Torquay United Fans Forum

:goodpost:

[quote=MellowYellow post_id=203321 time=1491868847 user_id=22826]
[i][b]There was a time when non-league football use to be filled with butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, and those who had talent always got through - 'Cream rises to the top'. Now the it is full of kids who have gone through the EPPP funded academy system, but haven’t quite made it. The nature of football its not about absolutes. In swimming or athletics you’re picked on times. If you don’t make the time, you’re not in the swim team. But football is about the whims of coaches/managers and for that matter supporters. It’s a game of opinions.[/b][/i][/quote]
[b]
That's a very good post and right on the money in it's entirety in my opinion and without wanting to bore you to death; until Christmas I was working on a project with just those 16 year olds who had have been dropped from the 'academy system' and sought a way back ~ and yes; the psychological damage to those getting dropped from it at that stage of their lives finishes some forever.[/b]

But then there are those with the mental strength and determination to keep at it and it was just those sort of lads that got placements in over half the twenty strong squad we were working with; with the intention of securing them scholar pro' or [b]PASE[/b] academy placements for the next two seasons.

The levels of football below the National League are liberally sprinkled with such players and even ones who have managed to hang on in there and then still failed to pick up decent paying football employment ~ they are out there ~ and a club like Torquay United should be proficient (like Dagenham are for instance) in monitoring them; bringing them in, farming them out on loan and developing them.

......and you are quite right; the days of the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers are long gone at so many part-time clubs and many of them train in the day time on three days a week and so seek rather mundane but flexible jobs to supplement their earnings such as working in McDonalds, Nandos or cab driving.........the day of the skilled but multi talented schoolteachers and bank working part timers are diminishing with every season too.

The most enlightened clubs ~ such as Boreham Wood ~ employ many of their low earning players within their own development and academy system as coaches; and take not; Boreham Wood (like Torquay) are a full-time squad being paid part-time money in many cases and look where they are in the league. Look where they are as a club and they are now committed (having just opened one new stand) to replacing their grandstand with a length of the pitch two-tier structure with plenty of corporate space, trebling the strength of their floodlights and installing a 'Desso' pitch this summer identical to the one at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.

That is not 'being paid for by Arsenal' as some would have you believe; but the result of good revenue streams largely bolstered by a new ten year agreement for the Gunners to use Meadow Park for their ladies and development teams.
[b]
Boreham Wood 'have a plan' and Torquay United need a plan and the installation of a fit for purpose development system is the first and most important part of this on the playing side and needs to be matched on the ancillary side as soon as possible.[/b]

I agree with Gullscorer, a decent scouting network is the key to discovering talented players to play for Torquay's semi-professional First Team in the Southern League. 'There will be so much financial pressure for success that the Chairman and Directors will want instant results resulting in manager/coach not having the time to work on the youth players and grow them For a part-time club like Torquay it will be much easier to scout someone like a Jamie Vardy released by Sheffield Wednesday at the age of sixteen, then playing non-league football for Stocksbridge Park Steels, Halifax Town, and Fleetwood Town, the rest is history - 'cream rises to the top'

A youth academy is commendable but often quite ineffective. All academies are underpinned by an invisible stratum of talented also-rans. They are very, very good and work very, very hard. They deserve to be rewarded, but they won’t be, because they are not quite good enough. You’re talking about a lot of kids chasing very, very few options.

One of the problems with the academy system is that its ethos, basically, is to throw enough shit against the wall and hope that some of it sticks. They will take in 30 or 40 kids at eight, knowing full well that the chances of any of them becoming footballers is pretty unlikely. The trouble is, those kids who come in at eight -wannabe Ronaldos and Messi's - think they already are footballers. If he is released at eight he still had time to recover. At 16 he might have sunk into a depression for the rest of his life. The shedding of people at 16 has always been football’s hidden secret.

There was a time when non-league football use to be filled with butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, and those who had talent always got through - 'Cream rises to the top'. Now the it is full of kids who have gone through the EPPP funded academy system, but haven’t quite made it. The nature of football its not about absolutes. In swimming or athletics you’re picked on times. If you don’t make the time, you’re not in the swim team. But football is about the whims of coaches/managers and for that matter supporters. It’s a game of opinions.

More important for us over the next few (five?) years is that the club should have a decent scouting network, to discover mature talented players which other clubs will have overlooked or rejected. Many of the Gulls more important signings over the years have been from among such players, not just from the south west, but from the midlands, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the West Indies (Rodney Jack, Effin Williams, Lee Sharpe, Bobby Olejnik, Eunan O'Kane, etc.) If FA rules permit, some positive publicity for the Gulls in these places could prompt such players to contact the club. An effective way to build up a decent squad comparatively easily and cheaply.

Players don't get 'poached' they get offered better opportunities requisite to their ability and as it is the player who is all important when you are a parent; that has to be uppermost in your mind.

This type of operation will not be able to secure anyone on contractual terms such as the EPPP funded academy system does, so players will have the freedom to leave and chance their arm elsewhere.

Fair enough, but this is wholly to do with TUCST with TUFC branding which Geoff Harrop (not unreasonably) asked for in return for providing the kit. The parents are paying for the training so it costs the club nothing and the training will be as little as 1 hour per week. It is a long, long way off from an Academy, although from little acorns etc.

One major hurdle is that most of the better players in age groups U10-U14 have already been snapped up by Exeter Academy (obviously), Plymouth Academy, Saints South West, Chelsea Soccer Foundation (Colin Lee) etc and I can't see any of them being tempted back by what I have read.

However the U6s & U7s seem well supported and could form the foundation of something worthwhile in the long run but the club needs to be very proactive in stopping the better kids being poached.

A positive for G.I. ?? :)

TUFC & TUCST take first steps towards new Academy system.

THE first steps have been taken in the ambition to rebuild a fully-functioning Academy system at Torquay United Football Club.

Full story via the link...

http://mobile.torquayunited.com//news/article/2016-17/building-a-new-future-3668992.aspx