first team continues to play like it does.


Wonder what he's up to now, oh look he's playing for Barry! He was capped 3 times for the Welsh u19s! Come off it, the players we produce are crap. Like Patten, they barely get capped at international level. I remember people raving about Ratfcliffe cause he looked good at youth level despite being on loan at fecking Barry and being kept out of the Wales side by Przybek. Although he's still young, he would be on loan at national league sides like Pryzbek has but he's obviously not good enough.

I don't want to shit on these kids cause they are being poorly coached regardless of what level they're at, but let's not pretend the stuff they play at youth level is worlds away from the first team, that's nonsense. If we had capable coaches or players, either the players would make it elsewhere (despite your LAUGHABLE comment about Patten) or the coaches would be snapped up by other clubs that are invested in youth development. We have a category 2 academy remember, there's little in the way of us stopping players being snatched

The academy is a joke and a waste of money. I am honestly surprised Tan hasn't scrapped it already