23 Jun 2016 05:18:32
How good is it to see so many players at the Euros who have been through our youth system? Granted some of the lads might never have been good enough to stay in our first team but they have been able to make a professional career doing something they love. We won't get everyone to become a giggs or a scholes but I'm proud to see so many doing so well.
{Ed001's Note - should have been one more in Drinkwater as well. Shows the advantage of the class of 92 when it comes to recruiting the best talents. United had the pick of the bunch for years. Which is why it should be a worry that there were none at the Giggs/Scholes etc level.}
23 Jun 2016 05:30:56
I think that special talent such as the class of 92 was always going to be hard to replicate but agreed its worrying we haven't found and stars withe same longevity. Wellbeck would definitely have been there too if he didn't get injured. The worry is when you see a club such as Southampton continue to unearth real gems who go on to big careers such as Bale and a lesser extent Walcott and Chamberlain to name a few. Maybe Rashford could be the one to kickstart it again with Mensah and the other youngsters who got a sniff last year. I bloody hope so.
{Ed001's Note - the difference is your top talents are not coming through your academy as such now, they are being brought in from outside. That is why LVG was in charge of a rebuild of it. Whether it will have sorted out the issues or not is going to only be found out over the next few years. With the quality of talent you had entering your academy, you should have produced better than Welbeck. There just seemed to be a lack of real improvement in their technique during their coaching sessions. Personally I think they need more youth coaches and less structure. The kids are so pampered, the path is too easy, they need to make it harder, make them earn each step.}
23 Jun 2016 05:40:05
Can't disagree with anything you said. I do hope we have learnt from what's gone wrong and get back to seeing top youth talent make its way into the first team and stay there. Makes me even prouder to be a red when you see top talent coming through. Cheers ed.
{Ed001's Note - they have definitely seen there is something wrong, which is the first step, so it is just a matter of time before they find the correct solution, if they have not done so already.}
23 Jun 2016 07:05:00
Ed001
I agree with what is being discussed. However I think the youths these days are pampered and think if the do well a little they will start to get good contracts and future. I believe those days of Class of 92, they have to fight and prove their worthiness even though they have great potential. Nothing came easy and they were very much hardy and can withstand hardship.
Foreign talents like CR7 came from very humble beginning and worked his arse off with good mentoring from coaches. Put in extra effort and the gem slowly emerges. I believe if these can be inculcated into youths of today I am confident there will be plenty stars.
{Ed001's Note - I would agree with that and did say that they needed to get that in my last reply. They need to be taught to fight for each step. It is far too easy for them to just come back each year. There is very little weeding out of those not performing at each stage.
To get the best, with the right mentality, you have to build in real desire to work hard by using carrot and stick. These days they only use the carrot and forget the stick. By the time they get to U17 level, it is still pretty much the same group that started at the academy, when it should be a small proportion of them that get that far.
Treat it like the Royal Marines do the SBS training, when only a tiny percentage make it all the way and they get just the best there. Unfortunately the academies are seen purely as a way of making money, not producing the best players. They are looking to produce 20 players so they can sell as many as possible, rather than looking to bring through just the very best to play in the first team.}
23 Jun 2016 08:47:41
Agree Ed001. How sad to actually see the "business" side of football. Perhaps FA can impose some conditions of youth recruitment and ensure there is always a 10-20% growth in youth intake. Also perhaps some sort of accreditation and certification? This is not to make life difficult for footballers rather to ensure the fate and future of English football.
I know the names of Best, Banks, Moore, Charlton etc but sad that these days don't hear many English greats to be excited about. It's even quite pathetic to watch England in the Euros as there seems no real passion and fight spirit. I hope something can happen to revive that not just for our club Man Utd but also for England. I am from Asia by the way and do not mean any least disrespect to England.
{Ed001's Note - the coaches now do need coaching badges, but there is more to being a good coach, especially for youngsters, than badges. Bit like teachers, you get good ones and bad ones, even though they have all been trained.
The thing England is most lacking is numbers. There should be a lot more coaches, to give more individual coaching to the players.}
23 Jun 2016 11:38:28
all about getting the balance correct though - I agree they are wrapped in cotton wool and treated as stars before they have done anything as teenagers - however as young schoolboys Gary Nev wrote in his autobiography the absolute fear of rejection, the need to know that each training session means something its all contributing to whether you get kept on or not cannot be lost, this is what made a lot of them the players they became . The new acadamy initiative was a good one, appointing welfare and education officers etc etc, letting a kid feel he will be given a few years to make his mark - I speak only with seeing a young relative going to blackburn and then Leeds academy when they were spending money like madmen both in pl then - Balance that with the old YTS days when a club took kids on like a conveyor belt and spat them out the other end if they weren't instantly successful with little regard for their wellbeing - as for standards in coaching I can't say if its good or not now . However its a bit smoke and mirrors in some of these academys. or was, I remember a nephew left at a hotel with 2 other lads only 16 years of age for 2 nights no supervision dropped at the hotel door whilst at a premiership academy, all the lads collected the next morning with not a care what they could have been up to the night before - same lad dropped at the zoo for a day out and picked up 4 hours later by club minibus along with half a dozen others and told " its classed as education, we have fulfilled our obligation on your social skills development for this week" what they were supposed to learn at a zoo i don't know hopefully times have changed.
{Ed001's Note - that is a very poor academy doing that. At Boro they place the kids with families rather than hotels. My parents were asked to take some when they lived near the training ground.
I do agree they need to be educated, but they should also know that not pulling their weight means they are dropped at the end of the year. Right now it is too easy.}
23 Jun 2016 13:02:23
My cousin bought his lad over from Ireland to a PL team - the welfare officer explained that the forms they were signing were the closest thing in law to guardianship that it was possible to get - if the son was hurt at school for example the notify party was the football club first then the parent. The club put him with a family, and took him and another lad to Catholic school each day on other side of city as his parents wanted that - a few years into his contract they cancelled it but it was stressed that if the lad wanted to carry on his university education elsewhere the club were obliged to pay his resettlement costs and assist with his well being for a few months after he left - he actually went to a first divison club from there so it wasnt an issue - boosted his career for a while as he captined N. ireland schoolboys/ under 19s for a while because of playing regularly - working in a copper mine in australia now.
23 Jun 2016 15:07:00
plenty of massive potential coming throught the acedemy at the moment, rashford, borthwick jackson, williams, fletcher, mitchell, gomes, tuanzebe all local lads and add in young foreign players like indy boonen there is some great prospects. there's plenty of others who don't get the headlines who could surprise people and push on as well . nicky butt has also just recruited some good foreign potential as well trying to get the acedemy back up there with other top teams. if you look through the top 4 divisions there is a staggering amount of ex utd acedemy players in there as well 2 now proud holders of prem winners medals and one who left for peanuts 1 year ago now being subject to £15mill offer from leicester.