Is anybody worried ?

[MikeSB]

When I started the thread I was hoping it would not be hijacked by the age old academy discussion do I think the academy has a positive and negative impact on the first team yes the positives are it provides players for the first team ( although the overall quality of the players coming through is declining) but none the less it provides the downside is the club seem to not be able to run the academy and provide a healthy competitive first team budget, we the fans are paying near the highest season ticket prices in the league and yet get the bottom 4 or 5 first team budgets not really value for money. I think the directors need to increase the first team budget by at least 50% and it’s down to them to work out how the club achieves that. The current lack of activity just highlights how difficult it is for Lee to secure the numbers and quality the first team clearly needs and all of the above lands firmly at the feet of Charles Grant who needs to do much better in my humble opinion. Would I get rid of the academy NO would I downgrade it NO but both come with the caveat not at the expense of the first team budget, which must be much much better than it currently is.

With respect there are next to nobody posting here yet they get thousands of views...Why is that...Wartman you post very little here and so please don't tell people they are hijacking your thread...This club is run by a cabal of non footballers who want to keep the club for kids to play on...Fine but reduce the match day prices by three quarters as the standard of play we see can be seen on the Georges, most weekends..A club our size cannot afford to pay for a Cat2 academy and so cannot afford to compete with almost all other clubs our size on wages....We need an explanation...I will keep asking for one...We are losing money now and so how can the club increase the first team budget by 50% on that basis? They need to show us the balance sheet..

[Wartman]

With respect there are next to nobody posting here yet they get thousands of views...Why is that...Wartman you post very little here and so please don't tell people they are hijacking your thread...This club is run by a cabal of non footballers who want to keep the club for kids to play on...Fine but reduce the match day prices by three quarters as the standard of play we see can be seen on the Georges, most weekends..A club our size cannot afford to pay for a Cat2 academy and so cannot afford to compete with almost all other clubs our size on wages....We need an explanation...I will keep asking for one...We are losing money now and so how can the club increase the first team budget by 50% on that basis? They need to show us the balance sheet..

With respect Mike most if not all of your posts are either about the academy or attacking others who have a different view take these away from your total posts you actually post less of value than most others, including me. I attacked nobody in my post and in fact expressed a view on the academy not akin to your own however you still see fit to attack me. Read my post it is not in any way aggressive.

[MikeSB]

With respect Mike most if not all of your posts are either about the academy or attacking others who have a different view take these away from your total posts you actually post less of value than most others, including me. I attacked nobody in my post and in fact expressed a view on the academy not akin to your own however you still see fit to attack me. Read my post it is not in any way aggressive.

Sorry Wartman for my comments and actually to anyone else on here. I go on and on about the academy as we are told that is Crewe Alex and so everything we do is controlled by that decision. I just want the club to explain in pounds shillings and pence how that affects the profit and loss and the first team's budget and that is all....The fact the club refuses to do that means they want to keep it secret and so all I ask is WHY???

Its just personal but for me playing youths and kids in our first team is not what I supported this club for...I want to see seasoned players in our team...not tryers prone to injury the whole time..

[Furberstreet]

Going back to Wartman's original question, yes I am worried. I am worried about the flimsy first team squad and our consistent inability to compete financially with even many National League clubs. I look at the transfer news every morning as I drink my life-giving espressos and see our fellow League 2 clubs signing players as we hang on for both Baker-Richardson and Adebisi to put us out of our misery and confirm whether they stay or go. It will prove rather difficult to attract players of similar quality and the overall calibre of the first team squad will doubtless fall. I think that Lee Bell performed a miracle getting us to Wembley and deserves fulsome praise despite the poor tail off as the League 2 season moved to conclusion. That said, I expect that we will be looking down rather than up next season and I am already worried. As for the Academy, I do not doubt its fundamental place in the club's structure and tend to agree with those who prefer it to remain rather than scour everywhere for rejects from other academies. In fact, should we not be doing that already? It worked for Dario when the likes of Platt, Lennon and Savage were signed up. I do not deny that players of their calibre are scarce, but what is our scouting network like nowadays? Has that funding been drawn on to subsidise the Academy when there should be room for both to dovetail. Also, I read comments about the calibre of the Academy coaching staff. I would like to see recruitment widened than an endless stream of ex-Crewe employees returning. It all reminds me of the original definition behind unconscious bias before the woke brigade moved in, namely the interviewers consistently recruit interviewees from similar backgrounds and viewpoints. There has to be a contrary way of thinking and this should lead to a shift in the criteria required for new Academy coaches. Our Academy players may not equivalent in calibre to, for example, those at Arsenal, but they should not be outmuscled. Whilst I accept that the club's finances are shaky, it would be revealing to know what initiatives are under consideration to try and remedy the tight finances. I fear that I will be looking down next season and it hurts. Hopefully, my pessimism will be unjustified. Fingers crossed!

[lukcour]

Thank you for that post, Furber. At last someone on here has highlighted the problem with our Academy. Others have gone to great lengths to provide excuses. If we are to maintain Category2 we need a big clearout of their existing coaches. Good comment about the Arsenal team. Our academy players are poorly coached in the existing setup and nowhere near ready for 1st team inclusion. Our under21 team is a disaster.
Like Furber I am extremely concerned about next season. In the years I have supported the Alex I have never known such a poor standard of football from the 1st team down to the Academy.
I wonder if like me in the latter part of the season did our Chairman and Directors come away from each home game totally bored with the inept displays. Do our Board have any say in the quality of football? Or is that decided by the coaches?
Another pet moan of mine. I believe the RS commentators McGarry and Morse should be more aggressive with their interviewing.