Portsmouth

[MikeSB]

Some here won't like the answer which is pretty obvious really and you would think the new Board and Chairman would see this and make a strategic decision to change the academy policy and leaving RH gives a great opportunity to do just that. If every other club in the lower leagues apart from one or two don't have and actually don't want a Cat2 academy why does our club want to go against what they do? Of course it worked for many years and was successful only because we were able to get millions in transfer fees and were able to attract some decent players like Dean Ashton, Rodney Jack and Luke Varney and before that David Platt who didn't come through the academy. When was the last time we transferred someone OK lets say for a million pounds? I can't recall now but it must have been at least 5 years ago and since that time we have spent well over 5 million on the academy and so is that value for money when we could have signed some better players and probably paid better wages with that money and still had a huge sum in the bank still and what is more important that few people realise and failed to answer is who outside of our area have we signed as kids that are attracted here only because we are Cat2 and won't because we are Cat3 or Cat 4 or indeed no FA academy?

Kids want to play football and so no matter what the level of academy we would attract the same kids only because parents don't have the time or the inclination to take their children to oher clubs outside the area and until some fans can answer that simple question, we cannot move on the debate..And we cannot sign players of decent calibre because we won't or cannot compete on wages with 99% of other clubs even those who have gates half our size like Accrington. Fans say ah its because the latest 'crop' are not as good and the next 'crop' will come along etc.....In the meantime? Well you get the picture. Wedded to an outdated academy policy will result in us getting relegated and almost back where we started and 20 millions passed through the books...To any reasonable person that is NOT progress but heads in sand thinking...I thought our new Board would be better than that and acted sooner and advertising for more and more coaches for the academy when they say we cannot afford 50K for a player suggests they never will and each manager and coach we have at the club is at the expense of a player and thus missing the whole point of what fans want from their football club....IMO as usual. If we have to pay for training facilities away from RH and money is draining away like it seems then the policy will have to change whether they like it or not...What is the point of one promotion only to get related one or two seasons later. That is NOT progress. And not one other club in football would keep a management team with our results and its probable they haven't because we cannot afford the redundancy payments. How much are the three new coaches going to cost the club? £50k?