Youths up to u23's is it worth the time and investment

[lancaster100]

Now hears a thing to think about. Firstly when was the last time we brought one of our reserves or young players through to play in the first team on a regular basis. I think it is quite a long time ago. My thoughts are what is the purpose of our youth or under 23 teams. None have ever come through to be good enough to play at our level and it seems to me wasted money at the present day. Any player who has not made the first team by the time they are 20 then it is unlikely they will make the grade. Why is that the case well one would have to point the finger at our scouting system as they have not been able to spot talent for our club to justify the various youth levels. We all know our historic youth players making the grade but I cannot recall a player coming through our young players going on to make the first team at BFC or at any other level for that matter. So the question is what is the point to the scouting and investment is it time to scrub this cost

[oldcolner]

They u23s aren’t doing well just now though they are allowed to play older players, which comes in handy for getting game time for injured players.
Heard of Jay Rodriguez?

[lancaster100]

oldcolner I give you that one fair enough but do you really think the odd player in how many years is enough too justify the time and investment. My main point was about the quality of our scouting system.

[lancaster100]

Oh and don't infer I haven't watched for very long by the sarcky "Heard of JR" - my first game was 1964 and had a season ticket every year since.

[In Dyche We Trust]

Oh and don't infer I haven't watched for very long by the sarcky "Heard of JR" - my first game was 1964 and had a season ticket every year since.

Now theirs a thing to think about.......

[Altobelli]

Now hears a thing to think about. Firstly when was the last time we brought one of our reserves or young players through to play in the first team on a regular basis. I think it is quite a long time ago. My thoughts are what is the purpose of our youth or under 23 teams. None have ever come through to be good enough to play at our level and it seems to me wasted money at the present day. Any player who has not made the first team by the time they are 20 then it is unlikely they will make the grade. Why is that the case well one would have to point the finger at our scouting system as they have not been able to spot talent for our club to justify the various youth levels. We all know our historic youth players making the grade but I cannot recall a player coming through our young players going on to make the first team at BFC or at any other level for that matter. So the question is what is the point to the scouting and investment is it time to scrub this cost

You have a very good point Lancaster.

I think of our youth set up like the general transfer window, we just cannot compete.

With Manchester City having 600 players on their books (Mike Garlick's words) what chance do we have ? The cast offs, the one's that have potential yet others cannot see ?

I heard we had the chance of getting a 16 year old youth player who really had potential 8 years ago, we was about to sign him when a top 6 Club came in with cash for his parents and a house, obviously he walked away from us as obviously we cannot compete with that, he's now plying his trade at the same Club, Man Utd.

Another one around the same time was promising who's name I cannot remember, Man Utd scooped him away for £1 Million, with it was stated at the time a friendly at the Turf with Man Utd, the friendly never materialised, and the player disappeared without a trace.

There are rules for ****agers in what you can offer or what you can entice them with for their services, but our FA (as useless as they are) turn a blind eye when it suits them.

[oldcolner]

Alto
We have just invested £20m or so in Barnfield to attract and develop youngsters and got Duff to lead them . We probably need to give them a few years to show some benefit.
https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/news/2017/june/academy-granted-category-2-status/
The under 16s and 18s seem to be doing quite well but the under 23s seem to be struggling.
Re players isn’t Tom Anderson another who came through the ranks and is now on loan at Doncaster?

[Altobelli]

I know all about Gawthorpe and how much money we have spent, Gawthorpe has needed upgrading for a long time, same as the changing rooms at the Turf which I had the great pleasure of changing in in 1971 and couldn't believe how small and cramp it was, and yes why not go the whole hog and make it superb (as it is), but as I said we cannot compete with the mega Clubs, if they want one of ours for their Club, come hook or crook they will take them, so again we will be behind the 8 ball.

Tom Anderson is just that, a league one player at best, O'Neil another prospect is IMO only Championship material, Agye, Jackson, Massanka and the others have still a lot to prove, and if Nahki Wells is not being given the chance to show what he can do when our current forwards are not delivering what chance have Agye or Massanka ?

[oldcolner]

I know all about Gawthorpe and how much money we have spent, Gawthorpe has needed upgrading for a long time, same as the changing rooms at the Turf which I had the great pleasure of changing in in 1971 and couldn't believe how small and cramp it was, and yes why not go the whole hog and make it superb (as it is), but as I said we cannot compete with the mega Clubs, if they want one of ours for their Club, come hook or crook they will take them, so again we will be behind the 8 ball.

Tom Anderson is just that, a league one player at best, O'Neil another prospect is IMO only Championship material, Agye, Jackson, Massanka and the others have still a lot to prove, and if Nahki Wells is not being given the chance to show what he can do when our current forwards are not delivering what chance have Agye or Massanka ?

Alto The statement was
but I cannot recall a player coming through our young players going on to make the first team at BFC or at any other level for that matter.
Tom fits that bill as does Shay McCartan now at Bradford city. Chris Mc Cann another a few years ago.
We bought Kevin Long at 19 - 8 years ago. We got Mee, Keane and Trippier at 21 ings at 19.

Re Gawthorpe Sean deliberately invested in youth with this so we need to see how it goes while we have PL. money. The time to consider if it’s working is when the 16 year olds are 20 and how many u 23s we attract and how well the teams have performed.

Didn’t Huddersfield kill off their academy recently.

[sinkov]

Alto The statement was
but I cannot recall a player coming through our young players going on to make the first team at BFC or at any other level for that matter.
Tom fits that bill as does Shay McCartan now at Bradford city. Chris Mc Cann another a few years ago.
We bought Kevin Long at 19 - 8 years ago. We got Mee, Keane and Trippier at 21 ings at 19.

Re Gawthorpe Sean deliberately invested in youth with this so we need to see how it goes while we have PL. money. The time to consider if it’s working is when the 16 year olds are 20 and how many u 23s we attract and how well the teams have performed.

Didn’t Huddersfield kill off their academy recently.

We haven't had a first team player come through our youth system in ten years, not since Jay Rodriguez, I can't agree about McCann OC, he came over from Ireland and was in our first team within about a year, I don't think our youth development system can claim any credit for him. We have had one or two dossing round the lower leagues, McCartan, Anderson, McDonald, Fletcher etc but as far as our first team is concerned we could have shut the entire organisation down ten years ago and it wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference.

I thought Sean might have made a difference but it seems even beyond him to make it productive, he's been here over five years now, and still nowt for the first team. There may well be mitigating circumstances, but the bottom line is that it's been a complete waste of time and money for ten years now.