Food for thought (academy/etc) | Vital Football

Food for thought (academy/etc)

devonexlondonimp

devonexlondonimp

Vital 1st Team Regular
Just reflecting on the composition of the two squads that played in the league 2 playoff final recently(cov/exeter) and drawing some simple differences between those two sides and LCFC.

At Wembley on finals day the Coventry squad was composed of 7 academy players and for Exeter their squad included 6 players.
In the last few years Exeter city have had great success selling on their homebred stock:
Ampadu to chelsea 2.5million,Watkins to Brentford 1.8 million,Grimes to Swansea 1.75 million
and Wheeler to QPR £500,000. not looked into Coventry.
Over the years whilst retaining an academy at lcfc it does not appear to have borne much fruit...answers on the back of a fag packet please.

Secondly the size of the squads Coventry/Exeter makes LCFC look like we are operating on the clippings of tin.Larger style squads may be necessary to keep up competition for places and in our case it is evident that not enough of our team are under pressure for their shirts on a Saturday.
Larger squads certainly were not a negative in the case of both Exeter City and Coventry in getting to the playoffs and promotion and maybe we need a rethink of the small squad model .... it looked a little weak on the bench at Wembley and later in the season.
Small squad and injuries not a recipe for success.
Just food for thought...and finally i have linked the Coventry retained list just to count the number of player on it !

https://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/2018/ma...retained-list-following-end-of-201718-season/
 
Wow that means that Coventry already have 26 players under contract for next season before they even sign anyone :wack:
 
devonexlondonimp said:
Just reflecting on the composition of the two squads that played in the league 2 playoff final recently(cov/exeter) and drawing some simple differences between those two sides and LCFC.

At Wembley on finals day the Coventry squad was composed of 7 academy players and for Exeter their squad included 6 players.
In the last few years Exeter city have had great success selling on their homebred stock:
Ampadu to chelsea 2.5million,Watkins to Brentford 1.8 million,Grimes to Swansea 1.75 million
and Wheeler to QPR £500,000. not looked into Coventry.
Over the years whilst retaining an academy at lcfc it does not appear to have borne much fruit...answers on the back of a fag packet please.

Secondly the size of the squads Coventry/Exeter makes LCFC look like we are operating on the clippings of tin.Larger style squads may be necessary to keep up competition for places and in our case it is evident that not enough of our team are under pressure for their shirts on a Saturday.
Larger squads certainly were not a negative in the case of both Exeter City and Coventry in getting to the playoffs and promotion and maybe we need a rethink of the small squad model .... it looked a little weak on the bench at Wembley and later in the season.
Small squad and injuries not a recipe for success.
Just food for thought...and finally i have linked the Coventry retained list just to count the number of player on it !

https://www.ccfc.co.uk/news/2018/ma...retained-list-following-end-of-201718-season/
Click to expand...
Quite agree. Need to give academy players more of a chance and the realisation is that we cannot get out of lge 2 "on the cheap". The Cowleys probably add 20% to a players performance, but sometimes not enough !
 
Danny has already said he wants a squad of 22 ( he said that last year but went with 19).I suppose several signings on a good wage scuppered a larger squad!Quality over quantity though i think theres a balence!
Also didnt grimesby have 30+ players in there squad ie quantity over quality!???
 
Do we know how much their respective academies cost to run? Compared to how much we spend on ours. I don't think we received any funding while we were out of the league. Such as it was it was being run on donations and sponsorship.
 
Exeter were promoted back to league 2 five years ago. I think we need to give our academy time to mature now that it is protected within the FL structure again before demanding it either earns significant fees or contributes in any significant way to the first team squad.
 
Impartiality said:
Do we know how much their respective academies cost to run? Compared to how much we spend on ours. I don't think we received any funding while we were out of the league. Such as it was it was being run on donations and sponsorship.
Click to expand...
Good question.....how much does it cost.Let`s get on the next train to Exeter and find out!They are a success story in this area.
 
jan 2016: james maddison 2.5million+ and add-ons at norwich. possibly more £££ to come. played 24 games for cov before being sold.
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/s...oventry-city-james-maddison-windfall-14465678

2016/2017: zilch

jan 2018: ben stevenson 0.5million. played approx 50 games for cov.

averages out at 1.0million income per season over the last three seasons. not bad.

the midfielder bayliss looked a player against us, and in the play off final. £££kerchinnng
 
Since May Coventry have added 3 more new players to their squad bringing the contracted numbers to 29 and some offered new contracts still to confirm.
These signing include junior brown from Shrewsbury an under 23 midfielder from Brentford and a non leaguer from Dulwich Hamlet.

We are reducing in numbers and planning on a squad of 22 heads.
We tailed off at the end of last season impacted by injuries which makes me feel the small squad option will make it difficult to sustain a solid attack on promotion
who is bankrolling Coventry?
 
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