Kairdiff Exile wrote:

whoareya wrote: If we choose to sustain ourselves as Exeter do - nurturing and then selling academy players at profit to balance the books, then we need to be either raising their profiles and involvement in the first team, or setting strict perfornance conditions in the loan terms, so they don't end up wasted, broken or disillusioned.

This, 100%.

Liverpool brought on a lad the other night after 6mins (because of injury) at 0-0 in an important cup game who was 16 years old. 16! He did okay, got some useful experience under his belt and will doubtless benefit from the experience. I can't imagine us doing the same, and that's a pity.

I've not seen much of Foulston, but I know that Touray looks like a talent from what I've seen of his goals on Sgorio. With Harris gone, I'd argue we should bring him back and give him the same chances we were giving Harris. There's no point developing other teams' players at the expense of developing our own, especially when we need to sell players or have a cup run every season to balance the books.

rncfc wrote:I think that's the argument, they might not be "good enough" just yet, but if they are given a run of games they might pretty quickly become better than your average L2 player.

Clubs in our position, with a reluctance to not be fan-owned, need to be making sure this message is heard loud and clear by the management team in my opinion. Because if we have literally no players good enough to get some minutes in our first team, what is the point of the academy?

Exile 1976 wrote:

rncfc wrote:I think that's the argument, they might not be "good enough" just yet, but if they are given a run of games they might pretty quickly become better than your average L2 player.

Clubs in our position, with a reluctance to not be fan-owned, need to be making sure this message is heard loud and clear by the management team in my opinion. Because if we have literally no players good enough to get some minutes in our first team, what is the point of the academy?

I agree, however, if these youngsters are not yet ready but get picked and make mistakes or we even lose games then Flynn will be in for a hell of a lot of stick from a lot of our fans.

rncfc wrote:I see from the SWA website he's gone on loan to Merthyr. I just hope this doesn't end up being another one of those promising players who never gets given a chance to improve, and ends up staying at that level.

Considering we have such huge money problems given our ownership structure, my personal opinion is that players like this should be playing - at least from the bench - to see if exposure to a better level of competitive football improves them. I appreciate that in the short term that might not be the best option, but there needs to be some more joined up thinking between the football management team and owners where our young players are concerned.

If it means we end up finishing 13th instead of 11th because of a couple of individual mistakes, then so what?

rncfc wrote:

daftasfxxx wrote:I don't understand why some qustion why these youngsters are sent out on loan, if they're not doing it in training, practice matches etc then why should they be risked in league games and to be honest, no disrespect intended, if a player did end up at Merthyr"s level and stayed at that level then thats probably the players true level, cream will always rise to the top

If the best our academy can produce isn't good enough for a middling L2 club, then we need to be asking questions of why we are throwing so much resource at it.

Look at the amount of players Exeter have sold in recent years and what they have done with the money. In my opinion it's less to do with a huge difference in facilities or coaching, and more to do with the young players actually being given a chance to improve in a competitive environment at Exeter, whereas they are not here.

Cornish Exile wrote:

rncfc wrote:

daftasfxxx wrote:I don't understand why some qustion why these youngsters are sent out on loan, if they're not doing it in training, practice matches etc then why should they be risked in league games and to be honest, no disrespect intended, if a player did end up at Merthyr"s level and stayed at that level then thats probably the players true level, cream will always rise to the top

If the best our academy can produce isn't good enough for a middling L2 club, then we need to be asking questions of why we are throwing so much resource at it.

Look at the amount of players Exeter have sold in recent years and what they have done with the money. In my opinion it's less to do with a huge difference in facilities or coaching, and more to do with the young players actually being given a chance to improve in a competitive environment at Exeter, whereas they are not here.

Andrew Hughes, Regan Pool, Aaron Collins. Not good enough?

Percy plunkett wrote:Jay should have been playing every week for the Academy rather than sat in the stand or unused sub with little or no chance of getting on.He could still have trained with the first team as well as the Academy.He needs game time but the fear is,he and Touray will play out their contracts out on loan,then get released.

County ranger wrote:

Percy plunkett wrote:Jay should have been playing every week for the Academy rather than sat in the stand or unused sub with little or no chance of getting on.He could still have trained with the first team as well as the Academy.He needs game time but the fear is,he and Touray will play out their contracts out on loan,then get released.

Why is there fear if they are good enough they will be offered contract extensions if not they will be released - that is football

whoareya wrote:Didn't this forum sponsor his kit this season?

Waste of money then.

Percy plunkett wrote:

County ranger wrote:

Percy plunkett wrote:Jay should have been playing every week for the Academy rather than sat in the stand or unused sub with little or no chance of getting on.He could still have trained with the first team as well as the Academy.He needs game time but the fear is,he and Touray will play out their contracts out on loan,then get released.

Why is there fear if they are good enough they will be offered contract extensions if not they will be released - that is football

Even though Flynny worked in our Academy,he appears to have fallen into the trap of past managers and shun the Academy for tried and tested players at our level,some of whom are no more than journeymen.Butcher had no money to bring in players so had no option but to throw in Poole,Collins and Parselle with TOE otherwise they may not have had a chance and may have fallen by the wayside like many others.