The future ........ | Page 4 | Vital Football

The future ........

As I implied....... neither Jewell nor Bruce seemed overly bothered about it.

As soon as Roberto came in, plans were put in place.
 
The chap in charge of the academy, Rioch, has exceptional form for the development of young players in the lower league. He was in charge of the Coventry academy that brought Callum Wilson, Cyrus Christie and James Maddison through along with a host of players who have gone on to have solid, 100+ appearance football league careers to date.

If he achieves that success again here then we will be very well placed for the future but we are only now starting to see the fruits of those labours. The lead time for academies is huge in footballing terms - the work being done by Rioch now will still be having an effect in 6 or 7 years time.

With Lang currently one of the top scoring players under 21 in the football league, 6 or 7 youth internationals and a scouring of young players from the local leagues, academies and U23s we are starting to see a strong foundation for the future of the club. Hopefully the new guys recognise the value of this work!
 
As I implied....... neither Jewell nor Bruce seemed overly bothered about it.

As soon as Roberto came in, plans were put in place.

I think roberto is more visionary than those two (no slight on them). Their sole focus was first team success over development of the club.
 
The owners need to get their hands in pockets and make good on their promise. Only way we get upgraded to category 2 is an indoor facility with a full sized pitch and they don’t come cheap so they’ll have to cough up.

Their were lots of downsides to Prem relegation on and off the pitch but the most damaging without a doubt was the scrapping of Charnock Richard due to cost. That would have been an unbelievable facility and seen us at category one level. We were lucky Euxton came along which has proved a handy solution for the first team, but the academy still train in squalor. Euxton isn’t big enough for both.
 
Not sure if anybody heard Jonathan Jackson and Darren Royle on Radio Manchester last night (6-7pm, now on BBC Sounds App), I'll try and post a link if I can find it.

They spoke again about the academy and how IEC are already putting in money behind the scenes to try and get the academy upgraded to category 2. As said above the only difference between 2 & 3 is indoor facilities and so I can only presume they are going to build or buy somewhere sooner rather than later.

I've spoken to a couple of people who are involved with the youth set up at the club and they have said that we currently have a handful of players in each age range from u15s to u18s who they feel are good enough to make it in the first team. However, as was touched on in the program last night they eventually need to be given the chance at first team level and that boils down to who the manager is at the time.

We will probably start to benefit from all the good work in the academy in 2-3 years time when the current 16-17 year olds like Geldhart and Weir and 3 or 4 others should be ready to push for a first team place. It will be interesting to see whether the manager at the time will play them as the comments from Royle and Jackson make me think that they will expect them to.
 
We've certainly got some amazing youngsters coming through.
Hard to judge some of these players without knowing the quality they are coming up against. Fleetwood, Rotherham, Shrewsbury et al are not known for their youth development pathways!

That said, the international honours IS a pretty good yardstick, to have so many in such a short time is very impressive.
 
Hard to judge some of these players without knowing the quality they are coming up against. Fleetwood, Rotherham, Shrewsbury et al are not known for their youth development pathways!

That said, the international honours IS a pretty good yardstick, to have so many in such a short time is very impressive.

I think you've hit the nail on the head for why this group of youngsters may be the real deal. In the past we heard we had some good youngsters but there was no real proof and it always sounded like hope rather than based on anything tangible. Seeing our lads in the international squads surrounded by lads from City, United, Chelease Liverpool, etc - it is something unprecedented. But like you say they certainly could do with better oposition to play against every week.
 
yep new owners need to put some cash in or these lads will just get picked up by bigger clubs
Not necessarilly a bad thing, the very best may well get picked up by bigger clubs but that is what we want and need. The fee's we receive for those players should fund the next generation. The people we will benefit from will be the solid football league players.

Extending the Coventry example for every Callum Wilson we need to have 4 or 5 players like Ryan Haynes who come through and can do a job in our team in the long term and only move on when the club has surpassed their level rather than the other way around.

What we need to show young players is that there is a pathway here from youth football to first team to bigger clubs or solid football career. That's how we'll pick up players at the expense of the big boys and that's how we'll pick up the best of the ones who tumble out of the big academies (e.g. Baines).