One of our own

[The_Don_ORiordan]

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

Fascinating. The expectation of failure resulting in failure….sums up the current view of our approach.

[slack_pie]

Fascinating. The expectation of failure resulting in failure….sums up the current view of our approach.

Clubs that rely on youngsters may fail even harder though.

Academies make sense for top clubs, who can pick the absolute best young talent and have the facilities to nurture them. But for clubs of our size, it just seems too big a risk to throw money at something that probably won't work.

The chances of a youth-team player becoming an established first-team player for a lower-league club are pretty slim. If they aren't good enough or ready enough (the vast majority), they'll go - or the club will play them and be weaker on the field. If they are genuinely talented (and we've had a few), they'll go.