Southampton F.C. Academy

I seem to remember this being discussed before but I don't think that is true... There are 12 match reports from games this season here: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/ReservesIndex/, they stopped in March which is basically a game every 2-3 weeks, taking into account the winter where the youth squad have a break (and games were rained/snowed off) I think that is pretty reasonable. Some people have correctly mentioned that it is difficult for players to step up from youth/reserves to League 1/Championship, to be fair if any of us had a brilliant solution then we would probably be working for a football club and not writing about it on the internet.

 

Well I agree that the situation is not ideal in regards to the reserve leagues and the lack of games arranged for the Development squad. I would have thought the ideal conclusion would be to send players, who could be pushing for the first team, on loan at a decent level to gain experience but even that wasn't an option utilized with the exception of Ryan Doble who didn't set League 2 alight. Although, some other youngsters (and Tommy Forecast) went on loan, but none of these were competing at a level anywhere near first team or even professional standard. I presume, although hope not, that the use of the loan market (or lack of) reflects on the quality of the development squad, NA's opinion of these players and of their progression.

 

Ryan Doble scored 1 goal in 3 games at Stockport, and was also sent off but from what I heard when he did play he looked promising

At Oxford, he was restricted to 10mins off the bench here and there, ebfore injury stopped his loan spell early

 

Trouble is there is not many clubs anywhere that has an equivalent under 21 squad Arsenal, Man u, Liverpool, Man city and Aston villa are a few that do, I can't think of any others maybe Newcastle. Those lads need regular football to develop their skills it would appear they are not going to get that until we enter the Premier league. Although I do not know if he will enter them even then into a reserve team league. The alternative is to loan them out to other clubs as we have been doing.

 

I think one of the fundamental ideas behind the development sqaud was to have them playing the same style as the 1st team to enable a smoother intergration if called upon. The loan market is good for the competitive aspect, but they won't be playing the style Adkins requires.

If I was harsh I would say the U21 squad has been some what neglected this season and focus made on the 1st team, but to be fair only a few players were outside the 1st team, but too old for U18. I think with the amount of players offered professional terms that the U21s will step up more, but you still have the conundrum of finding opponents

 

I really hope we can step up the amount of games the Development Squad plays because we have a strong Academy and First Team but lack anyway to bridge the gap between first team and Academy and it is very rare that a player is able to make the jump without any development against Professional level teams. I feel the fringe players of Championship and League 1 teams would be ideal opponents for our Development Squad, although it is all very well discussing it but much harder to actually achieve it. I hope that, now we have a solid and stable first team other areas of the squad can now be developed.

 

Ours isn't strictly U21. Puncheon played in it when he was sulking and I'm pretty sure Bart, Dickson and Richardson have all played in it as a run-out after injuries. It is mostly U21 because its rare for FL senior squads to be much bigger than they need to be.

The "under 21" tag actually means very little. We just need more reserve games against challenging opposition.

 

The idea on letting the lads go out on loan is more to do with giving them 1st team experience and to develop a bit more on the skill front. Most players will play better when they have good standard players around them. Doble may have only scored one out of three games but how many opportunities did he have? How many were actually crafted chances, I would say not too many?
So I don't read too much into the Lonee's exploits in the lower leagues, as it only gives a marginal idea how the are progressing.