The official EDS and academy thread 2012/13

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Great post. The foreigners alone in the EDS have cost more than a top championship side and the home grown lads are all England & Ireland internationals.

The thing that bothers me about foreign imports is will we benefit from them in the future? Take Pozo for example, say he makes it and then exceeds. Real Madrid are just going to come calling and he will be off before we see him in his peak. Same with Marcos Lopes, if Barca or Madrid want him he will go. All Iberian players do.

we'll make a profit, goes on the books, shows we've developed a lad and entices more players to come and hopefully means we get to keep future European stars.

You sound like an Arsenal fan.

believe me if I could I'd be raiding the Sheikh's bank account and giving Txiki and Mancini £200m to spend this summer :).

The fact is like Fabregas if these lads want to go home we can't stop them but if we make a nice profit it can go to a new player and it will show we're developing these lads well if Barca/Real want them back so it would entice other lads to come and develop here and with our on field success would hopefully mean many of them would want to stay and we'd reap the rewards.

 

[LoveCity]

If our kids like Pozo and Lopes ever reach a level where they are wanted by Real Madrid and Barcelona, then we'll be in a great situation, hardly something to be worried about but rather something to be proud of. Being the richest club in the world there is a good chance we may be able to keep them (unless they become hostile and want out but not every player is like that), if not then so be it because you have to assume our academy will be producing similarly high quality players by then and not ALL of them will want to go to Real or Barca (and Real or Barca won't want ALL of them).

Anyway I echo the current concerns. The U18 and U21 situations need sorting, don't really know enough about the younger levels but there seem to be some very positive signs from the younger groups and that post from RAWK circa December about our youth system was very exciting. Very interested to see how the group that won the U14 National Tournament develop and how many get pro contracts.

 

[WNRH]

But we are not a developing club, we are supposed to be challenging with Real and Barca each season and how would we do that if we sell them our best prospects before they reach their peak?

Then we would have to get the cheque book out and replace them with £30m players.

Of course it's all hypothetical but if Pozo makes it with us i would bet a large amount he will be back in Madrid by the time he is 23 with them reaping the benefits.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

But we are not a developing club, we are supposed to be challenging with Real and Barca each season and how would we do that if we sell them our best prospects before they reach their peak?

Then we would have to get the cheque book out and replace them with £30m players.

Of course it's all hypothetical but if Pozo makes it with us i would bet a large amount he will be back in Madrid by the time he is 23 with them reaping the benefits.

well let's hope we get something out of him in the years in between, like Fabregas you have to give a bit to get a lot, if Pozo ends up wanting to go home then so be it, he's lad out of hundreds who could potentially make it if our system ends up up to scratch.

Compared to Real and Barca we are most certainly a developing club, we've a long way to go.

 

[decmancity]

From what I can gather our youth teams below u18/EDS level are all ok. Of course they can always be better but we have some real problems at u18/EDS level.

As has been said they are stocked with players who are "new Vieira" and so on and at a huge cost.

They either aren't settling/interested/coached properly. Andy Welsh who was the old manager at that level I am sure was said to be pretty useless so he has sacked and Mancini moved down a close friend and one of the first team coaches.

I think this summer we will see Lombardo move back up the first team and Txiki will put his own people in place at youth level. Txiki should be here for the foreseeable future so it makes sense that he deals with the youth teams now and no matter who the manager is there is a steady progression of players coming through the ranks and playing for the first team seamlessly.

 

[Neville Kneville]

But we are not a developing club, we are supposed to be challenging with Real and Barca each season and how would we do that if we sell them our best prospects before they reach their peak?

Then we would have to get the cheque book out and replace them with £30m players.

Of course it's all hypothetical but if Pozo makes it with us i would bet a large amount he will be back in Madrid by the time he is 23 with them reaping the benefits.

EXACTLY.

 

[woahmark]

But we are not a developing club, we are supposed to be challenging with Real and Barca each season and how would we do that if we sell them our best prospects before they reach their peak?

Then we would have to get the cheque book out and replace them with £30m players.

Of course it's all hypothetical but if Pozo makes it with us i would bet a large amount he will be back in Madrid by the time he is 23 with them reaping the benefits.

Malaga seem to be doing quite well - if they can continue doing well, I think Pozo would move their instead of Real. Malaga is his birthplace, not Madrid.

 

[unexpected item]

Micah, Guidetti and Maicon starting for U21's v Notlob

 

[mgreenz97]

Down 1-0 to Bolton after 35 minutes.
Our EDS side has been embarrassing recently.

 

[sam663]

Why haven't we fired Lombardo yet? I'm just sitting here thinking .