Quote Originally Posted by somersetcrewe View Post
I know we’ve had this discussion on here a lot in the recent past, much to the scorn of quite a few, but is it really the tired, out-dated concept that many now seem to suggest?

Perhaps my glasses are rose-tinted but I would suggest it is almost as relevant today for a club our size as it was 30 years ago. You only have to look at clubs like Exeter. I’m not sure how long they have been trying to do this but whatever it is, it is beginning to bear fruit – Tom Nicholls to Peterborough, Ollie Watkins to Brentford and of course the big one, Ethan Ampadu to Chelsea while still 16 (far too early but hey!), and now another 16 year old (Jack Sparkes) has just made his debut as a 2nd half sub. Damn, if they can do it, why should we stop?

If we are going to do anything this year, let’s be honest, it won’t just be because of Daggers, Porter and Raynes. We need our own to step up too – and the early signs are good with Garratt, Lowery, Ainley and Pickering. But the real jewel in our crown is George. If he can have the Nick Powell effect (he needs to score goals to do that though), then I’m filled with plenty of optimism for this season. And even if it doesn’t happen, surely we have the foundations laid for next season or the season after that.

The academy is our future and will continue to be so until football finances take a strange twist or we get that wealthy benefactor. And if current team selections are anything to go by (no loanees!), then I think Big Dave sees it that way too!
Without doubt the Academy is a fixture and rightly so. Our only hope of success and progress is by developing our own players. Things have undoubtedly changed (not for the better) since Dario first established it and it is fair to say that the days of million pound or multi-million pound sales are a thing of the past. However, with good negotiations on sales of the likes of Cooper, Jones and Garrett there is still money to be made to fund development of future players. I am led to believe that there are some very good players who are not yet in the first team squad which bodes well for the future.
Of course there is more to developing players than the sell on. Fielding a team made up of several Academy graduates saves the club money in terms of wages. I am certain that the likes of, for example, Pickering, Ainley, Lowery etc are probably on less than half the money that Porters and Dagnalls are enjoying. So the argument in favour of running an Academy stacks up on both counts. I am aware that particularly during the latter stages of the Davis era there were forcible arguments by some in favour of downgrading or even scrapping it and spending the money saved on first team recruitment. Of course this would have chances of success in the short term. But that is exactly what it would be, short term.