| Thierry Small 22:09 - Oct 9 with 1323 views | SaintNick |
Played for the B team at the weekend, looks like his loan at Port Vale has been cut short |  |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Thierry Small on 23:09 - Oct 9 with 1230 views | dirk_doone |
One thing it's taken me a long time to learn, that most other fans realized a long time ago, is that most U21s never make the grade, not even in the lower levels of the Football League, which is why buying a bunch of other teams' U21s and hoping they'll be Premier League players is such a risky strategy.
'73 can remind me of how I raved about Jake Sinclair as the next big thing, who then got struck down by 'lifestyle problems' as so many promising young footballers do.
PS I hope we're not going to play our 'promising' U21s against Pompey's fringe first team squad players on Tuesday, as they'll get blown away. [Post edited 10 Oct 2022 10:13]
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| Thierry Small on 23:39 - Oct 9 with 1177 views | ElijahK |
| Thierry Small on 23:09 - Oct 9 by dirk_doone |
One thing it's taken me a long time to learn, that most other fans realized a long time ago, is that most U21s never make the grade, not even in the lower levels of the Football League, which is why buying a bunch of other teams' U21s and hoping they'll be Premier League players is such a risky strategy.
'73 can remind me of how I raved about Jake Sinclair as the next big thing, who then got struck down by 'lifestyle problems' as so many promising young footballers do.
PS I hope we're not going to play our 'promising' U21s against Pompey's fringe first team squad players on Tuesday, as they'll get blown away. [Post edited 10 Oct 2022 10:13]
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But at the sam3 time is that not the same for all the foreign/lower league older players we buy? As many of them haven’t worked out for us. As at least they can make the starting 11, but of course we’ve gotta pay more for them, whilst all these youngsters that might not work out may end up in the reserve teams, but then didn’t cost us as much.
So at the end of the day they’re just as risky as each other, it’s just at least with youth we could really get some stars of the future, whilst with older players, they may end up being great but won’t be to the same level as what some of these youngsters we’ve signed look like they could be heading for. [Post edited 9 Oct 2022 23:39]
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| Thierry Small on 07:15 - Oct 10 with 1059 views | Chesham_Saint |
| Thierry Small on 23:39 - Oct 9 by ElijahK |
But at the sam3 time is that not the same for all the foreign/lower league older players we buy? As many of them haven’t worked out for us. As at least they can make the starting 11, but of course we’ve gotta pay more for them, whilst all these youngsters that might not work out may end up in the reserve teams, but then didn’t cost us as much.
So at the end of the day they’re just as risky as each other, it’s just at least with youth we could really get some stars of the future, whilst with older players, they may end up being great but won’t be to the same level as what some of these youngsters we’ve signed look like they could be heading for. [Post edited 9 Oct 2022 23:39]
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We have had some success with foreign and lower league players though. Van Dyke, Pelle, Tadic, Mane, SRL etc. I admit that they’re the exception rather than the rule though. |  |
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| Thierry Small on 10:24 - Oct 10 with 874 views | SaintNick |
| Thierry Small on 07:15 - Oct 10 by Chesham_Saint |
We have had some success with foreign and lower league players though. Van Dyke, Pelle, Tadic, Mane, SRL etc. I admit that they’re the exception rather than the rule though. |
If we look back over the years, our problems have come when we have spent big money in our terms, even in the 1990's the problem was the likes of Speedie & Dixon arriving for instance rather than the home grown or lower league aquisitions.
Same here, look at how many of our signings who we bought for around the £15-20 million mark failed, Vestergaard, Lemina, Boufal, Elyounoussi just to name four.
Those that succeeded are those we signed for around £10-12 million under the radar.
The way club's academies are run these days is changing, even back in the 70's & 80's you rarely got more than a player a season on average who became a first team regular, the rest we just sold on and we were good at that.
Man City & Chelsea are doing what we did back then but at a higher level, they hoover up all the young talent and then sell off most of them with the odd one or two making it as a regular.
We are taking advantage of that, the way things are done has changed, the ante has been upped, we are concentrating on signing 17-18 year olds rather than in the past when kids were 12-15. | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Thierry Small on 11:55 - Oct 10 with 822 views | solent_toffee |
| Thierry Small on 10:24 - Oct 10 by SaintNick |
If we look back over the years, our problems have come when we have spent big money in our terms, even in the 1990's the problem was the likes of Speedie & Dixon arriving for instance rather than the home grown or lower league aquisitions.
Same here, look at how many of our signings who we bought for around the £15-20 million mark failed, Vestergaard, Lemina, Boufal, Elyounoussi just to name four.
Those that succeeded are those we signed for around £10-12 million under the radar.
The way club's academies are run these days is changing, even back in the 70's & 80's you rarely got more than a player a season on average who became a first team regular, the rest we just sold on and we were good at that.
Man City & Chelsea are doing what we did back then but at a higher level, they hoover up all the young talent and then sell off most of them with the odd one or two making it as a regular.
We are taking advantage of that, the way things are done has changed, the ante has been upped, we are concentrating on signing 17-18 year olds rather than in the past when kids were 12-15. |
The whole football pyramid is bust, despite what the likes of Sky and their pundits say.
10-15 years ago, you could go and watch a league one or league two game and pick up the team sheet and recognise a lot of players, either big name players whose career was coming to an end, those who didn’t quite make it and were ploughing a career in the lower leagues or up and coming ones to watch.
Nowadays, premier league players finish their careers really early as they have earned so much money, even average players at top clubs earn top whack. Very few players are scouted and picked up from the lower leagues these days. Instead you have players who start and end their careers down there, very noble and all that, but the financial cycle means that that’s all the clubs down there can do.
As for the youth leagues, again they aren’t really worth anything. Played in front of no crowds more often than not at clubs training grounds with no experienced players taking part, as opposed to the old reserve games, back in the day.
Everton have won those leagues or have done really well in recent years, but only Anthony Gordon has come through, hence the new director of football, Thelwell, coming in and sacking David Unsworth and his coaching staff.
Clubs want players for this first team squad as soon as possible. Hence Saints doing well at that level and people being made up, could be very misleading. | | | |
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