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If all our promising players are going to Villa? I know Harrison and Hopcroft thought Dowling was a c unt so I have heard but FFS - do these players see a club on the up and us on the decline?
Is this another balancing the books? Will Baggie Bird be the next to go - must cost a fortune to wash those costumes and eating into our budget!
It doesn't cost much to have an academy, you only need one player to come through for it to be value for money. Our sale of Harper for a million probably funded it this year. Ferguson tribunal will probably fund it for 3 and what's the value of O'Shea? Probably a fair amount if he plays well this season. It's a no brainer to have one and take a hit on losing a few.Quote:
Originally Posted by baggieal
Ask Birmingham if they value their academy. The Bellingham sale has kept them afloat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by baggiematt
And the reason why all the best players going to Villa is? Our company is very successful - should we care therefore if promising contracts go to a competitor?
They pay more money, simple as that. They're an established premier league club with deep pockets and we aren't.Quote:
Originally Posted by baggieal
Don't get me wrong it's a massive hit to the academy but I wouldn't write off it's benefit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by baggiematt
But my point is their new owners paid less for them than Lai did for us and they were almost liquidated! We could have been where they are!
The clue is in the word - investment!
Lai was sold a pup by Peace. He wants out asap & wants to get out with minimum loss.Quote:
Originally Posted by baggieal
He'll never get what he was rumoured to have paid about £200m so it'll be parachute payments in his pocket and if we are lucky use of the transfer kitty
And the problem is Lai saving face so crucial in China- he can't do a firesale so he claws it back bit by bit & we go nowhere but down.
Once he has his investment back he may not even sell at a loss on his purchase price to save face.
We will become a forgotten investment because he can't lose face and he'll never get anywhere near what he paid
We are in a slow but inevitable downward spiral
Maybe Val can slow the decline but we'll never be worth £200m and that is Lai's stumbling block if he is to save face
just shows owe the viles academy is totally crap having to prise other academy youngsters.Quote:
Originally Posted by baggieal
Number 1-How many top class players do we have at the academy? Like Harvey Barnes? Or in the past Bryan Robson?
Number 2- If we get anyone close to the two players mentioned how can we expect to keep them?
We don’t have a hope of keeping top players. And the other also rans can’t break into our first team. It is a problem.
Brentford ditched there's and gone down this route.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...eague-outcasts
I get Brentford's reasons for ditching the system. They are crowded by the bigger London clubs and they must have had 5-6 clubs doing to them what Villa are doing for us.
I do think we've been unlucky with the character of lads coming through, not the level of ability. The players leaving us for more money have surely made poor career choices longer term. Nathan Ferguson chose to leave a club where he was a first team player to probably sit on the bench for £5k more a week. How do you justify that mentality? Not many have left us at a young age and thrived.
O'Shea could be a top player for us in the years to come. How many 22 year old centre halves do you know at this moment with 45 caps across the top two leagues? It's a position that normally doesn't allow for younger players to flourish.