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From the generation who a) grew up playing Football Manager and b) ignore the number of youth players who have been given chances even if they were not or are not currently stunning additions to the first team squad.
Or is the fact that Anichebe, Garbutt, Galloway, Baningime, etc. just didn't turn out good enough also all down to the Academy coaching? Let alone the ones we released after getting the odd Europa League game and are now appearing in a Division One reserve team.
Those who still read books might remember the sad passage about Gus Caesar in Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, someone who had made it all the way through to the professional ranks, ended up playing in Arsenal's first team and, like many others, was just not good enough for that final professional step:
Hornby on excellence's long tail
More Hornby. This is a long excerpt from Fever Pitch in which he recounts the story of Gus Caesar, who was, for a short while, a struggling...
remotestorage.blogspot.com
You can't just bin players off the second you decide they're not the next Rooney, it's an absolutely ridiculous argument. About 75% of the players currently playing under 23 football in the whole league will never make it as Premier League players, it's just the way of the world.
zzr45
#MURDERINGSCUM
It’s a point I’ve been making for a while now. Once you get past that shiny ‘we win a lot of youth comps’ thing with the academy, you realise it isn’t exactly producing the quality of players we need. That is it’s actual purpose - develop the player of tomorrow, not the one that’s lighting up the age grade leagues.From the generation who a) grew up playing Football Manager and b) ignore the number of youth players who have been given chances even if they were not or are not currently stunning additions to the first team squad.
Or is the fact that Anichebe, Garbutt, Galloway, Baningime, etc. just didn't turn out good enough also all down to the Academy coaching? Let alone the ones we released after getting the odd Europa League game and are now appearing in a Division One reserve team.
Those who still read books might remember the sad passage about Gus Caesar in Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, someone who had made it all the way through to the professional ranks, ended up playing in Arsenal's first team and, like many others, was just not good enough for that final professional step:
Hornby on excellence's long tail
More Hornby. This is a long excerpt from Fever Pitch in which he recounts the story of Gus Caesar, who was, for a short while, a struggling...
Our academy honestly seems a bit of a basket case of a place - there seems to be a few too many players in it, there doesn’t seem to be a proper pathway into the first team and we seem to make calls way to late in development about players (hence why Garbutt, Galloway etc have floated around) even Kenny’s loan to Schalke seems a few years too late. The entire system needs a good shake up.
Again, I work in youth development in another sport, I like to think I know a little bit about what I’m talking about with regards to this.
Garbutt and Galloway weren't really academy players in that sense though, and as examples they actually fly totally in the face of your argument. They got long contracts because we did make our minds up on them. Unfortunately, we were wrong about how good they were, and we got stuck with them. They're a great example of how you don't always know how good a player is going to be, and why you might hedge your bets like we did with Sambou.
A 'pathway to the first team' is just corporate talk. This is Premier League football we're talking about, an industry worth billions of pounds, the only way you're getting a path to the first team is if you're an elite talent. The academy is producing good players, even full internationals, but that doesn't make them good enough to break into our starting XI. That sounds like a failing, but is it? Is it really realistic to expect the academy to produce £50m footballers on a regular basis? Not for me.
From the generation who a) grew up playing Football Manager and b) ignore the number of youth players who have been given chances even if they were not or are not currently stunning additions to the first team squad.
Or is the fact that Anichebe, Garbutt, Galloway, Baningime, etc. just didn't turn out good enough also all down to the Academy coaching? Let alone the ones we released after getting the odd Europa League game and are now appearing in a Division One reserve team.
Those who still read books might remember the sad passage about Gus Caesar in Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, someone who had made it all the way through to the professional ranks, ended up playing in Arsenal's first team and, like many others, was just not good enough for that final professional step:
Hornby on excellence's long tail
More Hornby. This is a long excerpt from Fever Pitch in which he recounts the story of Gus Caesar, who was, for a short while, a struggling...
I see your point but I think it's unfair/lazy to dismiss that opinion as being from a football manager generation - especially when the club itself signed an agreement to utilise football managers own database;
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www.ft.com
In 2008, Everton became the first club to publicly announce they would be using the game’s database in their scouting.
But anyway, with regards to Sambou, as I said a while back on here when discussing Simms;
Sambou does play into the growing comment of;
Browning, Galloway, Pennington were all playing for the U23s long after the club concluded they weren't going to be first team material.
There was a great article from the clubs academy director Joel Waldron but unfortunately, the club have ballsed up yet another migration. Really is annoying that they never transfer content and lose ti all when they update the website...
I've no clue really but I tend to think if you know someone isn't good enough, why bother? To that end, I'd have thrown Simms upfront in pre-season before Niasse.
Harry Kane only got his first Prem start at 21 like. Closer to home, Leon Osman was 22/23 before he got a proper sniff at the first team.
But they are generally exceptions to the rule.
Oh dont you worry, I have a very firm mistrust of yoots.
For every Mbappe there are 1500 John Paul Kissocks.
And that's going to be determined for the 20/21-year-olds exclusively playing U23 level?
ArtetaMagic
Player Valuation: £20m
Where's he off to?
No I agree with you, its clear lads like this were never gonna make it.
I was just making a point as to why we possibly persist with a few.
My local club Fortuna Sittard by the looks of it. Landed at Eindhoven airport earlier this afternoon I understand.
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