To Try And Take You Away From All Your Doom And Gloom

I thought I would articulate a post together totally off topic away from the current politics of your Club at present. It follows on from listening to the same subject on talksport yesterday evening, Academy football and the size of young growing players. Obviously youngsters are taken in at such a young age into either Academy or Centre of excellence centres dependent on facilities and finance with " prep" squads getting put together from the age of 7 years old and at u9 level playing and travelling to other Clubs. Firstly do you feel this is actually good for youngsters at this age and if not what age do you think they should start their road into football? Stories are told quite often of youngsters at 10/11 years old travelling 3 hrs up and 3 hrs back to play as little as just 10 minutes of football at some Clubs, parents pointed this out quite often in last nights show. Another well highlighted point of interest was the actual size of the players at that age and how many clubs simply pick the " big boys" and many very talented youngsters released at such an early age due to their current size, many highlighted the actual size of Arsenal players and correctly pointed out how good they are in ability and if you are playing for Arsenal you cant be too unblessed with great natural ability. One caller from Cardiff correctly pointed out how small Aaron Ramsey was as a young boy, another pointed out a large list of small players such as Messi, Maradona , Zola etc and dispelled the myth of " big players" stating the smaller players were far better balanced and had far more natural ability.

So with the new home grown rule coming back into play and British talent going to pursued more in the future whats your actual thoughts to the subject and hopefully we can take your mind of other matters with a good debate!

WHAT IS THE PERCENTAGE OF ''HOME GROWN'' PLAYERS THAT GET SIGNED UP ON PROFESSIONAL TERMS????

good book to read every boys dream-englands futyre on the line by chris green,out of 10k boys in the acadamy system at any onr time only about 1 per cent make it as a pro.

My boy 10 years of age is in 2 acadameys and i do think that the size of a boy helps a lot,

I ran a boy's and also a girls team from under 10's to under 15's! I lost quiet a few players to academy's! Most went not because they wanted to go but they parents bigged them up that much that they thought they were better than what they really were! They finnished up playing a handfull of games a season or never got a game! Some of these academy teams just take players on so other teams don't get them, then they lose interest when they don't play! luckily ive had some return and start to enjoy it again but alot pack in or just go along with the flow! And you are right that big strong players get taken more than the smaller skillfull ones! Rather sad really!!!!!!!!!

TNT that's my pet hate

my lad was in the cardiff city COE just before it went academy status and was told he was told too small at the age of 11.... .FFS

but you only got to look at the current stoke city side to see why the modern game only adapts to big and strong players hence if your under 5 foot 8 you ain't got a chance .There will always be the odd exception like aaron lennon and defoe for example but small players are very rare indeed at the top level .

today not only have you got to be a very good football player but also a very good athlete and and have very powerfull upper body strength .

Like athletics the current modern day football players have reached there peak in terms of power levels . The next stages will see almost bionic men kicking a football round !!

Agree my son plays for Bristol and played Cardiff the other week and all Cardiff were trying to do was play the ball to the big guy up front who actually used to play for me ,to me they are just using his size and strength to win which at that age its not about winning also your right it seems a long way to go for 80 mins of football

Earnie!!!

Until he bulked up a bit

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I ran a boy's and also a girls team from under 10's to under 15's! I lost quiet a few players to academy's! Most went not because they wanted to go but they parents bigged them up that much that they thought they were better than what they really were! They finnished up playing a handfull of games a season or never got a game! Some of these academy teams just take players on so other teams don't get them, then they lose interest when they don't play! luckily ive had some return and start to enjoy it again but alot pack in or just go along with the flow! And you are right that big strong players get taken more than the smaller skillfull ones! Rather sad really!!!!!!!!!

You said the magic word enjoy thats what its all about

It should be not how big a player is. It should be he's "big enough". It's the ability that counts not how big or quick he is this seems to be the Academy's way at the very young ages as well. Does the Academy/Dev Centres do enough for players considering the size of area/areas they opreate in which are virtually unopposed by other pro clubs only exception down West. The Academy/Dev centres could do a lot better in producing more players and the way they go about it considering the above. Views and opinions?

It should be not how big a player is. It should be he's "big enough". It's the ability that counts not how big or quick he is this seems to be the Academy's way at the very young ages as well. Does the Academy/Dev Centres do enough for players considering the size of area/areas they opreate in which are virtually unopposed by other pro clubs only exception down West. The Academy/Dev centres could do a lot better in producing more players and the way they go about it considering the above. Views and opinions?

The dev/centres do the best they can as they are self founded as you have to pay for your child to go, they are a way of getting into the academy set up there are plenty of kids playing on the parks to get picked for this level but the next step up is huge and the chances are limited .

If sam could have added up,not employed bobby gould[i actually believe thats when it went tits up for us]
alan cork etc,the acedemy he set would have indeed meant we had a team of almost all home grown players

That could be still the case if the Academy got their act together, they got virtually no competion and have a huge area to look at. They are afraid to change some things. Many players simply don't get an opportunity and they won't change it. I would say there are lot of players out there that could play at that level. We could produce more.

Problem with the academy is that they dont give kids the chance as they say its a gamble and rather stick with what they got

A good thread TNT.

I don't know anywhere near enough about all this sort of thing to comment in too much depth.

I can safely say that up to the age of 15, maybe even 17/18, it should just be about enjoyment and having a laugh.
People detract from the game itself far too much these days (hell, we know all about the game being superfluous, don't we?!)

I think it should be forbidden to sign a contract with anyone until you're 18. Simple as that.

Yes Elliot you are right the Academy just sticks with whats it got surely it's about developing them, giving them the chance and producing more. Other pro clubs will take in more players cos their Academys are different. Some pro clubs may also have 2 or 3 teams etc for example. Both Earnie and Matthews were nearly released due to their size. If they are good enough we should be taking them. Any comments TNT?

Another problem is that they wont let them play for there local team which stops a lot of kids going to the academy becauce they would rather play with there mates

Yes Elliot you are right the Academy just sticks with whats it got surely it's about developing them, giving them the chance and producing more. Other pro clubs will take in more players cos their Academys are different. Some pro clubs may also have 2 or 3 teams etc for example. Both Earnie and Matthews were nearly released due to their size. If they are good enough we should be taking them. Any comments TNT?

I started a thread regarding our Academy yesterday which I said I was shocked about the theory that they go for size and speed over ability and to read that you say Matthews and Earnie were nearly released cause of their size is highlighting it more, the question would be "how many talented youngsters have been released that we dont know about"