Hall Of Fame
Originally Posted by jimmyboldon
Not if you like a good debate ......
World Cups;
How many academies were Brazil running by the time they secured the Jules Rimet trophy outright? Pretty sure they were bringing up kids playing football on the Copa Cabana beach. But times change and football has to move with it.
In short, yes, we won the World Cup without academies ...........but so did everyone else!
Hankering after the old times;
I must admit, even I did that and even when we were in the Championship (although probably during the later seasons when we were hanging on for dear life). I do recall telling people back then that in a curious way I missed playing the likes of Rochdale. Funny that!!! I still do today ........ but for completely different reasons!
As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for!
Football is probably always more glamorous when you are growing up. I miss the playing on snow-covered pitches with orange balls, the tackles flying in, the fact that it was affordable, and the fact that winning a trophy was far more important than coming 4th.
At the same time, match days nowadays are more of an event and it is more comfortable to watch the game. It is much more of a social thing for me today rather than just turning up, watch 90 minutes and then go home again.
Coaching;
2 sides to every argument. I can see the one where maybe a club of our size should perhaps now consider siphoning off players from the bigger clubs – as we did with Platt, Lennon, Savage, etc. But by the same token, is it not the case that kids are far more receptive and digest more the younger they are? That’s why they start school at the age of 5.
I can see why Crewe went down that road. DG had values he wanted to instill. One of his first coaching influences he once told me was a guy called Charles .......whatshisname? .......used to work for the FA! But Charles liked to get the ball forward quickly. DG (as you know) always preferred to champion the “play it from the back” style and pass and move. So what better way to make sure your own players do that than by getting them in early so that they know no other way.
Question now is – can we afford to keep doing it?
I admire the club for trying to continue to avoid the status quo. And that includes not sacking mangers every 5 seconds. It will be interesting to see how long they can maintain it.
They will continue to receive my backing while they try.
Hall Of Fame
Amen to that Jimmy - make that 2.
And the sport is irrelevant, Mike, the principles remain the same. Get young people into our club and you’ll get supporters for life - so it does make financial sense, which sacking everyone bar the manager and trainer most certainly does not.
Hall Of Fame
Well there are lies, damned lies and statistics lol
Ok working on your premise £760000 over 5 years equals £3.8 million, in that time we have sold Powell, Murphy and Westwood equals £5 million plus add ons of approx. £1million oh and Clayton and Colclough another half a million
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I don't know the difference LOL...
It's a crazy policy that you get millions and then instead of investing that into the thing they are there for ie the First team, they put it back into a training facility that may or may not produce the same type of player. But the money will run out when the million dollar sales dry up as they appear to be and so in effect we are back to square one. We all remember Ashton being sold for 3 to 4 million was it? After he left we then went on a death spiral where we didn't win another game until the end of the season and just stayed up around 20 games from memory and again the next season was dire and we were relegated and so what happened to that money? Did we go and buy some decent players to stop the rot? Did a Director take some of it in loans and never paid some of that back? Or did we just sit back on our beliefs that the golden goose will carry on laying and they can just pump it all back into the Iffy project?
I am not suggesting not having an academy but more and more clubs think its more sensible not to concentrate on them or 5-14 year olds as there are literally thousands of players around in the mid to late ****s and indeed older that are not good enough for the PL but may be just fine for L1 and L2 and we can develop them and avoid the million pound a year expense....
The thing is we will have no option but to downgrade the academy and we could have done that 4 years ago and have a few million still in the bank to sign those sorts of players and have the FIRST team as the priority, indeed as it always should have been and hasn't. It was more about selling players to avoid the Directors having to contribute as they so obviously do at most other clubs. But the end is nigh! Tin hat firmly in place!
New Member
Seems to me the debate about the academy and coaching is pointless if the coached players will not sign a contract that keeps them contracted to Crewe untill the age of twenty three.
In my opinion a player whose contract has elapsed is greatly devalued and less able to provide the funds needed to finance the Academy that educated him.
Unless we can get to grips with this trend which seemingly is emerging, we will certain not be able to afford it.
Hall Of Fame
Maybe we should be paying them a little more to make it a more attractive proposition to sign extensions. Mike, if you think downgrading the Academy 4 years or so ago would have resulted in that money being thrown at the first team you are very much mistaken. The club loses money without the Academy. The Academy is fundamental to the survival of the club. In it's present format it is keeping the first team going and with regard to big money sales, it is ever more difficult to attain those sorts of fees. But we have players who may very well nett us a lot of money in the next couple of years.
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Did someone mention interest free loans?
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One thing we do not seem to be doing is attracting cast offs from the Manchester or Merseyside clubs. Does this still happen or is the Academy no longer actively seeking such players. Of course, it is also up to the parents to commit to bringing their sons to Crewe. Are we no longer as attractive as were when Dario was working to build the base for us to rise to the Championship?
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