I see young Callum, who was released by the BFC youth setup in April, won MOTM in Bury's 1st team yesterday. 16 years old, and now a regular starter in a Division 1 side, but Burnley deemed him not good enough for a youth team contract.

What a cock up.

Much Appreciated Jason.

Bit premature to call it a cock up. Fair play to him, as it's an impressive feat at his age, but there's no suggestion yet to say he'll be a Premier League quality player. Does seem strange to realise him at that stage but all clubs make mistakes from time to time. Good luck to him though.

Absolutely ludicrous decision to release him. A lot of those with knowledge at the club thought he had something and should have been kept. Even if there was doubt, the cost of a two year scholarship would have hardly broken the bank would it? But those then in charge of the youth department didn't offer him anything and he's already playing first team football.

It may have been a stupid decision to release him, but I suspect had we not he wouldn't be playing regular football in League 1.

Rick_Muller wrote:It may have been a stupid decision to release him, but I suspect had we not he wouldn't be playing regular football in League 1.

He wouldn't have been playing first team football, admittedly, and we know Bury are playing him to push him on in the hope they can get some money for him.

Does dyche ever get a say in those types of decisions or is it solely down to the youth manager to offer contracts to who sees as good enough?
Odd that people down there thought he had something about him and that at 16 he is MOM at a league 1 club.
While on the subject two other young lads released at a younger age from burnley have both appeared either in the starting 11 or on the bench for Accrington recently. Jack Little 17 goalkeeper been on the bench and seen an article about him involved with england, Ross Sykes 17 centre half played a few games already offered pro terms and being scouted by bigger clubs. Not good enough at Burnley tho

You can't take them all on!! There will always be ones that are missed. I am sure it's the same at every club!

Dodobdobodobo wrote:You can't take them all on!! There will always be ones that are missed. I am sure it's the same at every club!

Man U didnt keep on Pogba/Keane

City with Mee/Trippier

Thats just 2 recent clubs - there will always be players that slip through.... At a club like Burnley though we'll always notice it more.

I'd be more annoyed as a united fan paying so much for Pogba and celebrating it ...... After letting him go a few years earlier.

It's a little bit different than the likes of Pogba or even Keane/Mee. Styles is a 16-year-old. Had we signed him we'd have been committing only to two years as a scholar, not paying a pro wage. From what I'm told the then head people in youth went against the recommendations.

bumba asked about Dyche being involved - it is very unlikely when we are talking about offering kids a scholarship. He might get involved with players getting pro deals but that hasn't been the case recently with a lot who were brought in to the dev squad.

bfccrazy wrote:Man U didnt keep on Pogba/Keane

City with Mee/Trippier

Thats just 2 recent clubs - there will always be players that slip through.... At a club like Burnley though we'll always notice it more.

I'd be more annoyed as a united fan paying so much for Pogba and celebrating it ...... After letting him go a few years earlier.

City SOLD Mee
City SOLD Trippier
United SOLD Keane
Pogba LEFT United, who wanted to keep him, but he wanted 1st team football.

Burnley RELEASED Styles for free..... all the others went through to Pro Level, becauuse Clubs don’t release players they think they can either turn into a pro for their 1st team, or sell for a fee. Just the latest in a long line of mistakes, courtesy of the BFC Youth team management.

"Just the latest in a long line of mistakes...."

Yeah, it's really f***ed us up, hasn't it?

We released Pugh also.
SC did tell him he would a championship player but could not wait the 3 years before he would be ready.

I would rather clubs let all young players leave for free if they are going for first team football.

Too many young lads knocking about without a first team game for their clubs by 23.

ElectroClaret wrote:"Just the latest in a long line of mistakes...."

Yeah, it's really f***ed us up, hasn't it?

There's a real lack of understanding here. We had a lad at 15/16 who has been with the club through the young teams. He was very highly rated and I don't think anyone expected him not to be offered a 2 year scholarship to go into the youth team from 2016 to 2018. It may well be that the kid doesn't make it, but the cost of keeping him for two years is a negligible amount. When people at the club, those who know what they are talking about, are stunned at the decision then we have clearly, at the time, got it wrong. Thankfully the decision maker is no longer with us.

According to ESPN City and United are keeping tabs on him and Jordan Bedeau (17) who is also playing in Bury's first team

He's playing for Bury not Barcelona! Perhaps they didn't like his attitude or he had a "pushy" parent. It may not just be his skill.

Burnley Ace wrote:He's playing for Bury not Barcelona! Perhaps they didn't like his attitude or he had a "pushy" parent. It may not just be his skill.

Or perhaps the one with the idiot made yet another big mistake

ClaretTony wrote:Or perhaps the one with the idiot made yet another big mistake

Perhaps, but then he could just as easily be the next John Coffe (?).

Burnley Ace wrote:Perhaps, but then he could just as easily be the next John Coffe (?).

Who Burnley sold to Man Utd? Callum Styles was let go for nothing.

Perhaps we should buy him back?

Burnley Ace wrote:He's playing for Bury not Barcelona! Perhaps they didn't like his attitude or he had a "pushy" parent. It may not just be his skill.

Not many 16 year olds playing first team football for anybody, be it Bury, or Burnley Utd. If he'd had an attitude problem or pushy parent, you'd have thought they may have released him in one of his previous 8 years at the club?

I think it's blatantly obvious we've let a good young player leave. If he can preform with consistency at that level considering his age you'd have to say his future looks very bright. To put it into context some of our older youth team players have struggled when playing in the division below.

Get a feeling we will regret this, but as said above at least we are no longer employing the one responsible.

We have made errors in our youth development in the past that our new improved system will erradicate. We still have issues getting out development squad right.We are giving players long term loans when we need extra squad players.Hopefully Dan Ageyi will get on as a sub rather than loan him out again

Presumably when he was released from Burnley he had a choice of clubs to sign for but chose Bury?

Bordeauxclaret wrote:Presumably when he was released from Burnley he had a choice of clubs to sign for but chose Bury?

As he is a 16 year old, probably still living with his parents, he might of preferred to stay living there rather than in 'digs' in an unknown town/city? Likely he was also still at School sitting GCSE's etc.

It makes little difference how much we improve our youth development until we have some kind of committment to actually giving them first team experience. I can't see that happening while we are either struggling to survive in the EPL or going for promotion to it.
O'Neill is now an example of stalled progress, bright prospect hardly playing any competitive football.

boatshed bill wrote:It makes little difference how much we improve our youth development until we have some kind of committment to actually giving them first team experience. I can't see that happening while we are either struggling to survive in the EPL or going for promotion to it.
O'Neill is now an example of stalled progress, bright prospect hardly playing any competitive football.

Hopefully the signing of Barton frees up O'Neill to go out on loan

Bordeauxclaret wrote:Presumably when he was released from Burnley he had a choice of clubs to sign for but chose Bury?

Yes he had 3 or 4 interested clubs including Sheff Weds but the Bury Academy Manager is his former coach at Burnley as an U1O/11/12

KRBFC wrote:Hopefully the signing of Barton frees up O'Neill to go out on loan

Yes, better than nothing I suppose.
We've sent lots of players out on loan this season, it would be interesting to know if these loans have achieved what the club and players hoped for.

Bordeauxclaret wrote:Presumably when he was released from Burnley he had a choice of clubs to sign for but chose Bury?

I think Bury moved in very quickly but that's because the staff involved there had worked with him at Burnley.

A comment and a question....

why is it we need to see youngsters measured against premier league standards? The point is to develop and generate fees as a return on investment - that could be PL, Championship, or League 1 really

If SD doesn't have a say, then to whom is the Youth set-up reporting? Do we have a Director of Football?

NRC wrote:A comment and a question....

why is it we need to see youngsters measured against premier league standards? The point is to develop and generate fees as a return on investment - that could be PL, Championship, or League 1 really

If SD doesn't have a say, then to whom is the Youth set-up reporting? Do we have a Director of Football?

The youth department rightly doesn't report to the manager. It has, since 2004, reported to the chief exec. None of Steve Cotterill, Owen Coyle, Brian Laws or Sean Dyche had any direct responsibility for the youth department but Eddie Howe was given authority to change things. He, rightly or wrongly, and wrongly in my personal view, decided to remove people like Martin Dobson & Vince Overson and replace them with Jason Blake. It wasn't Howe's fault, rather those who gave him the authority to change it.

http://www.espnfc.com/soccer-transfers/ ... man-united" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CT- Who was it that gave Eddie Howe the authority to change things with the youth department? Was it a single person or was it the board as a whole?

BurnleyPaul wrote:CT- Who was it that gave Eddie Howe the authority to change things with the youth department? Was it a single person or was it the board as a whole?

That's the question. I don't know the answer but the chief exec at the time was Paul Fletcher and he worked very closely with Brendan Flood. Personally, I don't look too far past those two.

I wonder if the fact that Brassy is in charge of Bury at the moment has anything to do with two young kids gettng a chance. As far as I am aware he has spent some considerable working in youth developemnet as well as being a No2 to a couple of managers.
Bury had lost over ten on the spin I think when Brassy took over, not alot to lose if he thinks they are good enough.

ClaretTony wrote:That's the question. I don't know the answer but the chief exec at the time was Paul Fletcher and he worked very closely with Brendan Flood. Personally, I don't look too far past those two.

Surely by this point though any influence Brendan had was minimal?

BurnleyPaul wrote:Surely by this point though any influence Brendan had was minimal?

Not at that time, he and Fletcher worked closely together and he was doing all the transfers/negotiations.

Had no idea Brass was in charge at Bury.

Go on Brassy!

Fair enough CT- thanks for the info.

ClaretTony wrote:The youth department rightly doesn't report to the manager. It has, since 2004, reported to the chief exec. None of Steve Cotterill, Owen Coyle, Brian Laws or Sean Dyche had any direct responsibility for the youth department but Eddie Howe was given authority to change things. He, rightly or wrongly, and wrongly in my personal view, decided to remove people like Martin Dobson & Vince Overson and replace them with Jason Blake. It wasn't Howe's fault, rather those who gave him the authority to change it.

With respect to our owners they don't know more about talented footballers than you or I. Surely a Director of Football is a better reporting line?

Eurgh......... just seen this. Shame he took down all those successful development areas and scouting networks, that had gone as far as bradford, hudderfield and leeds, and Preston, Manchester and Liverpool. Useless.

https://www.periscope.tv/ThePFSA/1jMJgAMzoqWKL?t=64" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Sofa Shifter wrote: and now a regular starter in a Division 1 side, but Burnley deemed him not good enough for a youth team contract.

He's started two games (regular starter?), hardly a good enough big stick to beat the club with just yet.

Latest on Callum.... Bury's player of the month, surprisingly released by Burnley, best talent he'd ever coached....

http://mobile.buryfc.co.uk//news/articl ... 11304.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"surprisingly released " by a topflight club and doing well at a desperate club destined for another rapid return to the Fourth level - time will tell good luck to him.

Player of month when he played half the games?

Not sure how many of you have been in involved with CoE set ups.
The jump from youth football to first team is massive at 18, to do it at any level at 16 is a huge step.
To release a kid a kid at 16 who makes his debut in football league a few months later is a huge **** up.

Lowbankclaret wrote:Not sure how many of you have been in involved with CoE set ups.
The jump from youth football to first team is massive at 18, to do it at any level at 16 is a huge step.
To release a kid a kid at 16 who makes his debut in football league a few months later is a huge **** up.

Huge is absolutely right. At least, despite reaching rock bottom, our youth set up is starting to be run properly again.

Yep. A player good enough for professional league football at the age of 16 shouldn't be getting voluntarily released by any club - from Barcelona to Bridport.

This is obviously a massive mistake.

ralph wrote:"surprisingly released " by a topflight club and doing well at a desperate club destined for another rapid return to the Fourth level - time will tell good luck to him.

That's right, and no where near a huge f**k up yet.

I notice that he was taken off at half time in Bury's (small squad) last game when they were getting a drubbing from a decent team.

Maybe he's not quite ready yet for us to get all emotional.

It's still brilliant for the lad though.