Pughie
Well-Known Member
LoveCity said:brass neck said:Looking forward to the day we can produce local kids like that and they will be taken seriously with them being British and full of flair! Call me old fashioned but if we sign a 15 year old, I'd prefer him to be British. If real can produce them, we should be able to!
This may happen in the not too distant future with our Grade 1 academy facilities (first in Britain) and high quality coaching staff. We nearly got what you're talking about with two lads before the takeover - Johnson and Ireland (not sure I'd call what SWP had "flair") - and if not for physical (Johnson) or mental (Ireland) problems these two could have turned out to be special players. Imagine what we'll be able to do with our expanded scouting network searching the British Isles for kids, who will then come into one of the best academy facility's the world has ever seen.
This this and only this.
I dont want to claim at being itk, but know a fair bit about the academy on the inside. There are youngsters coming through at the moment who are very technically gifted.
When you look at who we have produced under Cassell SWP, Nedum and Richards they're more athletes than footballers. Whereas when you look at Adam Drury, Alex Henshall, Kieran Kennedy, Luke Coulson, George Evans, Jordi Hiwula and Devante Cole they all have good physical attributes but they can also play a very attractive game, and this is only the first year of our new set-up.
The current Under 16's are a very very good team, they have foreign players such as Marcos Lopes and Gabriel Almeida, but they also have players like Dominic McHale who is very gifted and a local lad, so we are producing them as we speak.