Reasons NOT to have an academy?

[MikeSB]

I was asked to post this earlier and so here goes, my first attempt at it...

Please come back on each point or just remain silent, its fine by me..
1. How much does the academy cost the club and fans?

Eg. Nothing, 10K? 760K, more, how much?

The answer will determine what follows. But it's my view even if it's nothing, it's still the wrong path for almost any club, including the PL. The club should tell us the answer irrespective.

2. Coaching is a deterrent to natural ability as coaches/trainers cannot affect natural ability. Training in matches and having gym facilities could improve things but an academy is not required just the facilities to play football and we have that at Gresty Road and Shavington. The great Jimmy Greaves views as well and he should know.

3. Coaches are not Professional Players of a high standard and even when they were like David Platt was, with all the badges, he couldn't make the academy system work. He was signed here at Crewe and went on to be England's Captain but that was not due to coaching but to just playing first team football.

4. There are many NON football coaches and trainers who have no right or business telling players with natural ability how to play the game. Kids can learn to do anything with a football without any help whatever. All this costs a load of money that needs spending on better players for the whole reason the club exists..ie the First team. Any academy expenditure reduces that possibility.

5. Nobody should be coaching 5 year olds, ten year old and even 15 year olds. They are far too young physically and emotionally to know if at the age of let's arguably say age 18 to know if they are capable for hard graft professional football. Especially when there are thousands of footballers playing week in and week out world wide in amateur and local football to watch and sign and arguably will be better than the ones we have on Professional terms. But that's just an opinion. My playing this game meant that I was not the right Pro standard and there were many many more players better than me at local level but maybe would struggle in the Pro game. It shows how good they were in the Pro game back then.

6. Academy graduates are definitely not fully physically or mentally fit to play against seasoned Pro's as they are too weak and get injured easily and need two or three seasons in men's football to mature. Even Lee Bell acknowledges this fact. This means one million pound per season spent on a wing and a prayer just in case we could sell a player for what? Dario said £760,000 pounds PER SEASON. It did work for a time. But when was the last big transfer away? 10 years and 10 million pounds spent on the academy?

7. Something nobody has come back on. Parents can only take their kids to the local football club as most work and could not possibly spend time going to say Manchester or Liverpool for two or three hours what two or three times a week and then go back to work? So no matter what level the academy is, ie Cat1 or Cat4, kids will go to the same one and so downgrading ours to Cat3 or Cat4 would not make any difference. No fan here as come up with any local kids going to Cat1 academies if they are so good as suggested.

8. Loaning players as we do is not good for academies as it depresses the ones in it as not suitable and so why bother with them. Loanees are mostly not good enough and also are far too young themselves to be effective. And reasonably have no real loyalty to the club.

9. We last won the World Cup 67 years ago with no academies and in 99% of cases not reached the final stages of the WC with all the hundreds of millions spent on academies in England.

10 Last one for now. Dario did succeed with academies as he had a good match of seasoned Pro's and some very good graduates but that was really only for about 7 years in our history and we did get a new stand built with transfer money. I've not mentioned the Board of Directors or the pitch and that may come later...

11, no one more...Academy coaches are not suitable for managers in the Pro game as proven here, by Steve Holland, Steve Davis, Dave Artell, Lee Bell at el. Its all done presumably to save money but many Pro's in the game we have signed have fallen out with the coaches in the Tech area as they tried to tell them how to play football.