Will Jol be the death of our Academy???

[David Allen Crankshaw]

Hodgson and Hughes never even looked towards the academy for possible first team players. Sanchez did introduce Matthew Briggs to first team action and we all know what a dreadful manager he turned out to be. There is a massive gulf between U18 and U21 level and the Premier League and a tremendous difference in atmosphere playing before crowds of 50,000 and a few hundred at Motspur Park.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Cookie gave Briggs his first taste of the first team didnt he?

[HatterDon]

Cookie gave Briggs his first taste of the first team didnt he?

Nope, Sanchez brought him on the last game of the season. He was 15.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Oh sorry I thought that cookie.... Boro away wasnt it?

[JBH]

Our academy is doing well in the various age groups and to accuse Jol of ruining it is total pathetic if the youngsters were ready to make the first team they would all be playing in the under 21 league which is not the case.

[SouthfieldWhite]

We can't blame Jol for the shortcommings of our academy who have failed to give us a good premiership player for the last 15 years. Season after season we are told how good our youngsters are but none of our premiership managers has really managed to put an academy product to good use.

The last home grown player to make a real impact for us was Sean Davies and his development was pre academy.

You keep saying the same thing Filham and don't know how many times I've answered this,...... We have never had this many good players in our academy, this is down to the chaps who run the academy who have only been here a few years and to see the fruits of their hard work coming through so soon, speaks wonders for them,

It takes may years to go from a poor academy which we had to what we have now

But trust me, young players WILL go elsewhere if they think there's no pathway into the first team

[HatterDon]

Oh sorry I thought that cookie.... Boro away wasnt it?

yessir, your are correct, sir.

[Steven Ageroad]

Oh sorry I thought that cookie.... Boro away wasnt it?

yessir, your are correct, sir.

Middlesborough,it was the last game of the season and we thought that we would need the points from that game to stay up, so MAF chartered a Jumbo jet to send as many supporters up there as possible and we paid £99 return to fly into "Teeside International"! airport. I think there were 14 coaches waiting for us and we got a police escort to and from the ground. We lost but still stayed up. Sanchez put Briggs on later in the game and he became the youngest player to play a Premiership game. He hasn't progressed much really has he!

[SG]

We can't blame Jol for the shortcommings of our academy who have failed to give us a good premiership player for the last 15 years. Season after season we are told how good our youngsters are but none of our premiership managers has really managed to put an academy product to good use.

The last home grown player to make a real impact for us was Sean Davies and his development was pre academy.

You keep saying the same thing Filham and don't know how many times I've answered this,...... We have never had this many good players in our academy, this is down to the chaps who run the academy who have only been here a few years and to see the fruits of their hard work coming through so soon, speaks wonders for them,

It takes may years to go from a poor academy which we had to what we have now

But trust me, young players WILL go elsewhere if they think there's no pathway into the first team

The Club are on record as stating that from 2014 they want 40% of the first team squad to be from the Academy - that will be 10 players. That is the target that Huw Jennings and his team are working towards. Provided that they manage to bring through sufficient players of the right quality I think these players will be pushed into the first team squad irrespective of who the manager is. I suspect that these decisions are as much the club's as Martin Jol's.
So I don't think you can claim that he is ruining the Academy just yet. If the young lads continue to develop and he does not play them next season then I believe your question would become a true statement. We have to believe that the reason why we have so many older players is that they will be progressively replaced by these young prospects over the next year or so. However there are very few premier league teams that have to date managed to bring through this many young players at the same time.
Young players may go to other academies if they are not coming through to play at ours but remember the same can be levelled at the very top clubs likes of WGDTFC, Spurs who now simply buy everyone and hardly have a player from the academies. Players that may have gone there may now go to FFC and so it goes on.
I would have loved him to play some of the younger lads in the game at Burton. However should we have lost the match everyone would have moaned that he is not taking it seriously and that was our only chance of winning silver ware. Years ago young lads used to play a few games at the end of a season when there was nothing much to play for. Now that does not happen as there is the placement money available - winning our last game last season gave us an extra £3million.

[FFC1987]

We can't blame Jol for the shortcommings of our academy who have failed to give us a good premiership player for the last 15 years. Season after season we are told how good our youngsters are but none of our premiership managers has really managed to put an academy product to good use.

The last home grown player to make a real impact for us was Sean Davies and his development was pre academy.

You keep saying the same thing Filham and don't know how many times I've answered this,...... We have never had this many good players in our academy, this is down to the chaps who run the academy who have only been here a few years and to see the fruits of their hard work coming through so soon, speaks wonders for them,

It takes may years to go from a poor academy which we had to what we have now

But trust me, young players WILL go elsewhere if they think there's no pathway into the first team

I would already dispute your comment that other teams are starting to pick up talent(Brentford,qpr) over ourselves. A lot of the talent that is coming through are arguably better than previous and regarding bringing players in, we are competing with the likes of United etc. Players are getting fully coached, aloud more opportunities via loans and given arguably the best coaching around. I see nothing to fear with how the academy is being run. As for the average age, an article recently posted that some of our starting teams have had an average age of 28/29 which is an improvement. The fact that squad numbers are being given to parts of the development squad and players have either come through already or are gettying chances in pre season shows its working. As for the model of the club, selling Frei (whether we liked it or not) is showing the model is beginning to take shape. No offence but it's far too soon to even consider this a problem when you see the talented youngsters we have managed to capture. BUT if in say 6 years time, no one has come through, you would have a valid point. (in the context of time)

[filham]

We can't blame Jol for the shortcommings of our academy who have failed to give us a good premiership player for the last 15 years. Season after season we are told how good our youngsters are but none of our premiership managers has really managed to put an academy product to good use.

The last home grown player to make a real impact for us was Sean Davies and his development was pre academy.

You keep saying the same thing Filham and don't know how many times I've answered this,...... We have never had this many good players in our academy, this is down to the chaps who run the academy who have only been here a few years and to see the fruits of their hard work coming through so soon, speaks wonders for them,

It takes may years to go from a poor academy which we had to what we have now

But trust me, young players WILL go elsewhere if they think there's no pathway into the first team

I keep saying the same thing because the same topic keeps coming up, a premiership quality product from the academy would stop the subject arising and stop me repeating myself.

Name premiership quality players that our academy have produced that have gone elsewhere, difficult, no we are just not finding the right youngsters.

[GloucesterWhite]

I used to read sensible comments on here but few lately.

The nearest we have to a youngster ready for the first team is probably Dan burn. He's away getting experience with Birmingham and could be ready to challenge for a place next year. Who else is Jol supposedly holding back? Trotta? He couldn't get into the Watford team and plays every now and then for Brentford!! Kaca benefited greatly from his loan at Watford and has featured for the first team when fit. What's wrong with loaning out our kids to get experience of real matches?

Sheesh. This place is getting so depressing.