[Lord Snooty]

What do we all think about the scrappage plans then?

Personally I don't think it's right, but if Dean Hoyle says this is how it must be, then so be it.

[jjamez]

i'm not bothered in all honesty, for all the money that has been pumped into it, it hasnt delivered, one reason or another, it could be the people coaching the kids, the kids not having the talent or scouts looking for the wrong things or in the wrong places, plus other teams snapping up the better youth players, although I think that is a kop out factor.
Thing is, it is probably broken from top to bottom with all those factors playing a part and we've gone through numerous heads of the academy and seen no better results, so end of the day this is probably both a quick fix and a long term solution, shut it down immediately, everyone goes, proper review on everything to do with it, keep an eye out on things at other clubs and if the FA bring in some more rules on academies or things change then reopen it.
personally I can see it reopening once the powers that be can really look into why things havent worked out, without the distraction of it running whilst you are looking at it. the club could do with looking at other academies that have been successful and see what they do different. They needed to wipe the slate clean to try and identify the real problems, again personally I think it is to do with the scouts and the coaching, but it can only be truly addressed with the doors firmly shut. I think they teach the wrong stuff and look for the wrong stuff. Technique should be the first thing that is looked for, not physical traits. Technique is what gives players that upper hand.
maybe the FA have to look at making things easier for clubs with their youth recruitment, say for example anyone in a HD post code can only be signed up by huddersfield until 16, same for all the other clubs, whereas someone in a WF post code is a free for all in surrounding postcodes so hudds leeds bradford and barnsley ect

[Lord Snooty]

Well we said when Frankie Bunn got his cards that it would be a job for Mark Hudson. And so it is. He's got the u23s coach's job and Leigh Bromby is the new Academy manager.

[Lord Snooty]

Well! A team described as "young and experimental" has lost an u18 game today at home to somebody called #swfc by the scoreline of 1-10.
Are we still satisfied with what is happening with our academy?

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On the other hand, Rekeil Pyke scored a hattrick in a 4-3 win for the u23s at Watford yesterday.

[theo_luddite]

Our under 18's and down in age groups used to beat everyone. How many have had a first team squad number let alone been sold for enough money to pay for their personal development. A slack handful have gone on to get paid anywhere else to play. Learn more from a good whalloping than 10 wins.

[Devongone]

I'd have thought that with less money than the teams you are currently competing against you would be reliant for maintaining your current position on smart dealings on the transfer market by a clever young manager, assiduous scouting and recruitment of talented unknowns in league two and non-league football, AND developing your own youngsters. There has to be an advantage to being small in the youth development area. Chelsea for instance, have created a giant loan and rejection system, which brings through precious few youngsters to first team level. A smart Huddersfield could be so very different.

I don't get U-23 football. If you are 22 and nowhere near the first team at Huddersfield, you should be playing for Chesterfield. Your career could be over at 30. If you haven't really started it at 23 and you're playing ticcy-taccy to impress a youth coach - the clock is accelerating big time.

I reckon the big gap appears after the age of 17. At Chesterfield we find ourselves with several promising players of that age and if they can't make the first team, because we've filled it with failing loanees from Premier League clubs etc. we have precisely nothing to do with them but send them on a series of third-rate loans. The result is we tend to create players who star in the Evo-Stick, because that's what we've trained them to do.

For a club like Huddersfield it should be relatively easy to avoid both the Chesterfield scenario and the numbers game that a Chelsea will play. Despite their success on the field they bring through precious few youngsters. Loftus-Cheek might make it with them, who before him, John Terry? And when they've bought a young player who seems only to have reached the verge of their best eighteen, does he develop and come through. Ask Kevin de Bruyne and Mo Salah.

I reckon jjamez hits one nail on the head talking about technique and skills. Of course you should be seeing them even in raw recruits and of course you should be developing them. I'd have also said that if you are small you can afford to be flexible. Players develop at different rates. You don't have to discard a lad because he has promise but isn't quite where you'd like at 17. If his attitude's right, why not see how develops, see if he grows, see if he starts to fill out and win tackles? And for chrissakes don't maroon him and his mates in a desert of youth footballers all trying to play "the right way" to impress coaches rather than win games. The aim of any game is for somebody to win and somebody to lose. Lads have to learn to play with and against men and they need to learn how to win, how playing in a really competitive game feels ........ because there is no point in all the skill and technique in the world if a nasty piece of work from Stevenage can cancel it out in the first ten with a couple of tackles.

But if you can't compete to buy the top ready-made talent, what option have you long-term, but to find smart ways of recruiting and developing talent?

[theo_luddite]

assiduous scouting and recruitment of talented unknowns in league two and non-league football, AND developing your own youngsters.

You hit that nail on the head Devon - something Town have been crap at for years, other than the recruitment of the odd foreign unknown. We've developed a few players bought for 5-6 figures into 7 figure sales that have helped keep Deano out of the soup kitchens (unless he was donating to them and helping out) but not enough to pay for the £4-£7million a year he's invested that suddenly resulted in us being where we are. We are where we are because we stumbled across Klopp's best mate at a time when Deano had run out of patience with English managers just about keeping us in the Chumpionship.

I'll read the rest of you post now. looks like it could be interesting.

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PS - I think the plan is to try and cop for as many Blue Manc rejects as we can get our hands on. The complaint has been that they've hoovered up all the local talent. Well they might have done because our so called scouts were looking in the wrong leagues for the wrong kids and turning up to the wrong games in the wrong age groups on the wrong days. Apart from that, the kids they found were were perfect at something other than football, so we then spent fortunes turning pigs ears into pork scratchings.

Can't disagree with what you said about the U23's. We sacked Mark Lillis from the Academy for winning all before hime by playing as many up to the age limit (or over) players as he could in any age group to win games. That's all we did, win games with 19 year olds playing against 17 year olds etc, etc. He didn't bring a single player through that we sold for beans let alone millions. So we got rid of him, brought someone else in and what changed? Fook Hall.

Hence we have U18's, U 23's and we'll look for Prima Donna League cast-off's and try and develop them.

That said, we've nowt to moan about compared to you lads. Well done for sticking with it with the numpty you have that owns the club. I see Jack has even jacked it in now. If you need some pork scratchings for next season, come have a look at our Academy.

[Devongone]

The problem that many smaller clubs have is that they copy what the big academies do and I can't see the point in being a poor copy of something that doesn't even work very well on a large scale.

The best player this country has produced in years IMO is Dele Alli. He came through at Milton Keynes. He made the first team at 17. He had a season in Division One honing his skills against men who seriously wanted to cancel them out. Spurs couldn't have bought him a better training. Okay it left a bit of aggression in him, but if an opposing player dallies on the ball a bit he'll be in there to rob him which can be as game-changing as all his flashier skills. Dele got his chance because he was the special fish in a small pond.

If Huddersfield stay up this season the next step surely has to be how you can be smart enough for this level to become your future? You don't have to have some vast academy - Plymouth knocked Man City out of the Youth Cup! You just have to accept that by being smaller you can give lads better attention, be more flexible in bringing them through and offer recruits a genuine chance of a future in professional football. If I had a son keen to make it in the game I'd be thrilled for him if Man City came knocking, but I'd try and persuade him to look for a smaller club where there'd be no danger of being lost amidst a mountain of talent.

[Lord Snooty]

Been a while since we posted owt on this thread. Just like to mention a lad we've mentioned before, Kian Harratt. He's been prolific in the juniors, but has been out with a long term injury. Well he's just come on as sub in his first game back for the u23s and scored with his first touch to put our reserves 4-1 up against Shrewsbury.
Seems like a good prospect.

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Finished 5-1. Reece Brown, Koroma (2), Harratt and Duhaney.

[Lord Snooty]

Aaron Rowe makes his comeback today for the reserves against Crawley, after a long injury lay off.