Academy Pathway to the First Team

[johnmcfcagain]

Ah, the naivety of the young. Bless. Even on the most basic level, for everything not just football, the future for the young is determined by the old. It is only when the young get old they get their chance to screw it up for the next generation.

Serves you right for giving a smug smart arsed reply.....

 

[johnmcfcagain]

Jamesha - agreed that youngsters may not always take their chance, but that should not deny them a second, third or more opportunity especially when first team regulars are guilty of serial disappointing displays. Also, how can we be sure that extra places on the subs bench will mean more picks for academy players when he had a whole dead rubber game v Marseilles to give youth a chance?

 

[Damanino]

Very few will make it at City.

Take the top 10 talent City have between 16 and 19 year of age, and maybe 1 will be part of first team squad in 5 years. And maybe it will be be a GK sub, or 4th choice CB not a guaranteed starter.

Thats it.

Maffeo the next Zabaleta, Rekik future partner of Kompany, Denis Suarez taking over from David Silva...
these were imo hyped much more at their time than Doyle, Palmer, Delap now.

They hardly ever got first team chances and will be no different to current crop of youngsters.

Foden is the exception rather than the rule.


Next time we see some youngsters actually play in starting line up is either the Birmingham game in Fa Cup or some summer friendlies or next year's Carabao Cup early rounds in September.

 

[johnmcfcagain]

Time for bed for an old fart like me, but just one thought. There seems a consensus so far that youth will not be given a hugely significant chance under Pep - unless they have the freakishly natural talent of Phil Foden. So how good a coach is Pep?

 

[Blu3m00n91]

Pep couldn’t be arsed bringing youth players on in a nothing champions league game vs Marseille so I wouldn’t hold much hope if your a youngster at city these days

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Time for bed for an old fart like me, but just one thought. There seems a consensus so far that youth will not be given a hugely significant chance under Pep - unless they have the freakishly natural talent of Phil Foden. So how good a coach is Pep?

Don’t rope everyone in your “consensus”.

Everyone knows that the best way to recruit is to develop kids. There’s nothing magic about this. It’s cost-effective to grow your own. But a team/club like City are world elite, playing the best teams in the best competitions with the most at stake. The level that our first teamera are it is the top 0.001% of footballers. The chances of developing one to that level is tiny...much much smaller than most other clubs. Obviously Manseur and the board have invested massively into an academy with the sole intention of producing players, but I don’t think we can be expecting the world class stars we need in our first team to come along very often. I think the academy washes its own face financially though sales anyway.

The problem that these players in the EDS have is that there is a massive gulf in class between U18 or U23 level and the top of the premier league. Look at Foden: best in a generation but he’s still not adapted fully. The margins are so tight for Pep that he can’t afford passengers.

I’m not giving him a free pass here: I’d have liked to have seen more kids in the champions league dead rubber(s). But I know he would say that his job is on the line with results, and If the kids are good enough he will play them when he can. The domestic cups are coming up again and I expect him to use these to play some kids given the pressures on the senior players.

 

[Cheeky Txiki]

Honestly I believed at the start of Pep's campaign that he was going to be the one who would bring in a lot of youngsters from the academy and other clubs and coach them to be a part of the first team. I always thought good coaching for youngsters along with hard work is much more important then skill. After all, Pep has made Kimmich and Thiago to the players they are today, with thousands of hours on coaching them on the position and role they have for the team. I was really amazed to see a Bundesliga 2 player in Kimmich so quickly amaze me at Bayern.

I don't know if I'm right or wrong but it seems Foden made the cut to the first team on his sheer talent rather than him being formally coached for his postion. When I see Foden being stuck all over the pitch to whatever hole that lineup has on that day, my heart sinks a little.

I do trust Pep in developing him but I have my reservations of Phil playing LW and RW. If Pep, Txiki and Ferran decided that he is the heir to David Silva, how was it not seen that the tempo with which Phil plays is much faster than David? I read that David was mentoring Phil, so how was David not able to teach him when and how to attempt that line breaking pass while acting as a supporter to Kevin? Can he even be taught how to play like David now? Will Phil never be able to play in that position again? I think Phil's case could break a model to how youngsters can be through to the first team, and frankly speaking, I don't like it.

 

[itisrising]

Very few will make it at City.

Take the top 10 talent City have between 16 and 19 year of age, and maybe 1 will be part of first team squad in 5 years. And maybe it will be be a GK sub, or 4th choice CB not a guaranteed starter.

Thats it.

Maffeo the next Zabaleta, Rekik future partner of Kompany, Denis Suarez taking over from David Silva...
these were imo hyped much more at their time than Doyle, Palmer, Delap now.

They hardly ever got first team chances and will be no different to current crop of youngsters.

Foden is the exception rather than the rule.


Next time we see some youngsters actually play in starting line up is either the Birmingham game in Fa Cup or some summer friendlies or next year's Carabao Cup early rounds in September.

Here's my issue, our model seems wholly inefficient.

If we think back to Barcelona under Pep or Unit*d under SAF, they would have world class players all over the pitch but fill out the rest of the squad with young players. Most of these players were not remotely special. Having a smaller squad that's filled out with talented if unspectacular young players has been a successful model for years.

In our case, we set the benchmark ridiculously high because we have an overbloated squad. If we had sold Bernardo this summer and not bought Ake, would there have been a marked difference this season if their places were taken up by Tosin and Palmer? I'd assume probably not. That's saving over 100m right there that can be used to actually sign genuine top players that we're in need of now.

Our lack of faith in young players is subsequently something that is harming the quality of our first team.

 

[the_tevez_wiggle]

Been gutted since before Pep regarding youth. We have bought some shite instead of playing youth. I thought pep was going to change that, but nope. I know people will say braaf & sancho were 'trouble makers' but what about doyle, tosin, maffeo, Angelino, lopes, diaz etc. All good lads all love the club.
Doyle could easily play out last 20 mins, he's good enough and adds passion.
Tosin we keep a Spanish kid who doesn't want to be here over a lad who captained all our youth levels and dreams of captaining us.
Maffeo how many rbs did we buy to back up zaba and walker. Danilo couldn't of played more than 10 games a season.
Angelino delph, zinchenko, laporte all got games instead of this kid, never given a decent chance.
The rest could of easily picked up game time and sold for more cash due to experience. Look at some of the shite the rags and Chelsea have sold. We have a premium academy now with genuine talents like mbete, thb, mcatee, braaf, palmer, Delap and nmecha. They are just below 1st team, below them are another 7-9 absolute gems.
We now have no excuses not to rest up players, doyle can do what gundo can. Palmer can see games out to rest up kdb. Delap can see out games and cause mayhem when we are up a few goals. Hopefully they get time over Xmas but I'm not confident.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Been gutted since before Pep regarding youth. We have bought some shite instead of playing youth. I thought pep was going to change that, but nope. I know people will say braaf & sancho were 'trouble makers' but what about doyle, tosin, maffeo, Angelino, lopes, diaz etc. All good lads all love the club.
Doyle could easily play out last 20 mins, he's good enough and adds passion.
Tosin we keep a Spanish kid who doesn't want to be here over a lad who captained all our youth levels and dreams of captaining us.
Maffeo how many rbs did we buy to back up zaba and walker. Danilo couldn't of played more than 10 games a season.
Angelino delph, zinchenko, laporte all got games instead of this kid, never given a decent chance.
The rest could of easily picked up game time and sold for more cash due to experience. Look at some of the shite the rags and Chelsea have sold. We have a premium academy now with genuine talents like mbete, thb, mcatee, braaf, palmer, Delap and nmecha. They are just below 1st team, below them are another 7-9 absolute gems.
We now have no excuses not to rest up players, doyle can do what gundo can. Palmer can see games out to rest up kdb. Delap can see out games and cause mayhem when we are up a few goals. Hopefully they get time over Xmas but I'm not confident.

Don't go holding your breath, we normally play kids in the cups, we may get one or two on against Birmingham but it'll be a full team v Arse next week.