Huddersfield Scrapping their Academy (1 Viewer)

Nick · Sep 16, 2017

Training Ground Guru | Huddersfield to scrap all age groups below U18s

Quite interesting, going from a cat 2 to a cat 4. They mention it costs a million a year to run and that only 1 person has gone on to play in the Premier League from it....Jon Stead.

Since my first year as Chairman in 2009, we have taken great pride in always doing things our own way. The need to find ways of being competitive is more pertinent than ever following the Club’s promotion to the Premier League. We must find ways of being competitive against our peers.

Madness that they are scrapping like that to save £1m a year when other teams in the Premier League will be paying more than that to kids who will never ever play for the first team.

I_Saw_Shaw_Score · Sep 16, 2017

Nick said:
Training Ground Guru | Huddersfield to scrap all age groups below U18s

Quite interesting, going from a cat 2 to a cat 4. They mention it costs a million a year to run and that only 1 person has gone on to play in the Premier League from it....Jon Stead.

Madness that they are scrapping like that to save £1m a year when other teams in the Premier League will be paying more than that to kids who will never ever play for the first team.

I guess easier & cheaper to pick up a decent 16 year old from a club like Cov for £20k.

Sad state of affairs really, the producing club should be rewarded better by ten fold than what they currently are!

PorkyCovvy · Sep 16, 2017

I have a working relationship with then Commercial Director at Huddersfield Town. Last season they were all for developing the academy and were looking at models from Liverpool, Manchester United, etc in order to shape their training complex which is homely but a little rough around the edges. Surprised by this as they seem committed to the local community and for the sake of a million and the potential gains should they sell a decent prospect in today's market I would have thought they would have kept it, or at least and wait on the decision until their league status for next year is comfirmed.

Nick · Sep 16, 2017

You would think now they are in the Premier League that £1m would be a drop in the ocean for them now though?

clint van damme · Sep 16, 2017

Sums up everything that's wrong with football today if you ask me.

PorkyCovvy · Sep 16, 2017

clint van damme said:
Sums up everything that's wrong with football today if you ask me.

Don't be so dramatic!

clint van damme · Sep 16, 2017

PorkyCovvy said:
Don't be so dramatic!

Why? Surely they have a duty to the community?
Getting picked up by your local academy and receiving professional coaching is the goal of a lot for youngsters.
That's now been denied to those in the local area.
If it's only produced one first team player maybe they should look at the way they're running it rather than scrapping it.
Good job no one at City made a call like this, we'd have been in deep shit without our academy graduates.

chiefdave · Sep 16, 2017

Why bother with an academy when you can pick up lower league academy players for peanuts. In the long term though the smaller clubs will decide the increasingly smaller fees they are getting with players being taken earlier and earlier aren't worth it and will close their academies, then what? Is the whole English setup going to rely on places like the Strachen Football Foundation?

PorkyCovvy · Sep 16, 2017

chiefdave said:
Why bother with an academy when you can pick up lower league academy players for peanuts. In the long term though the smaller clubs will decide the increasingly smaller fees they are getting with players being taken earlier and earlier aren't worth it and will close their academies, then what? Is the whole English setup going to rely on places like the Strachen Football Foundation?

IF, and that's in capitals intentionally, the English lower leagues became a breading ground of young, British talent who can get exposed to first team football at an earlier age, similar in mound to Deli Ali, then it could work. But that model would assume that the top teams stay at the top and the bottom lot remain as feeders.

skybluegod · Sep 16, 2017

clint van damme said:
Why? Surely they have a duty to the community?
Getting picked up by your local academy and receiving professional coaching is the goal of a lot for youngsters.
That's now been denied to those in the local area.
If it's only produced one first team player maybe they should look at the way they're running it rather than scrapping it.
Good job no one at City made a call like this, we'd have been in deep shit without our academy graduates.

Think the chairman made the point that because they are in an area where there are a fair number of category one academies then they find it hard attracting talent to their academy because the kids they want have better offers.

skybluegod · Sep 16, 2017

Nick said:
You would think now they are in the Premier League that £1m would be a drop in the ocean for them now though?

It is probably a drop in the ocean for the big clubs not clubs like Huddersfield, who have to invest every penny into first team players a duties.
Look at Burnley, their season in the premier league 3 years ago they didn't buy manu players but invested in stadium and training ground. Were relegated and then bounced straight back, and then invested half in the club again and half in players and then this year it has mostly gone on players.

Same goes for Newcastle, Their academy isn't particularly strong because they can't afford to invest much more, because every penny must to to the first team because fees are so high now.

clint van damme · Sep 16, 2017

skybluegod said:
Think the chairman made the point that because they are in an area where there are a fair number of category one academies then they find it hard attracting talent to their academy because the kids they want have better offers.

fair point.

tisza · Sep 17, 2017

Nick said:
You would think now they are in the Premier League that £1m would be a drop in the ocean for them now though?

very much this.
We're told promotion to premiership is worth 170m without parachute payments and 290m if you stay up for one year.
Surely protecting your academy for the next 5 years is worth 5m of that money particularly if you're highly likely to go down again.
That said how many perpetual lower half premier league sides produce any academy players?

M&B Stand · Sep 18, 2017

If you've got a good scouting network around local junior and Sunday league its not that big a deal.
The under 18's is when it matters.

Let kids play with their mates and the cream will still come to the top.

skybluegod · Sep 18, 2017

tisza said:
very much this.
We're told promotion to premiership is worth 170m without parachute payments and 290m if you stay up for one year.
Surely protecting your academy for the next 5 years is worth 5m of that money particularly if you're highly likely to go down again.
That said how many perpetual lower half premier league sides produce any academy players?

Don't think an academy team is worth it for many premier league or higher end Championship sides now.
Managers aren't given enough time these days to risk trying to bring youth players through. They need success and they need it now, otherwise, they lose their jobs, so teams are going to want to spend as much money as possible on proven players already.
Huddersfield spent 40 million in transfer alone, add onto that wages for the year, and contract extensions with players on higher contracts, that the £70 million plus a bit more probably gone already. Their system wasn't producing anything, so what was the point for them, they just see at as another cost.

Marty · Sep 19, 2017

skybluegod said:
Think the chairman made the point that because they are in an area where there are a fair number of category one academies then they find it hard attracting talent to their academy because the kids they want have better offers.

Take out the 2 Manchester clubs aren't they now the only prem team in that region? I'd personally spend the money and bring the academy up to stratch, better facilities and coaches, and try to compete in the area between the big Manc clubs and the likes of the Sheffield clubs and Leeds.

skybluegod · Sep 19, 2017

Marty said:
Take out the 2 Manchester clubs aren't they now the only prem team in that region? I'd personally spend the money and bring the academy up to stratch, better facilities and coaches, and try to compete in the area between the big Manc clubs and the likes of the Sheffield clubs and Leeds.

Liverpool and Everton, who both have huge reaches in terms of academy scouting and pull, a lot of cov kids picked up by them even.
Then you still have derby who have a category one academy, while it's not super close, it still has massive resources, and then still Leeds, and Nottingham( also category one) as well.
Then you have a load of smaller teams, both Sheffield clubs as you say, but then Barnsley, Bradford, Preston, Doncaster. All within a reasonable distance for nicking talent. It's a massive fight for players.

But then again I can see your point as The Coventry academy has the same problem, we have to compete, with Wolves, Villa, Birmingham, West Brom, derby and Nottingham forest. As well as all the big boys.
Coventry had a situation a couple years back, where they hired an academy coach who had left villa, he came here, for a couple months, one day didn't turn up to work, had been sent by Villa, to scout out academy players, and ended up taking I think it was 5 kids with him to Villa's acadmey.
It's a brutal environment.

SlowerThanPlatt · Sep 19, 2017

skybluegod said:
Liverpool and Everton, who both have huge reaches in terms of academy scouting and pull, a lot of cov kids picked up by them even.
Then you still have derby who have a category one academy, while it's not super close, it still has massive resources, and then still Leeds, and Nottingham( also category one) as well.
Then you have a load of smaller teams, both Sheffield clubs as you say, but then Barnsley, Bradford, Preston, Doncaster. All within a reasonable distance for nicking talent. It's a massive fight for players.

But then again I can see your point as The Coventry academy has the same problem, we have to compete, with Wolves, Villa, Birmingham, West Brom, derby and Nottingham forest. As well as all the big boys.
Coventry had a situation a couple years back, where they hired an academy coach who had left villa, he came here, for a couple months, one day didn't turn up to work, had been sent by Villa, to scout out academy players, and ended up taking I think it was 5 kids with him to Villa's acadmey.
It's a brutal environment.

Leeds and Forest are Category 2

skybluegod · Sep 19, 2017

SlowerThanPlatt said:
Leeds and Forest are Category 2

Perhaps the wording is bad, but I didn't say Leeds Was category 1? I only put the brackets on forest? but my memory was poor! And even they aren't! It was just that they were working towards it last time I checked. My bad

Covstu · Sep 19, 2017

It's risky but equally the kids need to be playing with the first team more rather than against each other which is what most academies are missing. Clubs like ours where our kids probably have more exposure than most due to lack of options and we have seen some good success. Clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool etc have lots of talent but get very little exposure to first team and therefore little first team conversation rates. Maybe Huddersfield will mix the youngsters with the first team and improve their lot as a result?

Huddersfield Scrapping their Academy (1 Viewer)

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