Barrow

[MikeSB]

I must admit, in a state of shock, i watched live and then again today, watching that against Barrow. Too sideways (John Mahoney days!), if Barrow quicker we would of being caught 3-4x playing out. The Barrow goal scored from 3 yards out (I could not see deflection, where was the keeper?). What's the 40 yard cross field balls, we are not skilled enough for that. Tabner since last years injury, either lost a yard or I think played in the wrong slot. Ineffectual up front, not a target or even ball holding. If the only real shot had gone the other side the post, it would of flattered us. The subs brought on did bring some urgency, however was shocked no changes after 45 mins. If we play like that Tuesday, we shall be 3 or 4 down, looks like Blackpool was reality. Let's see what the week brings!

John Mahoney days? He cried on the pitch at the final whistle before he joined Stoke...

He was a pretty good player imo..

Thing is other fans can attack me for the broken record and agreed, its a pain in the neck but they should concentrate not on my views as I never believed in academies as players were always signed on ability not millions spent on what they may be like in ten years...I mean LB has been here many years and so cannot possibly be happy wih these performances..Just get the players to attack the goal from the first minute and have a dozen shots at goal in 90 mins not zero...I still blame Don Revie for all this negative football tactics and having one striker if you can call him that when the whole game was designed for 5 forwards and 3 midfield players ie 8 players attacking if needed. What we have in modern day football is 8 players no 10 players defending...

Its easy to remedy but you have to have managers who know all this and change accordingly..

Barrow, alonside Stockport and Wrexham were non league for many years and we are worse than them despite millions going into a kids playground...I forecast academies will disappear as quick as they arrived when we get people in the FA who actually know how football should be played...Who is the next England Manager?

[lukcour]

Please accept and understand that we fully accept that the Academy is going to continue in its present form. This has been made abundantly clear in the recent comments from Charles Grant. We would be extremely naive to believe otherwise. So we have no disagreement there.

What I am extremely worried about is the standard of coaching at our Academy. They are not producing young men capable of physically competing in League2 professional football. They are producing little boys. IMO unless we have a clearout of the existing coaches the future looks bleak. After our youth cup game against Arsenal the manager David Vaughan said we could not compete physically with Arsenal. He went on to say this has to change.

But that is not the only problem. For the past 2 seasons the under21 team based upon its results is not fit for purpose. They too for some reason cannot compete physically.

Then we come to our 1st team. Post Christmas and including our first 2 games our team has been so poor and negative it is beyond belief.

Is this not a recipe for disaster. I do not want to be knocking our team. I want to be praising them. But based on what I am witnessing I fear for our future.

[MikeSB]

Please accept and understand that we fully accept that the Academy is going to continue in its present form. This has been made abundantly clear in the recent comments from Charles Grant. We would be extremely naive to believe otherwise. So we have no disagreement there.

What I am extremely worried about is the standard of coaching at our Academy. They are not producing young men capable of physically competing in League2 professional football. They are producing little boys. IMO unless we have a clearout of the existing coaches the future looks bleak. After our youth cup game against Arsenal the manager David Vaughan said we could not compete physically with Arsenal. He went on to say this has to change.

But that is not the only problem. For the past 2 seasons the under21 team based upon its results is not fit for purpose. They too for some reason cannot compete physically.

Then we come to our 1st team. Post Christmas and including our first 2 games our team has been so poor and negative it is beyond belief.

Is this not a recipe for disaster. I do not want to be knocking our team. I want to be praising them. But based on what I am witnessing I fear for our future.

Hello my friend..I accept what you say about the Chairman's comments and the academy etc..

I go on and on about this because imo academies are for kids, they are after school football thing and the coaches are being paid out of money that should go on the first team even though the FA pay half of the cost and so that's half a million we are paying for kids to be trained up with nobody knowing how they will be in 10 years time. I also played this game to a decent level and was far better when I was over 21 than ever I was in my teems for obvious reasons...physical strength. Coaches CANNOT teach natural football skills and if our under 21's with 10 years coaching cannot make the grade, they should be got rid of and spend the money on the hundreds of players around the world not just the UK....

Academies are the play thing of the FA who know sod all about football..the PL spend tens of millions on them and one day they will abandon them...Just my opinion....The coaches are just second rate footballers and know less than meabout the game..