Academy General Topic

[BOF]

1 minute ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

He’s out of contract though, so I think they’ll make an announcement on him soon

You're right, so yes that would be consistent.

[Junxs]

Dan Bardell was saying in the latest podcast that he has heard that we are moving away from u23s football and to a B team next year.

Explains why so many players were let go, or does it? 

PS he also mentions that Jack Clarke has been given a new deal, but Corey Blackett-Taylor been released.

We wait for official confirmation I guess.

[sir_gary_cahill]

Jack Clarke never gets mentioned for some reason, very good footballer, got a chance, how long is his new deal?

[OutByEaster?]

4 hours ago, Junxs said:

PS he also mentions that Jack Clarke has been given a new deal, but Corey Blackett-Taylor been released.

We wait for official confirmation I guess.

I'm sure i read somewhere that Corey Blackett-Taylor had been confirmed as released.

[Tomaszk]

What's the B team mean? Are they not allowed in the U23 league?

7 hours ago, Junxs said:

Dan Bardell was saying in the latest podcast that he has heard that we are moving away from u23s football and to a B team next year.

Explains why so many players were let go, or does it? 

PS he also mentions that Jack Clarke has been given a new deal, but Corey Blackett-Taylor been released.

We wait for official confirmation I guess.

 

[useless]

Recruiting West Brom's academy manager Mark Harrion to do a similar job for us, according to John Percy. Albion fans replying to his tweet seem to think it's bad news for them, so looks like he has a good reputation. Presumably taking over from Sean Kimberley.

[MaVilla]

On 09/05/2019 at 23:44, Tomaszk said:

What's the B team mean? Are they not allowed in the U23 league?

 

It's basically the system they use at Brentford, Brentford don't have and u23 team etc they just have a B team.

The reason for this as far as I know is Brentford were fed up with other teams stealing their youth and making virtually no money from it, so they did away with the u?? Teams and went to a B team where the players were contracted and developed to either be sold on for a profit, or to be progressed in to the first team etc etc.

It's not like a youth system in the truest sense, but a developing potential system and designed to have good quality players, not youth for the sake of youth.

Ie: the B team could include a varied mix of players from 17 to 26 or whatever.

I would have to double check exactly how Brentfords B team system works but I'm pretty sure I'm correct in the sense they did it to overcome the issues of losing young talent etc. 

Edited June 11, 2019 by MaVilla

[MaVilla]

Interesting article giving an overview of Brentfords B team.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46864784

Quote

They are the jet-setting side without a league who are playing and beating European giants.

Brentford's B team are what remains after the Championship club chose to scrap its youth academy in May 2016.

It is a team made up of talented teenagers plucked from 'undervalued' countries, including Iceland, Denmark and Finland, plus young recruits from Manchester City, Brighton, Chelsea and Celtic, all moulded together with former Bees academy players.

All have first-team ambitions. And the club have made it their business to help realise them.

And so, with a peculiar fixture list that reads like the who's who of European football mixed with the who's that of the London game, the B team play out their season.

In the past week, they have beaten non-league club Wealdstone in the Middlesex FA Cup and Bayern Munich Under-19s 5-2 at the German club's £64m academy campus, then returned home to overcome Wingate & Finchley in the London Senior Cup.

"This week has been a really English week, playing in the cup on Tuesday followed by Saturday and again on Tuesday," said head coach Lars Friis.

"Sure, this Saturday game is in Europe, but travel-wise that is no different to going to Leeds.

"Now we are not in a league, we can structure who we want to play, when we want to play and when to give them days off.

"It is all about the players for me. What we put into the player, from daily training, education, nutrition, everything is more important than actually following the structure that they have done for 100 years in the football world.

"We have to look into other ways to develop players because the culture today is totally different to what it was 15 years ago."

Unearthing and nurturing talent, when competing for youngsters against English football's most glamorous clubs, is both demanding and sometimes brings little reward.

Some figures claim fewer than 1% of boys playing organised football make a career in the game, while it has also been reported than only 10% of academy players will sign professional contracts.

The Bees abandoned their academy after losing gifted teenagers Ian Carlo Poveda to Manchester City and Josh Bohui to Manchester United for little compensation.

At Brentford headquarters in Jersey Road, Isleworth, it equated to bad business.

The result: a radical restructure, which led to a number of job losses and aspiring young players being cut loose.

Controversial when viewed from the outside, "heartbreaking" for those who went through it.

 

[BOF]

Aston Villa taking academy manager Mark Harrison from West Brom

Quote

Harrison has been in charge of the Baggies academy for 13 years and during his time at the club it has regularly punched above its weight.

Under his guidance the academy has produced playing talent such as Saido Berahino, Kemar Roofe, Tyler Roberts, Izzy Brown, Romaine Sawyers, Rekeem Harper and Sam Field.

Last season, Albion boasted more England youth internationals than Manchester United and Liverpool.

Their under-18s reached the FA Youth Cup semi-final for the first time in 41 years with a team predominantly from Birmingham and the Black Country.

Harrison has also developed a pathway for coaches to thrive in such as Darren Moore and Jimmy Shan, who each rose through the ranks before leading the senior team.

Promoted to academy manager under former technical director Dan Ashworth, Harrison has been an integral part of Albion for more than a decade.

He also helped Shan with the senior team towards the end of last season before the club appointed Steven Reid and Michael Appleton as interim coaches.

Harrison will take up the running of Villa's academy at Bodymoor Heath, replacing Sean Kimberley, who has held the role since 2014.

 

He follows goalkeeping coach Neil Cutler, who also left Albion for Villa last year.

The search for Harrison’s successor at Albion is underway, with the Baggies exploring the possibility of both an internal and external appointment.

Options from within the club include Ryan Maye, who is currently head of academy coaching and has previously worked for the FA and Chelsea.

Mike Scott, who took the under-18s on their FA Youth Cup run, and Steve Hopcroft, Albion’s head of junior recruitment, are two other possibile candidates.

 

[Demitri_C]

Sounds like a coup for us with Harrison as he is very highly rated

[Cizzler]

4 hours ago, BOF said:

Under his guidance the academy has produced playing talent such as Saido Berahino, Kemar Roofe, Tyler Roberts, Izzy Brown, Romaine Sawyers, Rekeem Harper and Sam Field.

Fair enough if he is highly rated, but that’s not exactly an inspiring list, is it.

[MaVilla]

So are we going to a B team format rather than u23 etc?

[useless]

That thing of Dan Bardell saying that we're moving towards a b side, is a misunderstanding. I listened to the podcast myself just to see what he says, and he doesn't actually say it himself, he was reading someone's tweet who was suggesting it. Besides if anything us appointing Mark Harrison as an academy manager, would seem to indicate that we have no intention of scrapping the u23s.

[MaVilla]

12 minutes ago, useless said:

That thing of Dan Bardell saying that we're moving towards a b side, is a misunderstanding. I listened to the podcast myself just to see what he says, and he doesn't actually say it himself, he was reading someone's tweet who was suggesting it. Besides if anything us appointing Mark Harrison as an academy manager, would seem to indicate that we have no intention of scrapping the u23s.

well, he could be managing the B team, rather than the "academy", but yeah, fair point.

[useless]

I don't think he's a manager in the sense of someone who's going to be on the training ground with the players and in the dugout on matchdays, more someone who oversees operations, and helps set policy. I think the talk of a B team originally came out because of the talk of us releasing a number of our u23s, but I think with a number of them it's more the fact that they're probably getting a bit too old for academy football now, and I guess the others are deemed not good enough. Off the top of my head Grealish, Crowley and Robinson are the only players we've produced in recent times who've gone on to prove themselves in the top two divisions, and two of those we haven't really had any benefit from.

Edited June 11, 2019 by useless

[MaVilla]

29 minutes ago, useless said:

I don't think he's a manager in the sense of someone who's going to be on the training ground with the players and in the dugout on matchdays, more someone who oversees operations, and helps set policy. I think the talk of a B team originally came out because of the talk of us releasing a number of our u23s, but I think with a number of them it's more the fact that they're probably getting a bit too old for academy football now, and I guess the others are deemed not good enough. Off the top of my head Grealish, Crowley and Robinson are the only players we've produced in recent times who've gone on to prove themselves in the top two divisions, and two of those we've had any benefit from.

wonder how Crowley would have got on at Villa if he had stayed, and not got churned up and spat out by the Arsenal machine.

[useless]

I think he's actually doing okay for himself at the moment as a midfielder for Willem II in the Dutch Eredivisie.

[MaVilla]

Just now, useless said:

I think he's actually doing okay for himself at the moment as a midfielder for Willem II in the Dutch Eredivisie.

yeah true, i mean more he "could" have been playing alongside Grealish, would have been good to see if he had fulfilled the potential he showed early on at Villa.

[useless]

Maybe we could buy him back, might make a good understudy to Grealish.

[sir_gary_cahill]

55 minutes ago, useless said:

I don't think he's a manager in the sense of someone who's going to be on the training ground with the players and in the dugout on matchdays, more someone who oversees operations, and helps set policy. I think the talk of a B team originally came out because of the talk of us releasing a number of our u23s, but I think with a number of them it's more the fact that they're probably getting a bit too old for academy football now, and I guess the others are deemed not good enough. Off the top of my head Grealish, Crowley and Robinson are the only players we've produced in recent times who've gone on to prove themselves in the top two divisions, and two of those we've had any benefit from.

Don’t forget Jordan Graham and Daniel Johnson too