Is anybody worried ?

[gazan]

Well chaps according to the last 3 posts everything in the garden is rosy. No need to worry about outside recruitment when we have an excellent number of it not physically strong enough that coaches for the Academy.
Igniore the fact that DV said it could not compete with the physical strength of other academy teams. Ignore the fact that the under21 team had an absolute disaster of a season. Ignore the fact that one of our own who you rave about midfield graduate when he gets the merest challenge by an opponent falls to the ground. The standard of coaching in the academy is so poor that the vast majority of the graduates are so poorly prepared for senior pro football. If as you suggest we maintain the current level of Category2 then IMO we need a drastic clearout of our current coaches. They simply are not good enough and are on an easy thing.
The standard of our 1st team after Christmas and in particular our Wembley game was so poor it was beyond belief.

But of course carry on with more of the same. Everything is fine with our club and no changes required, WOW.

Oh dear! Here we go again! ' if you don't agree with everything I say, then you must believe something ridiculously different'. Unfortunately, for the purveyor of this kind of philosophy, there is something called 'argument' and another thing called 'nuance'.
Argument here refers to steps in building and presenting a belief or idea, not simply having a big disagreement.
It is possible to have general agreement but not agree on detail. Nobody on here has suggested anything remotely resembling the idea that everything is "rosy" at the Alex but have in fact disagreed with the idea that simply downgrading/abolishing the academy is a 'silver bullet'. In fact this and at least one other current thread were started to discuss the lack of 'rosiness' at the Alex.
Forgive me when I react against this kind of thinking but, to my mind, it is related to the power of social media in limiting debate. This lack of real debate is also connected to the rise of a lot of 'bad actors' in politics.

[lukcour]

Oh thank goodness at last we have found something to agree on. You are absolutely correct, Starmer is a bad actor and his manifesto is full of fantasy land predictions. All of his proposals are fully costed, but only if the economy improves drastically.

Why do you presume I am looking for an argument, while at the same time you are a saint whose duty is to knock other posters proposals.
I gave 2 options. REduce to a Category3 academy, or get rid of the coaches that are making a mess of our existing Category2 academy. Will say it again it is clear and obvious that our kids are not being prepared correctly for senior pro football.
To be clear that is my opinion and in no way is it intended to be an argument.

[MikeSB]

Oh thank goodness at last we have found something to agree on. You are absolutely correct, Starmer is a bad actor and his manifesto is full of fantasy land predictions. All of his proposals are fully costed, but only if the economy improves drastically.

Why do you presume I am looking for an argument, while at the same time you are a saint whose duty is to knock other posters proposals.
I gave 2 options. REduce to a Category3 academy, or get rid of the coaches that are making a mess of our existing Category2 academy. Will say it again it is clear and obvious that our kids are not being prepared correctly for senior pro football.
To be clear that is my opinion and in no way is it intended to be an argument.

Dario signed a lot of good players and we had one or two brilliant others who came through as younger players that made the obvious difference. Dario ruined it by getting involved with the new FA academy structures...He knew Crewe were were not Cat2 but Cat3 or Cat4 IMO..I don't mind a discussion or argument as I base my opinions on playing to a good standard of football and as in the past there were no coaches trying to tell naturally gifted players how to play this very simple game. Coaching destroys talent in my opinion and when you have three managers/coaches shouting orders from the touchline you can have problems. I knew exactly what to do with a football and needed no guidance. My standard was non league. Players that played Pro football their level was decided by how good they were and let me try to explain to the non football playing fans here and on the Board of Directors...Young footballers ie under 21 do NOT have the physical attributes to play in the league and therefore need two or three seasons to develop physically. By that time they all want away for the big bucks and sod the contract extensions as the money is better without one...

The Chairman says we are losing money. That will lead to bankruptsy and non league. Perhaps he will explain to the clubs fans EXACTLY how much the academy costs the club and what can be done to break even? What IS the big secret when not one Crewe fans know what the players here get or how much the Cat2 academy is costing it?

We have not transferred any player in 12 seasons for decent money and nothing approaching the cost of the academy which is over one million pounds per season and still we are taking on more non procucers at RH...How much is RH costing the club?

[OzMozz]

The Academy !!!!!!!
No, I didn't say everything was rosy, but at least we finished in the top seven .... and who predicted that !!
What I am saying is that the club seems to be committed to having the academy in its current form for the foreseeable future. Is this correct ? I don't know. What I do know is people coming on here and saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over is not going to change that.
Get over it ..... new subject please !!!

[lukcour]

You have such an intelligent way of expressing your views.
Yes we finished 7th but from Christmas in were you not completely bored with our inept performances and lack of skill or any attacking capabilities?
goodness managed to complete this post without nonstop repeating. Perhaps you could also achieve that with a little practice.

[OzMozz]

Actually, we finished 6th.
Yes, we seemed to "battle" our way through the second half of the season instead of playing "good" football. Unfortunately sport is now results based and not performance based.
Now if we can only bring in the right players .......

[gazan]

What I don't understand is why such people want to scream and shout about the seemingly poor bits but are never seen during the good bits.
As for me being a Saint, thanks for the compliment but I just develop my opinions from a reasoned argument not just plucking them out of the ether.
Yes, to some extent, we do agree, Starmer is not the answer. Unfortunately under the current system he's much less bad than those, marginally and further, to the right of him.

[lukcour]

Actually, we finished 6th.
Yes, we seemed to "battle" our way through the second half of the season instead of playing "good" football. Unfortunately sport is now results based and not performance based.
Now if we can only bring in the right players .......

Actually Liverpool, Leicester, and Man. City not only achieved good results playing good exciting football but demanded it. They were always a pleasure to watch. Of course there were others to.

[Wartman]

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.

[MikeSB]

We are told that our team is wholly based on the academy. No other football club in England says or does that...The Chairman says we are losing money...LB says we pay low wages which puts potential players signings off.

The club refuses to tell us what the Cat2 academy costs to run. The club refuses to tell us what wages the players are on...The club wants the fans to turn up as long as they are kept in the dark about how the club is run..90% pf L1 and L2 clubs won't have a Cat 2 academy.

Dario was great in that he said we needed to transfer a player each season for £760,000 pounds. He told us what wages the players were on that signed on loan here...

Why doesn't the club have someone to come onto the media and answer some of these questions? "Tell em nowt", is their policy! Someone needs to explain how Gillingham can afford to pay more wages than we do...