RUFC Accounts for Year Ending 30th June 2017

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

I don't think we need an academy.

Yes there's a bit of " we're a big club so must have one" mentality about it however current transfer habits negate its usefulness.

If we unearth a decent youngster his prospects are continuously blighted by permanent and loan signings for the first team that are shunted into the reserves. Price and Purrington for example.

Add to this the lack of a meaningful reserve match league with regular games so that youngsters can be " blooded" into the real world if league 1 football. Yes we can be brave and put youngsters on the bench but would Warne ever put a youngster on the pitch other than for 15 minute subs appearance? I think not.

Maybe you can point at Yates as an example if somebody progressing but He's hardly a future £1 million player is he?

Note also how a reasonably young JCH hit the brick wall of development with us.

I think the academy should be abandoned and some of the savings put into experienced scouts dotted about the country to spot players that can do a job for us but might be coming up for contract renewal or feel blocked at their current club. For example Ipswich signed Moore for a pittance but how did they know he was worth a punt?

[mellowmiller]

I don't think we need an academy.

Yes there's a bit of " we're a big club so must have one" mentality about it however current transfer habits negate its usefulness.

If we unearth a decent youngster his prospects are continuously blighted by permanent and loan signings for the first team that are shunted into the reserves. Price and Purrington for example.

Add to this the lack of a meaningful reserve match league with regular games so that youngsters can be " blooded" into the real world if league 1 football. Yes we can be brave and put youngsters on the bench but would Warne ever put a youngster on the pitch other than for 15 minute subs appearance? I think not.

Maybe you can point at Yates as an example if somebody progressing but He's hardly a future £1 million player is he?

Note also how a reasonably young JCH hit the brick wall of development with us.

I think the academy should be abandoned and some of the savings put into experienced scouts dotted about the country to spot players that can do a job for us but might be coming up for contract renewal or feel blocked at their current club. For example Ipswich signed Moore for a pittance but how did they know he was worth a punt?

Completely agree.
Huddersfield have concluded that their academy is a waste of time and money and will close it.
The success rate of academies or youth development schemes at most clubs is very, very poor.

[caytonmiller]

What we should have is an academy for failed young pros. I know it's a bit of a fantacy but finding the late developers may be worth a shot. Maybe one for a new thread.

Agree frog. I would Love Inc non league in this.
I said this a few year ago when we got to the championship and again this season. There must be bus loads who have been dumped at the way side and are desperate to get a 2nd chance. Imo. Get a boot camp set up. Give 80/100 players 2 weeks intense training. Then Narrow it down to 6 player and give them a years contract with a possible years extension.. if it costs 2 million a season it's got to be worth a punt. At least your not waiting 4/5 years for the players to develop

[flourbasher]

Yes I agree with the above 3 or 4 posts.
I think we're on a hiding to nothing try to develop 13-16 yr olds because other clubs do it better and have been doing it for a lot longer.
We can pick up discarded players that aren't good enough for clubs who have recently ascended the leagues or have higher ambitions.

Some players aren't flavour of the month at say Brighton / Hudds because those clubs ambitions are now a lot lot higher than ours. It doesn't make the discarded players bad players it's just that they aren't the elite in their current environment.

The other option is to do a Barnsley and pick 18-22 yr olds from the likes of FC Halifax and Torquay

[frogmiller]

Lets be fair to TS when he took over his ambition must have been to change every aspect of the club and he's done it. After getting Scott (remember him) to sack practically every member of staff at the club including the academy apart from Matt Hamshaw he started from scratch.

Most of the things has paid off including the academy to some extent. We need to keep in touch with the community but we need freedom of money to pay for players.

Glenn Hoddle has an academi for released pros and he's brought on a few that are playing in the leagues. Uncle Coln did the same with a guy who had gone out of the game and is now a regular in the first team. I wonder if we have the staff who could bring on these guys if we were to set up something like Hoddle has. Being left with other academies rejects or players who slip out of the game could land us a Vardy type of player or even a Vaulks.

[Silly-miller]

I don’t think we have any other option but to try and bring players through academy. I mean what other option is there? Millions to spend on quality players and we have seen what the limits of bringing old cheap has beens are. I know some of you are thinking well what have we seen that says our academy is working? It takes a lot of time so put it out of your mind and enjoy this season for now.

[mellowmiller]

I don’t think we have any other option but to try and bring players through academy. I mean what other option is there? Millions to spend on quality players and we have seen what the limits of bringing old cheap has beens are. I know some of you are thinking well what have we seen that says our academy is working? It takes a lot of time so put it out of your mind and enjoy this season for now.

Erm, Peterborough manage perfectly well or have you missed that?

[Casper64Frank]

Those accounts are not too bad considering the Championship was far too expensive for us.
I would expect more or less in the next accounts as well.
Squad size was reduced & the players took a salary cut when we dropped out of the Championship.
All things considered the club are doing as reasonable job as they can.
In an ideal world we would be throwing money at players like confetti......it's not going to happen.

Pete Waller....Not seen you back on this thread for a reply.

Not a comparison however PNE who are owned by Trevor Hemmings (mega rich) had a turnover of £13.5M and registered a loss of £2.9M....Not easy in the Chumpionship is it lads ?

[Silly-miller]

Erm, Peterborough manage perfectly well or have you missed that?

Peterborough are not in championship like we was and I’m fairly certain (could be wrong since I could be getting my teams mixed up) but I think they have a super rich owner.

I’m comparing championship teams with our own club. Sorry for the confusion

[flourbasher]

I don’t think we have any other option but to try and bring players through academy. I mean what other option is there? Millions to spend on quality players and we have seen what the limits of bringing old cheap has beens are. I know some of you are thinking well what have we seen that says our academy is working? It takes a lot of time so put it out of your mind and enjoy this season for now.

There's the Barnsley way.
Although they bring kids through they also pick up 18-20 yr olds from non league.
Their formula for signing one of these lads is lots of pace, young age and comfortable on the ball. The rest is coaching and patience for a while and then they have a player who can play in the c'ship. Obviously it's not as simplistic as I've described and they don't all work but it can be done.
BFC have been in the C'ship since 1981 bar a couple of blips