NorthernRock
29-08-2017, 07:10 PM
Maybe the fat mans stolen a march on his rivals and intentionally or inadvertently used his business model for positive reasons all round (I did make a point of this a few years ago).
Now we all know more emphasis needs to be placed on the playing squad in the here and now for a plethora of reasons, which we won't go into now but since Benitez has taken over there has been a vast improvement in player recruitment numerically at least. Again we won't go into the importance of this because it's another topic.
However fat mans improvement of the infrastructure (I won't say club because again that's another topic) of his investment has meant that although the first team and fans haven't really been able to see the fruits of that labour, the staff and youth players have, most definitely.
We're among only a handful of Prem clubs who have a CAT 1 academy, that means that in theory we should be able to attract the best young talent available to us, right? Wrong.
Well not at the minute and that's mainly because in recent years we haven't been known for giving youth it's chance really, again though this is another topic with a ****e load of reasons why and how Benitez's power at the club will almost certainly improve this.
BUT then comes along the "Checkatrade trophy". Now most people don't really give a **** about these kind of tournaments apart from the clubs participating. It used to be the St Johnston's paint and is for EFL teams (excluding the Championship) but this season it is now including EPL CAT 1 and Championship CAT 2 teams.
This might not mean much at first glance but if you consider the fact it's televised and they're trying to push it to include grassroots added to the likes of each player being given a squad number and representing a EPL club against high level professional opposition - we already know how good our lower leagues are compared to anywhere in the world- so why the **** haven't we got a "dead good national team" or definitely more importantly a mint youth team/products of our academy compared to other countries?
This in my opinion will definitely help us getting a better calibre of player, funnily enough Everton have already pissed on our chips with the lad but let's not forget we've only just been promoted, they've spent a ****load of money and Koeman does give youth a chance (has done everywhere and one of the reasons why Southampton carried on getting performances out of their youth team (in terms of playing and finance).
I think with how transfer market prices are now this could be the more used way amongst managers in generating and using talent to bolster their squads, Chelsea have done it for a while as well as countless other rich clubs but that's a different story- it's clubs like Ajax, Anderlecht and Porto that every other club should be paying attention to tbh.
It gives young ambitious players the fast route to first team Prem football and you're likely going to be playing against good opposition and be on TV/in front of fans in the process...
Pushes the first team a lot more with increased coverage- why the ****s he in the u23's if he's that good? El Mahni??
They can be used throughout the season at any point because they'll have a squad number.
Makes sense to me.
In the mean time spend what we need before Thursday and show some of that ambition for a kick-start to a positive season eh.
Now we all know more emphasis needs to be placed on the playing squad in the here and now for a plethora of reasons, which we won't go into now but since Benitez has taken over there has been a vast improvement in player recruitment numerically at least. Again we won't go into the importance of this because it's another topic.
However fat mans improvement of the infrastructure (I won't say club because again that's another topic) of his investment has meant that although the first team and fans haven't really been able to see the fruits of that labour, the staff and youth players have, most definitely.
We're among only a handful of Prem clubs who have a CAT 1 academy, that means that in theory we should be able to attract the best young talent available to us, right? Wrong.
Well not at the minute and that's mainly because in recent years we haven't been known for giving youth it's chance really, again though this is another topic with a ****e load of reasons why and how Benitez's power at the club will almost certainly improve this.
BUT then comes along the "Checkatrade trophy". Now most people don't really give a **** about these kind of tournaments apart from the clubs participating. It used to be the St Johnston's paint and is for EFL teams (excluding the Championship) but this season it is now including EPL CAT 1 and Championship CAT 2 teams.
This might not mean much at first glance but if you consider the fact it's televised and they're trying to push it to include grassroots added to the likes of each player being given a squad number and representing a EPL club against high level professional opposition - we already know how good our lower leagues are compared to anywhere in the world- so why the **** haven't we got a "dead good national team" or definitely more importantly a mint youth team/products of our academy compared to other countries?
This in my opinion will definitely help us getting a better calibre of player, funnily enough Everton have already pissed on our chips with the lad but let's not forget we've only just been promoted, they've spent a ****load of money and Koeman does give youth a chance (has done everywhere and one of the reasons why Southampton carried on getting performances out of their youth team (in terms of playing and finance).
I think with how transfer market prices are now this could be the more used way amongst managers in generating and using talent to bolster their squads, Chelsea have done it for a while as well as countless other rich clubs but that's a different story- it's clubs like Ajax, Anderlecht and Porto that every other club should be paying attention to tbh.
It gives young ambitious players the fast route to first team Prem football and you're likely going to be playing against good opposition and be on TV/in front of fans in the process...
Pushes the first team a lot more with increased coverage- why the ****s he in the u23's if he's that good? El Mahni??
They can be used throughout the season at any point because they'll have a squad number.
Makes sense to me.
In the mean time spend what we need before Thursday and show some of that ambition for a kick-start to a positive season eh.