One of our own

[ncfcog]

This is interesting from the BDO website . . .

https://www.bdo.co.uk/en-gb/insights...nt-in-football

The final part of this page reads as follows, . .

Interestingly, despite two-thirds of FL1&FL2 Clubs increasing their emphasis on academies to drive success, only 53% of Respondents were expecting to see an increase in academy to first team conversion for the 2020/21 season, compared with 73% in 2019/20. In saying this, the most common challenges these Clubs identified in bringing through talent from the academies were;

• the medium-to-long term funding required to invest in adequate facilities;
• the fear of failure/relegation resulting in Clubs not wanting to take a chance on young players; and
• the perceived availability of talent in the local area to make the investment worthwhile - particularly prevalent in less densely populated areas of the country

For those who have plenty of time on their hands there are several insights into financing football clubs including a full blown Football Finance Directors Report.

https://www.bdo.co.uk/en-gb/insights...rectors-report

[The_Don_ORiordan]

The academy has produced a few players in recent years that we've sold, probably for a decent amount and certainly with plenty of clauses should they go on to be successful. Jack Bearne, Dongda He, Kion Etete. So it's not like the academy is completely fruitless.

Then there are the ones that got away, like Colby Bishop. But as others have said, he wasn't good enough to play for us when we had him. He had to drop down a few divisions to earn his stripes, as so many other players do. We probably didn't have the resources to keep him on the books on the off-chance he became the player he is today. The only one that genuinely seemed like a poor decision both at the time and in hindsight was letting Curtis Thompson go.

I assume the only reason no academy players are in the starting line-up today is because they simply aren't good enough, not because of some systemic issue that's preventing them from getting a look-in.

As for Grimsby and Wrexham having one player from their academies in their starting line-ups - good for them, but neither club has to compete with a Premier League club a few hundred metres away. If Wrexham had a Forest-style club across the road, perhaps their academy star wouldn't have been with them in the first place. Who knows.

I just think it's unrealistic in our current position to expect to be bringing through first-team stars on a regular basis. We might have the odd one on our books every few years, but chances are they'll get snapped up by bigger clubs if they are genuinely talented. That's just the way it is. It's not a philosophy issue, it's just reality.

The only club that bucks this trend - and has for decades - is Crewe, who seem to have a conveyor belt of decent young players coming out of their academy. But they are certainly an exception.

You throw a “no local PL club” I’ll throw a “densely populated”. You can’t have it all ways, there’s many multiple times the amount of population around us than Grimsby and Wrexham.

Yes, we’ve had youngsters who have been snapped up, and maybe that is really the philosophy. But surely other clubs have this problem?

We are really not unique.

Academy players are always compared to the Robert’s of the team, not the many young players we’ve signed who’ve stolen a living from us like the campbell’s, daniels etc.

And this really isn’t a new problem. “In our current position” perhaps highlights the short term thinking that has put us here.