What is the point of having a lavish academy then?

[thnhouse]

Mike I swear you must have that whole diatribe on cut and paste just so you can add into every thread:

Yes coaching is important
No it's not a conspiracy to keep coaches employed
Yes people were coached in the past with different methods
No policeman aren't looking younger these days
Yes of course parents research the academy their child is going into
Yes parents do get "incentives" for moving areas if their child is particularly talented
No all music doesn't sound like "just noise" these days
Yes the blitz must have been difficult
Yes football is a different game these days physically
No the nurses in the home aren't trying to kill you

[Alexandra The Great]

Mike I swear you must have that whole diatribe on cut and paste just so you can add into every thread:

Yes coaching is important
No it's not a conspiracy to keep coaches employed
Yes people were coached in the past with different methods
No policeman aren't looking younger these days
Yes of course parents research the academy their child is going into
Yes parents do get "incentives" for moving areas if their child is particularly talented
No all music doesn't sound like "just noise" these days
Yes the blitz must have been difficult
Yes football is a different game these days physically
No the nurses in the home aren't trying to kill you

Hahaha!

[Timmy58]

Mike I swear you must have that whole diatribe on cut and paste just so you can add into every thread:

Yes coaching is important
No it's not a conspiracy to keep coaches employed
Yes people were coached in the past with different methods
No policeman aren't looking younger these days
Yes of course parents research the academy their child is going into
Yes parents do get "incentives" for moving areas if their child is particularly talented
No all music doesn't sound like "just noise" these days
Yes the blitz must have been difficult
Yes football is a different game these days physically
No the nurses in the home aren't trying to kill you

I like this, because it made me laugh. I also agree wholeheartedly

[steelydon]

It's worth remembering that the transfer revenue brought in hasn't always gone to the youth team, Hollands had money to spend and blew it on players we got nothing for (Elding, Zola, Donaldson), Davis was fairly well supported too and wasted money on loan signings and wages for players that were only effective short term or in cases not at all. It didn't help that we got hamstrung by a director bleeding the club for a bit either.

I think we've proved time and time again that the academy pays for itself and has given us some of the most exciting footballers ever seen at Gresty Road, what we need is a better transfer policy that brings in players that helps us develop those youngsters and wins us games.

Like very much.

[steelydon]

So we scrap the academy. We become exactly the same as fifty other clubs just trying to exist. Does anybody seriously think that the money saved would be spent sensibly? In the last four years we've brought in thirty odd players and only one, Guthrie, has been money well spent. Make Crewe the same as Vale, Shrewsbury, Bury,etc etc and for one you've lost my reason for traveling from Manchester.

[somersetcrewe]

If in the end we can't beat nor score against non academy clubs like Crawley, Accrington or Morecambe and we're struggling at the bottom of the fourth tier of English Football?

Even Liverpool's cannot beat Plymouth - AT ANFIELD - so what's your point??

[somersetcrewe]

Does anybody seriously think that the money saved would be spent sensibly?

Steely has a point.
To quote another analogy, what happened to the £350M per week that would get pumped into the NHS after Brexit?
Talk about money is cheap, it's actions that count!

[somersetcrewe]

And the proof is there for all to see. Kids that do make it would have done so irrespective of any coaching and you know why that is? Because they always did over the last 100 years when there wasn't any. We in fact won the World Cup without even ONE and we have been knocked out in the early rounds with scores and scores of them...

So I’m curious, why did Germany do a root-and-branch investigation of their entire structure after we beat them 5-1 in Berlin in 2000? Their whole strategy, from the ground up, was revamped – including coaching the youngsters!!
Didn’t do them any harm did it – current World Champions!!! First European nation to win outside of Europe.

So England won the World Cup without academies – so did Brazil, Italy, Uruguay and the like. But football moves on, times change and the whole approach to the game has been modernised – dieticians, psychologists, physios, all coaches in their own field as well as football coaches themselves. Said it before and I’ll say it again – raw talent alone is not enough. Look at how many England Schoolboys never make it to the pro ranks, even now.

And yes, we haven’t won the World Cup since ’66 – but Brazil, Italy, Germany, France and Argentina all have – and they all have youth policies, academies .............coaches!!
So it must work!

I even was around to watch it live in 1966....Wow! What a day that was!

I don’t doubt that for one second!!
The nearest I can get to that is Euro 96 or the Rugby World Cup in 2003 – and both of those certainly got the juices flowing!

[MikeSB]

So I’m curious, why did Germany do a root-and-branch investigation of their entire structure after we beat them 5-1 in Berlin in 2000? Their whole strategy, from the ground up, was revamped – including coaching the youngsters!!
Didn’t do them any harm did it – current World Champions!!! First European nation to win outside of Europe.

So England won the World Cup without academies – so did Brazil, Italy, Uruguay and the like. But football moves on, times change and the whole approach to the game has been modernised – dieticians, psychologists, physios, all coaches in their own field as well as football coaches themselves. Said it before and I’ll say it again – raw talent alone is not enough. Look at how many England Schoolboys never make it to the pro ranks, even now.

And yes, we haven’t won the World Cup since ’66 – but Brazil, Italy, Germany, France and Argentina all have – and they all have youth policies, academies .............coaches!!
So it must work!

I don’t doubt that for one second!!
The nearest I can get to that is Euro 96 or the Rugby World Cup in 2003 – and both of those certainly got the juices flowing!

yeh , banging me ed against a brick wall...

Millions of pounds going into academies all round the world now....But then I've always seen the Emperor naked..!

Not sure anyone read it a couple of days ago and I could find the link but some local lad that was working at Bentley here in Crewe was playing non league football and he has just been signed by Arsenal. Not been through the academy as far as I know but the plain fact is that coaching is a misnomer and why it confuses me...We have coaches here coming out of our ears and we had two on the touchline and NC being touted as one of the top coaches in the country and yet we couldn't beat the teams that don't have academies and play to crowds of 2000 and grounds falling apart?

Academies and Coaching is a recent well last 30 odd years thingy and nobody who works in them are going to condemn them even Dave Artell!

Maybe Jimmy Greaves was wrong and said they can destroy natural ability because they are teaching by numbers generally by people who have never played the game at a high level. When Spurs signed him way back he asked his manager how he wanted him to play and Bill Nicholson said "look lad we know what you can do and so do you, just go out and enjoy yourself"!

How many players seem to be 'enjoying' themselves today? How many academy players?

I'm not sure the game has moved on from an enjoyment spectacle or the players are more skillfull and yet they play on better pitches and have far better facilities than they ever did. Arguably they are fitter as result but that's about all. But I do wonder how many of the kids could play on the pitches of yesteryear with no grass full of mud and a heavy case ball and some of the football I saw was amazing...

I used to be a Spurs fan as well as a CAFC fan and went to see them when they played up here and the natural abilities of some of that team were phenomenal. One game where Greaves received the ball from midfield and had his back to the goal and he flicked the ball up over his head and over that of the defenders behind him and as the GK came out he slotted the ball past him..

There are as there always was thousands of kids who have natural ability and don't need 'coaching' at all. They just need somewhere to practice and play against some good opposition...and keep fit.

My ed is hurtin again!

[Furberstreet]

The Academy set up needs to be subject to a root and branch review. There is no harm in asking searching questions about its set up, the number of coaches, whether or not it is producing youngsters ready for League football or how is the money actually spent? I am not one of those advocating the abolition of the Academy, but its operation cannot simply go unchallenged year after year. This is something that happens across all aspects of life. I cannot believe that any conclusions would support its abolition, but there may be a need to re-focus in certain areas.