Youth Games

[MikeSB]

mike give it a rest ffs read my lips, the academy makes us money end of argument and if youre not interested in watching any of our kids youre the one who is missing out, best £3 i've spent in a long time last night

Give what a rest?

I'm entitled to have an opinion even if its in a minority. Preston can well afford a Cat2 academy but chose not to because there are hundreds of players available that they can see NOW not in 10 years time having spent 10 million on it. That seems quite sensible and all I have been saying is we keep a downgraded academy and then use the proceeds to fund the FIRST team as what is the point of having one if you don't do that? Most of those on show last night would have been at Crewe years and years BEFORE the Cat2 rules and I would suspect most of them will live local, so why spend a million when we don't have to or indeed need to?

You all keep saying they are OUR lads and OUR kids!

[alexmick]

Long live the academy. There is absolutely no harm in encouraging lads from the tender age of 6 or 7 to progress through the system. If we did not get them, then the PL big boys would. Then where would we be... out of league football. Our under 10's just walloped Wrexham 6-2 and they were glad to play us for the competition. Wrexham had trounced Shrewsbury 13-0 (according to a neighbour whose lad is in the Alex team) and were glad to be playing top class opposition. We would be in a sorry state if we did not play against top opposition.

[AlexLeicester]

Mike, you state: 'Clayton and Billy Jones proved that beyond a doubt'.
I do have a doubt if the two players you mention have made your case. There is no need to go on and list all those who have moved on to the financial benefit of the club.
Both the players you mentioned played in the First Team and had a role in our 'success'. We can whinge about the way they left, but Max Clayton brought some cash in, and Billy Jones broke no laws.

[AstonAlex]

Well said, AL.

Billy Jones played 2 full seasons for the Alex and another 2 with more than 20 games - a total of in excess of 140 appearances. The price that we got for Billy, when appearance money and other things were added in was around £700,000 . . rather more than we had invested in him and, whilst not as much as we might have liked, good value for money when the number and standard of his performances were taken into account.

We may not have got as many matches out of Max (please let's not debate the whys and wherefores for that AGAIN!) but his contribution in the play off matches and JPT means that we all got a lot of pleasure from those matches at least. As for the fee of £300,000 - again, not as much as I would have hoped, but a lot more than many seemed to think he was worth!

[bigroof]

mike give it a rest ffs read my lips, the academy makes us money end of argument and if youre not interested in watching any of our kids youre the one who is missing out, best £3 i've spent in a long time last night

Give what a rest?

I'm entitled to have an opinion even if its in a minority. Preston can well afford a Cat2 academy but chose not to because there are hundreds of players available that they can see NOW not in 10 years time having spent 10 million on it. That seems quite sensible and all I have been saying is we keep a downgraded academy and then use the proceeds to fund the FIRST team as what is the point of having one if you don't do that? Most of those on show last night would have been at Crewe years and years BEFORE the Cat2 rules and I would suspect most of them will live local, so why spend a million when we don't have to or indeed need to?

You all k

[MikeSB]

One posters rant is another's reasoned reply. So what's new?

I have never bought into we wouldn't be in the league without the academy BS myself as Rochdale, Walsall and most of the other clubs in L1 and L2 will show. Some go into non league and bounce back but the majority don't and so that puts that one to bed. Even so Wrexham have better gates than many L2 clubs and their fans still remain loyal.

You can lambast all you want but one thing is clear and that is despite all these 28 millions we have got over the last 20 years, very little of that has gone into where it should have done and you know where that is and it really is a pointless exercise to put millions into a training establishment in order to keep it a one with no ambition to do better. Or is just a wing and a prayer if it did? What sort of business model is that for any serious person. Problem at Crewe from the top to the bottom is they lack business credibility and experience and to coin a phrase, have all their

[AlexLeicester]

I worry about the mental health of any football fan who just goes to see his team win - and especially an Alex fan.
It must be a soul-destroying life.
I go to be entertained, and hopefully win a few games ... as many as possible. I go to watch Div 1 youngsters ply their trade as a stepping stone to greatness (in the football pantheon). I go because the people I sit with are all good, knowledgeable and very, very nice people. Winning is a bonus; entertainment is the bottom line, which is why I have been profoundly disappointed many times since winning the JPT.

For me the bedrock behind all this is the Academy. I am immensely proud of it. My head inflates when I hear PL fans (living in Leicester there's a few ...) praise the Alex and the way we do things.

I hope my rant is a little more positive. :-D

[bigroof]

Mike, in the same way as you think you weren't 'ranting', I certainly wasn't 'lambasting' you!

Don't you think the current squad has a good mix of ages and experience?

You haven't answered my point about the relative costs of Cat2/Cat3 academies given the greater subsidy granted for running the former.

I was once in a team that lost 20-0, and I'm happy to say that Crewe haven't lost by that many, but I fail to see what our relative playing experiences have to do with anything on this thread?!

[MikeSB]

I worry about the mental health of any football fan who just goes to see his team win - and especially an Alex fan.
It must be a soul-destroying life.
I go to be entertained, and hopefully win a few games ... as many as possible. I go to watch Div 1 youngsters ply their trade as a stepping stone to greatness (in the football pantheon). I go because the people I sit with are all good, knowledgeable and very, very nice people. Winning is a bonus; entertainment is the bottom line, which is why I have been profoundly disappointed many times since winning the JPT.

For me the bedrock behind all this is the Academy. I am immensely proud of it. My head inflates when I hear PL fans (living in Leicester there's a few ...) praise the Alex and the way we do things.

I hope my rant is a little more positive. :-D

Hello AL, I worry about the mental heath of anyone that pays very good money to watch any football match, whether that is PL or

[MikeSB]

Hi Derek, comparative costs between Cat2 and Cat3?

Well, we have discussed this before my friend.

OK I'll do it like this to make it simple for me anyway.

1. We know the Cat2 rules mean the club has to meet very strict standards of coaching, number of employees and hours given to specific numbers of players eg 8 Max or 10 max One of those two. The FA put financial expenditure of around one million pounds for each Cat2 club.

What we don't know is how much the PL and FA contribute to each category?

2. We all know the transfer values of players up to the age of 17 as they are fixed and that means that IF some players are tempted away before the age of 17, the compensation is not that great.

3. The academy no longer competes with other PL/CC clubs on a week to week basis as they used to as that is restricted to them only UNLESS its a pre arranged friendly. So that is that an disincentive for kids to join us or to join them?

4. There is no longer any travel limits for kid