Retained list

[MikeSB]

With an equal amount of respect, you wouldn't recognise a balanced and logical view if it ambled up you and slapped you in the face with a wet haddock!

Haha...

Just follow the evidence...

How many players have we transferred for a million pounds since Nick Powell left?

None?

How much has the academy cost the club in that period of time?

How many NON players have we got at the club?

How many times have you minority fans criticised the philosopy of having academies here taking all or most of the money to result in players not good enough for the lower end of the lowest football league club?

People with a brain with respect would follow the evidence and that should tell you all what you want to know...It wasn't that long ago that fans used to barrack the board for such woeful performances..

We keep them all on, all sins forgiven....except mine! )

[Timmy58]

Haha...

Just follow the evidence...

How many players have we transferred for a million pounds since Nick Powell left?

None?

How much has the academy cost the club in that period of time?

How many NON players have we got at the club?

How many times have you minority fans criticised the philosopy of having academies here taking all or most of the money to result in players not good enough for the lower end of the lowest football league club?

People with a brain with respect would follow the evidence and that should tell you all what you want to know...It wasn't that long ago that fans used to barrack the board for such woeful performances..

We keep them all on, all sins forgiven....except mine! )

You are an intelligent man so you tell us, it doesn't take a lot of working out that there are more benefits to our Academy than million pound sales although I agree it would be useful to have one or two of these. Other, rather less obvious, benefits are players such as O'Riordan and Tabiner forcing their way into the team earning (in football terms) peanuts. No Academy and we would be paying higher wages and signing on fees for any player we might take a punt on and they don't always work out as we have seen over the years. The Academy lads who do make the first team come with a degree more confidence of success simply because they have been with us from being very young.


For the record, I have never criticised the Academy. One of the joys of supporting Crewe and watching games is seeing young players coming through and being successful and I have never been one to "barrack the Board or the management team. And your argument about needing one manager doesn't stand up. You only have to look at every other club in any league and there is a team on the touchline. One man cannot see everything. Two heads better than one. Ever heard that expression?

[MikeSB]

You are an intelligent man so you tell us, it doesn't take a lot of working out that there are more benefits to our Academy than million pound sales although I agree it would be useful to have one or two of these. Other, rather less obvious, benefits are players such as O'Riordan and Tabiner forcing their way into the team earning (in football terms) peanuts. No Academy and we would be paying higher wages and signing on fees for any player we might take a punt on and they don't always work out as we have seen over the years. The Academy lads who do make the first team come with a degree more confidence of success simply because they have been with us from being very young.


For the record, I have never criticised the Academy. One of the joys of supporting Crewe and watching games is seeing young players coming through and being successful and I have never been one to "barrack the Board or the management team. And your argument about needing one manager doesn't stand up. You only have to look at every other club in any league and there is a team on the touchline. One man cannot see everything. Two heads better than one. Ever heard that expression?

Well, calling me intelligent will get you many brownie points...

Timmy, I just cannot stand lads/youth football even though I played the game locally for a long time..As you know, being a fan for decades, we have seen the best and the worst of our team but its probably my age but today's footballers gives me no pleasure at all to watch in any league as somehow there is no heart in me to do that now like our team in the old days and that is age creeping in. I don't rabbit on about the academy as a debating tool as I lost that a long time ago on here...I just think football is a creative, natural ability, sport and not one coach or manager can make that much difference, they will improve fitness and match tactics etc and why you had to be a certain ability to get to play in the various divisions, as now of course. Academies should be perhaps funded entirely by the FA and then all clubs can see the players there and sign them if they want to...Its just my view, that there are thousands of football players the world over and many better than we have and haven't cost anything to coach ten years...That is the weakness of the academy set up imo..Your point would be good if most teams in the lower levels all cried out for Cat2 academies but we are finding even PL clubs like Brentford are ditching them as they think coaching 17 year olds from outside and from other academies is a better funding arrangement and look where they are in the PL..

Personally of course its boring to say the same thing but having a personal view is difficult to change when you have seen and played this lovely game and somehow ruined by coaching and managers who are in simple terms not that good at the job actually Timmy...One manager, one team is for me and no kids please!!

Its just my view in that more funding of our academy and having multiple managers, reduces what can be spent on the first team which we think we can all agree is the whole purpose of being a fan here at Crewe. What a great game playing Wrexham will be next season....I hope anyway. . .

[Furberstreet]

I have been sceptical for sometime about the funding allocated to the academy and have wondered whether or not downgrading or removing it all together would be a good thing. I have to admit that I have slowly been changing my stance. We cannot expect the academy consistently to produce players worthy of a £1m+ transfer fee. That is not simply down to coaching. Of course, a player can be transformed by receiving good quality coaching, but often the step up to the next level is down to the commitment and application of the player in question. I expect there have been players of great talent who have never fulfilled their potential because they do not believe that they need to put in the hard yards. Harry Kane strikes me as a good player who has turned himself into a great player because he has worked immensely hard on his game and continues to do so. One thing I will say is that we used to pick up players released by, for example, the Manchester City and United academies. Do we still do this? I assume that the scouting staff will be proactive, but it maybe that there is much more competition now for such players. Having managed for a number of seasons as the top league club in Cheshire, this is no longer the case. Tranmere and Stockport have regained league status and Wrexham's triumph this season may draw players over the Welsh border. The best we can hope for is the odd gem to appear and focus on the academy as a source of players for the first team. Yes, each player graduating from the academy has cost us in terms of coaching and other benefits. Sometimes, this may exceed the costs of signing of a so-called free transfer player, but not too often I expect. It is good to see academy graduates do well and I have never been one to boo or criticise individual players vocally during games. Aside from the impact of such action on younger players' confidence, such outbursts add no benefit to improving a performance. Instructions and tactical changes come from the manager and his coaches on the day. It is when the staff stand around looking totally inert or bemused that I get irritated and suffer internally as my beloved Crewe struggles.

[gazan]

Still not heard the full list....or has "in due course" not passed yet?

[whosbrianwilson]

Still not heard the full list....or has "in due course" not passed yet?

Very subtle, Gazan.....getting the posts back on theme!!!

[Timmy58]

Very subtle, Gazan.....getting the posts back on theme!!!

Fair point. Sorry.

[whosbrianwilson]

And.....its released!!

[ShropshireAlex]

Very subtle, Gazan.....getting the posts back on theme!!!

Yes we really do need to stop letting 'trolls' hijack threads.

[MikeSB]

Yes we really do need to stop letting 'trolls' hijack threads.

Haha...when you own this board you can dictate what you want, but until then you have no choice to stop me to post whatever I want to when its related to football. most of which most of you could not recognise if it hit you on the head...

It was someone else who brought my username into this thread and so stop doing it and I will rest my laurels as usual...

Fans here seem to have brain fog as this club ie CAFC has no identity apart from the academy and other clubs seemed to respect our type of football but that disappeared a long time ago while we persist in a dying model when almost all clubs at our level would not touch a Cat2 academy with a barge pole and even higher clubs are recognising the whole idea of EEEP was invented by pen pushers and unemployed/retired footballers..

Every single thread on 'this' board should have the leper colony academy attached to it especially when graduates put two fingers up to the Board when it suits...

Ainley was one of the best graduates of the academy but thing is these kids are far too young to go into Pro football and so get injured so easiliy...I wonder who the hell started this academy business at my club which was a disaster in my view...Someone here said that most players here could get far more money playing for the top half of the National League than here at Crewe and that folks, condemns this club to bottom half of the bottom league while other clubs like Stockport, Barrow, Stevenage, Northampton and many clubs in L1 saw the light many moons ago and spend their money and seeing the here and now players, not 5 year olds in nappies...

See ya later Alligator!