U23s & Academy

[Tooj]

If Boro are cat 1 then there is no excuse that we are not. let's hope we don't lose out on any good players because of this.

 

Just as I thought the club had sorted itself out. Disgraceful tbh.

They have had quite a highly rated youth setup for a while though whereas it's clearly obvious that we are still playing catch up.

[Fenham Mag]

Squad for tonight:

 

Rob Elliot, Jak Alnwick, Alex Nicholson, Paul Dummett, Curtis Good, Michael Riley, Steven Logan, Conor Newton, Mehdi Abeid, Michael Richardson. Gael Bigirimana, Liam Henderson, Brandon Miele, Bradden Inman, Romain Amalfitano, Marcus Maddison, Dennis

 

 

Good luck to Curtis.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

 

Seems pretty indefensible if we haven't been able to get it.

 

So you know exactly what criteria was involved and how we missed out?

 

No I don't. It was however a stated goal of the Club (Publicised in February this year). The audit for clubs took place in March. Given the supposed emphasis on youth and the fact that these changes had been mooted for a while it seems pretty bad if the club haven't been able to get its house in order. A club insider  (Journal February) said it was 'imperative' to Ashley's vision for the future of the club.

 

If it was my business and I had missed out I would be pretty disappointed.

 

I will wait for facts then

 

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/24264160.jpg

[Guest Roger Kint]

 

Seems pretty indefensible if we haven't been able to get it.

 

So you know exactly what criteria was involved and how we missed out?

 

No I don't. It was however a stated goal of the Club (Publicised in February this year). The audit for clubs took place in March. Given the supposed emphasis on youth and the fact that these changes had been mooted for a while it seems pretty bad if the club haven't been able to get its house in order. A club insider  (Journal February) said it was 'imperative' to Ashley's vision for the future of the club.

 

If it was my business and I had missed out I would be pretty disappointed.

 

I will wait for facts then

 

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/24264160.jpg

 

Took you two attempts just for that? poor

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

 

Seems pretty indefensible if we haven't been able to get it.

 

So you know exactly what criteria was involved and how we missed out?

 

No I don't. It was however a stated goal of the Club (Publicised in February this year). The audit for clubs took place in March. Given the supposed emphasis on youth and the fact that these changes had been mooted for a while it seems pretty bad if the club haven't been able to get its house in order. A club insider  (Journal February) said it was 'imperative' to Ashley's vision for the future of the club.

 

If it was my business and I had missed out I would be pretty disappointed.

 

I will wait for facts then

 

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/24264160.jpg

 

Took you two attempts just for that? poor

 

I have learnt something today. 

[Guest Roger Kint]

Squad for tonight:

 

Rob Elliot, Jak Alnwick, Alex Nicholson, Paul Dummett, Curtis Good, Michael Riley, Steven Logan, Conor Newton, Mehdi Abeid, Michael Richardson. Gael Bigirimana, Liam Henderson, Brandon Miele, Bradden Inman, Romain Amalfitano, Marcus Maddison, Dennis

 

 

Good luck to Curtis.

 

Getting back on topic thats a pretty strong squad, quite tempted to spend £10 to go down there now. Be nice to have an early viewing of CG too.

[junkhead]

If Boro are cat 1 then there is no excuse that we are not. let's hope we don't lose out on any good players because of this.

 

Just as I thought the club had sorted itself out. Disgraceful tbh.

 

Boro have produced some decent players in the recent past tbf.. Their academy players regularly manage to graduate to the first team, so somebody is doing a good work there.

 

But the mackems? They'd always brag about how much better their Academy is but they haven't actually produced anybody. Colback seems reliable but nothing special; Henderson, his suspect qualities aside, he has no shoulders ffs! The NE Academy Top Dawgs could've surely given him a better fitness schedule during all those years he spent there.

And who else is there.. fucking David Meyler.. aye, well done Sunderland.. state of the art stuff.

 

[Dave]

I think it's embarrassing for the club tbh.

[Pilko]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

[Guest sicko2ndbest]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

The parameters for the gradings have been out for some time

 

Club should have positioned itself better

 

We basically cannot attract the top youngsters to the club now for at least 2 years. Unacceptable tbh

[aussiemag]

Squad for tonight:

 

Rob Elliot, Jak Alnwick, Alex Nicholson, Paul Dummett, Curtis Good, Michael Riley, Steven Logan, Conor Newton, Mehdi Abeid, Michael Richardson. Gael Bigirimana, Liam Henderson, Brandon Miele, Bradden Inman, Romain Amalfitano, Marcus Maddison, Dennis

 

 

Good luck to Curtis.

 

Decent squad with Bigi, Good and Amalfitano. Hope Inman has a good showing, think he has the potential to really step up this year.

[taxfree]

I don't get it. How can a category 1 club pick the best talents before us? Surely it's up to the player where he wants to go?

[Pilko]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

The parameters for the gradings have been out for some time

 

Club should have positioned itself better

 

We basically cannot attract the top youngsters to the club now for at least 2 years. Unacceptable tbh

 

But if the league are taking this seriously, you surely can't just throw money at the problem and solve it within a short space of time. We've had a lot to catch up on, especially compared to Boro who have always had a really good academy. I know less about the mackems but I highly doubt it could have been much worse than ours under the Shepherd years. That sort of neglect takes a while to sort I'd imagine.

 

It's not like the Keith Lard episode of Phoenix Nights where we can just blackmail our way to Cat 1 status.

[Tooj]

Spot on Pilko.

[Dave]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

This regime has been here over five years man. How far back was this new rating system announced?

 

I have no doubts that we're now putting more money and effort into the youth side of things than we were before and obviously that's commendable, but to say it's 'clearly Shepherd's fault' that we haven't met a new grading system is going way too far IMO. Unless it's judged on what players you've produced over the last ten years, which I doubt.

[Guest Roger Kint]

I don't get it. How can a category 1 club pick the best talents before us? Surely it's up to the player where he wants to go?

 

Nope they are smuggled into the Cat 1 clubs tied and gagged and locked inside the academy forever. We arent allowed near them and must hand over any good players without question.....

 

Seriously though we dont get as much funding and others can poach from us but they dont have to leave us or not pick us if they dont want to.

[Tooj]

Glenn Roeder would never have let this happen if Glenn Roeder was still here.

[Dave]

I don't get it. How can a category 1 club pick the best talents before us? Surely it's up to the player where he wants to go?

 

Nope they are smuggled into the Cat 1 clubs tied and gagged and locked inside the academy forever. We arent allowed near them and must hand over any good players without question.....

 

Seriously though we dont get as much funding and others can poach from us but they dont have to leave us or not pick us if they dont want to.

 

Probably (hopefully) won't make much difference then.

 

Still think it's embarrassing for the club.

[Greg]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

The parameters for the gradings have been out for some time

 

Club should have positioned itself better

 

We basically cannot attract the top youngsters to the club now for at least 2 years. Unacceptable tbh

 

As far as  I am aware one of the criteria we didn't hit was not having a dedicated accommodation / living block for young players, that is not something that can be done quickly (land acquisition near Academy, building design, planning process, construction and so on).

 

It's obviously a blow but don't discount the massive improvements made by MA in recent years just because we missed out on Cat 1 status, Boro and the Mackems have been way ahead of us in terms of youth development and facilities for a long time.

[Pilko]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

This regime has been here over five years man. How far back was this new rating system announced?

 

I have no doubts that we're now putting more money and effort into the youth side of things than we were before and obviously that's commendable, but to say it's 'clearly Shepherd's fault' that we haven't met a new grading system is going way too far IMO. Unless it's judged on what players you've produced over the last ten years, which I doubt.

 

They've had a lot to catch up on. I don't know how long the criteria has been out for, but we could have easily spent a lot of money improving the academy before we then were told of specific things that needed to be implemented to achieve the Category 1 status.

 

Things I've heard from friends and friends of friends etc who were at the academy years ago (Dean Critchlow and others in the same academy years as him) aren't exactly incredibly complimentary of the Academy and some of the coaching. It was all about buying for the first team back then, spending big money on big name players if we could.

[Dave]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

The parameters for the gradings have been out for some time

 

Club should have positioned itself better

 

We basically cannot attract the top youngsters to the club now for at least 2 years. Unacceptable tbh

 

As far as  I am aware one of the criteria we didn't hit was not having a dedicated accommodation / living block for young players, that is not something that can be done quickly (land acquisition near Academy, building design, planning process, construction and so on).

 

It's obviously a blow but don't discount the massive improvements made by MA in recent years just because we missed out on Cat 1 status, Boro and the Mackems have been way ahead of us in terms of youth development and facilities for a long time.

 

If that's the case then that changes things, I admit. I didn't even think about that as a possible criteria tbh. It's less than a year since the plan was accepted by the football league (October 2011) so it's understandable that we've not got that in place in time. Is it something that is ongoing though? You'd think we'd be well into planning and/or construction by now if so.

[Guest Roger Kint]

I don't get it. How can a category 1 club pick the best talents before us? Surely it's up to the player where he wants to go?

 

Nope they are smuggled into the Cat 1 clubs tied and gagged and locked inside the academy forever. We arent allowed near them and must hand over any good players without question.....

 

Seriously though we dont get as much funding and others can poach from us but they dont have to leave us or not pick us if they dont want to.

 

Probably (hopefully) won't make much difference then.

 

Still think it's embarrassing for the club.

 

Officially we havent been ruled out but the reasoning will be clear soon enough. Greg(above) and Anderson pointed to it on the previous page too but it doenst sound like a problem which could have been easily sorted in time. I dont doubt the failure for whatever reason will be a disappointment to Ashley mind given his outlay in recent years.

 

Edit: You beat me to it in your reply

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

I don't get it. How can a category 1 club pick the best talents before us? Surely it's up to the player where he wants to go?

 

Nope they are smuggled into the Cat 1 clubs tied and gagged and locked inside the academy forever. We arent allowed near them and must hand over any good players without question.....

 

Seriously though we dont get as much funding and others can poach from us but they dont have to leave us or not pick us if they dont want to.

 

Probably (hopefully) won't make much difference then.

 

Still think it's embarrassing for the club.

 

Officially we havent been ruled out but the reasoning will be clear soon enough. Greg(above) and Anderson pointed to it on the previous page too but it doenst sound like a problem which could have been easily sorted in time. I dont doubt the failure for whatever reason will be a disappointment to Ashley mind given his outlay in recent years.

Edit: You beat me to it in your reply

 

I was too quick to condemn if it is to do with accommodation provided for academy players etc. If the plans were unveiled in October last year and the audit was in March then that is clearly not enough time to secure purpose built accommodation. As a point of curiosity do we have much information as to Ashley's outlay below under 16's? 

[Matt]

I think it's embarrassing too but it's clearly Shepherd's fault. Ashley has invested a lot into the academy from what we've heard.

 

What about based on what has actually ocurred, given that 'what we've heard' appears to be throw-away lines in NCJ press?

 

I'm not exactly Freddie's biggest fan but to pin this on something half a decade after he relinquised control is absolute bollocks. You might as well blame Keegan's scrapping of the reserve team.

 

If it's outwith the club's control (around planning etc) then there is only so much that can be done, but given that Boro have long been known as having a well-regarded set-up, we can hardly claim we had no idea what we should have been aiming for.

[Guest Roger Kint]

I don't get it. How can a category 1 club pick the best talents before us? Surely it's up to the player where he wants to go?

 

Nope they are smuggled into the Cat 1 clubs tied and gagged and locked inside the academy forever. We arent allowed near them and must hand over any good players without question.....

 

Seriously though we dont get as much funding and others can poach from us but they dont have to leave us or not pick us if they dont want to.

 

Probably (hopefully) won't make much difference then.

 

Still think it's embarrassing for the club.

 

Officially we havent been ruled out but the reasoning will be clear soon enough. Greg(above) and Anderson pointed to it on the previous page too but it doenst sound like a problem which could have been easily sorted in time. I dont doubt the failure for whatever reason will be a disappointment to Ashley mind given his outlay in recent years.

Edit: You beat me to it in your reply

 

I was too quick to condemn if it is to do with accommodation provided for academy players etc. If the plans were unveiled in October last year and the audit was in March then that is clearly not enough time to secure purpose built accommodation. As a point of curiosity do we have much information as to Ashley's outlay below under 16's? 

 

Not sure where i put the full accounts for last year so cant check but the press release was between £800k to £1.8m a year for future years, couldnt tell you what he has spent in total though.