Do we make the most of our development players

[Burtonwoodclaret]

I recognise that we are worlds away from Liverpool FC but I wonder wether we do enough to bring on youngsters as Klopp did yesterday. At one time long ago in our history we didn't buy players we made them, often getting the raw materials from the North East. McNeil has been the one exception for many years.We now have the finest training facility and apparently the best of Sports Science at our disposal. Is thee more that we can do in this area? It must be at least in part about the raw talent at o0ur disposal, but it is also about coaching and making the most of what we can attract to Burnley. Is this side of our operation working to its full potential ?

[claretonthecoast1882]

No we don't. I was amazed that the day after we opened the new training ground all the players at under 23 level didn't become first team ready.

[Chester Perry]

Unless you have the money to hoover up all the talent aged 10 - 16 (Liverpool have done this for years along with the other big clubs) from around the world it takes around 10 to 15 years for an academy to become effective and then it can be taken away from you in an instant when the players are poached at a fixed price as west brom have found out to their cost in the last 18 months (it is shocking how they have been ripped apart by Europe's biggest clubs - posted in the Magic Money Tree thread about this some months ago - I would provide a link but cannot as we no longer have post numbers on threads)

[Dyched]

Nicky Butt made a comment the other day saying if you’re not in and around the first team at 20/21 you never will be. I think that’s true with us. Plenty not good enough

[houseboy]

We don't seem to use them too much but there are several possible reasons for this. Firstly we don't really have much clue as to what they are like or how good or bad they are, I'm sure we would be using 'real' talent if we had it. Secondly we have not, until fairly recently, been a great prospect for youngsters so any that may be good may have only just been starting to show promise. Having said that one of the problems has been the big clubs snap up all the great young talent and then dump them in large quantities, very few make it through the ranks at United or Liverpool. I have always said that if I had a talented son I would sooner he signed for Stanley or Rochdale or similar because he has a far greater chance of breaking through and then he may get noticed by a bigger club. I wouldn't want him to go to United (or similar) unless he was an obvious and great talent. Thirdly we keep coming back to Dyches' team selections and his lack of openess to change. Now none of us know what we have available to us in the development squad so we have to be careful of being too critical but there is an obvious possible problem in that direction. I said POSSIBLE because we can't say for sure but there may be a difficulty for development players if this is the case.

[Holtyclaret]

I think the new training centre set up will reap huge rewards but it will take time and patience, something the modern Clarets fans have little of.

It’s surely about attracting the very young prospects, 8 - 14 years olds and then bringing them on, this will take years rather than overnight.

[boatshed bill]

The Under 23s are unbeaten this season. Surely one or two of them must be a bit handy.

[Jakubclaret]

Unless you have the money to hoover up all the talent aged 10 - 16 (Liverpool have done this for years along with the other big clubs) from around the world it takes around 10 to 15 years for an academy to become effective and then it can be taken away from you in an instant when the players are poached at a fixed price as west brom have found out to their cost in the last 18 months (it is shocking how they have been ripped apart by Europe's biggest clubs - posted in the Magic Money Tree thread about this some months ago - I would provide a link but cannot as we no longer have post numbers on threads)

I agree in part, but I think the trick is getting in there first & spotting the potential early on & tying them into longer deals with watertight contracts making it harder for the bigger clubs to "hoover up"" or if they did they'd have compensate the other club fairly, you'd probably need more scouts & they'd have be worth the salt in terms of spotting promise with a good track record.

[Wokingclaret]

If we get relegated then Barnfield's budget will be cut...………...

[ClaretTony]

If we get relegated then Barnfield's budget will be cut...………...

Does it have a budget?

[ClaretTony]

I posted this yesterday in relation to Liverpool who have spent millions and millions and millions on their academy.

Before anyone thinks we should be doing what they are doing, three years ago we had a seriously under performing category 3 academy. We were fortunate to have that because the manager of the academy all but lost it when we failed the cat 3 audit. Only getting into the Premier League in 2014 rescued it and kept it at cat 3.

We are now trying to recover the academy fully. In 2017 we were able to move it up to cat 2 which has given us a better games programme at under-18 and under-16 level in particular and a games programme we didn't even have at under-23 level. It is progressing, no doubt about that, but at a rate you would expect. There are intentions to go to cat 1 for next season and that will help take us to another level but don't expect a flood of young players coming into the first team any time soon. It takes a hell of a lot of time. Where we are now from the mess inherited in 2017 is an incredible improvement.

[KateR]

it's a long term strategy, were the club essentially thrown in to this strategy or is it really a long term strategic plan to improve the first team through home grown players, don't believe we will really see the benefits for many a year yet in regard to the first unfortunately. However I am convinced it was a very good decision regardless of how and who made it, here I don't mean MG or the board who would have to obviously rubber stamp it.

Some good Blue Sky thinking

[Burtonwoodclaret]

I posted this yesterday in relation to Liverpool who have spent millions and millions and millions on their academy.

Before anyone thinks we should be doing what they are doing, three years ago we had a seriously under performing category 3 academy. We were fortunate to have that because the manager of the academy all but lost it when we failed the cat 3 audit. Only getting into the Premier League in 2014 rescued it and kept it at cat 3.

We are now trying to recover the academy fully. In 2017 we were able to move it up to cat 2 which has given us a better games programme at under-18 and under-16 level in particular and a games programme we didn't even have at under-23 level. It is progressing, no doubt about that, but at a rate you would expect. There are intentions to go to cat 1 for next season and that will help take us to another level but don't expect a flood of young players coming into the first team any time soon. It takes a hell of a lot of time. Where we are now from the mess inherited in 2017 is an incredible improvement.

Thanks Tony for your comprehensive answer to my opening post.

[k90bfc]

I got deleted,for saying,Lets do a Liverpool!

[Chester Perry]

For those who want to do a Liverpool - try and digest this from @MiguelDelaney in the Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 68531.html

[DCWat]

For those who want to do a Liverpool - try and digest this from @MiguelDelaney in the Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 68531.html

Says what we all know - and it’s hard to argue when people say the game isn’t what it was.

[Wokingclaret]

Does it have a budget?

The CEO when he came down to the London Clarets AGM says (if I remember correctly) its about 3 mill to run Barnfield

[boatshed bill]

The CEO when he came down to the London Clarets AGM says its about 3 mill to run Barnfield

So selling one player, Dwight McNeil, would pay for at least 10 years of it?
Bargain.