Future of the Academy..

[pedigreeblue]

Picking up from another thread about Alex Gibson. -

Are not the days of relying on our academy to produce first team players over. We can now afford to buy the best players in a World market, the odds of producing a player through our junior and youth system to equal the talent available World wide must be very slim. I know we have to have a certain number of home grown players but in the long term how is this going to work.
When we start competing in the Champions league we will be able to buy the very best , the likes of Messi and Villa, how many clubs produce players of that level on a regular basis, and when i say produce i mean from grass roots level.

 

[RuncornBlue]

I think the idea would be that someone of the same calibre as Messi would be produced from our acadamy. It would mean that the club could run a business without having to pay over the odds for players like we are now. Once you get the club and acadamy status worldwide, then the best young talent will come to you.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

We should be looking (and able) to attract far better young players than we do and the Academy should be about getting them prepared for the first team, as the best academies do.

Too many just hope for sink-or-swim.