Academy and Youth Policy

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GhostoftheBok
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Academy and Youth Policy

Post by GhostoftheBok » Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:27 pm

I used to be a fairly avid follower of the club's academy system, but when I moved away a few years ago it was no longer feasible to regularly attend youth and reserve games; meaning I have essentially lost track of where we stand in that area. I know we were forced to essentially gut the academy when the full scale of the financial woes hit, but what impact that has had on recruitment, coaching and development I don't know. I am hoping some of you on here will be able to fill me in on how things are going in that area. What efforts, if any, have FV made to pick up the pieces in that area and how has Evatt (who I am told wants to foster a youth development system at the club) changed things? How has the new coaching team settled in?

Our recruitment, some loans and the emergence of Thomason (plus new deal for Brocky) shows that young players and academy grads can get into the team at this level, so how likely are we to produce talent going forward?

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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by The_Gun » Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:05 pm

I am similarly interested in this topic, Ghost, and if there are any forum members who are in the know it would be great to learn where we’re up to.

My suspicion is that due to recent internal shake-ups, and the disruption caused by covid, only people with a direct connection to the club are going to have insight at the moment. I’m expecting announcements before the start of the season, though.

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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by GhostoftheBok » Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:16 pm

Yeah, I was having a think through our years of "failure" with the academy and what struck me is just how many league footballers we have produced. We struggled to get Premier League players out of the academy, but we have produced a lot of players who could do a job at League One level. We have become used, over the years, to not look at the academy when it comes to filling holes in the squad - but that seems to be daft now we are in the lower leagues and I think we could see fans care more about that production line as we see more academy lads get a go. Brockbank, Senior, Darcy, Politic and Alexander all have a shot at being involved in some way next campaign. Which isn't bad as a start. In the past we have been guilty of not giving young talent a fair shake in the first team and then seeing them develop, belatedly, in the lower leagues. We can fix that now as part of Evatt's stated desire to return a local identity to the club. Evatt will clearly play young players and give them every chance - Crellin alone proved that.

We saw how well the fans responded to the players celebrating outside the ground. Image how that would be if we had a few regular first team players who were "one of our own", as they put it.

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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by GhostoftheBok » Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:50 pm

Finlaey Lockett has had surgery on his ACL. You'd think he would have been in contention to be part of Evatt's "3 11s" depth project. Really unfortunate for Wanderers to see two of our brightest young prospects suffer nasty injuries. First Politic and now Lockett. There are the seasons, in League Two and League One, where you are most able to give young lads a chance.

Hopefully he makes a full rcovery.

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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by TANGODANCER » Wed Jun 30, 2021 2:36 pm

Neighbour's lad, one of three, has just been accepted into the Wanderers Academy. Lovely, football mad lad, and I hope he makes it. Go young Luke..!
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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by GhostoftheBok » Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:09 pm

We have appointed Sam Hird as a coach. He will also be reserve team manager. The latter seems like big news.

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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by officer_dibble » Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:12 pm

Note he is 33 and retired - bad injury?

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Re: Academy and Youth Policy

Post by LeverEnd » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:17 pm

officer_dibble wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:12 pm
Note he is 33 and retired - bad injury?
He just said in the interview I read that he moved onto the coaching side mid season. Played 15 games, last in January. Was released as a player at the end of their season. Probably realised he was only going to play non league so jumped at the chance of getting some coaching experience and it's obviously worked out for him. Great job to get at his age and experience.
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