Would be odd move for ten when Tierney has started playing well. They also have a couple other that can play LB and Cedric.
They are looking for a decent back up to Tierney.....looking at someone from Palace as well apparently. FWIW I think Bertie will sign a new contract here, but Arsenal are on the lookout.
They want him as back up because he is free, reliable and English. Makes sense for them (although would be high wages for back up). It doesn't make sense for him however - won't earn much more and would trade his final year or two of playing regularly for sitting on the bench. I suspect he will use Arsenal as a bargaining tool to get the extra year he wants at Saints. I'd imagine ball is still in our court
The Arsenal news may be rubbish leaked by Bertrand’s agent to get the extra year or whatever it is they want.
Disagree. Loads of academy players are signed from other clubs. In my view (and that of the clubs, by the look of it), if they've spent time in our academy, in our system and way of doing things, they're an academy product. If we go down the route of they were signed from other clubs, we'd have little "true" academy products. They cant all be with us from the age of 8!
That’s a stretch SF4L Stephen’s was signed at the old apprentice age, that’s full time, not academy development. I think Valery the same. For me the old “school boy forms” signing a player at 14 is the indication of academy player. Signing a 16 year old from another club is not the true development of a player in the academy sense. It’s picking the cream from the smaller clubs (or those rejected from higher clubs), who have invested in the development.
See post above. Signing a 16 year old is full time. If it’s from another club, we have poached them if from a lower club, or given them a second chance if rejected from a bigger club. For example, didn’t we pay Plymouth for Stephens?
Players like Lallana, who joined the club at 12 can be classified as academy products but Stephens joined when he was 17 and went out on loan. Valery was 16 when he joined. You don't go through the academy if you join at that age.
I get that totally, but surely signing a 16 year old (regardless of fee), to spend 3/4 years in our academy as U18s/U23s ... how does that not class as an academy product? Yeah the big part of their academy development was done by another club, but essentially finished off here in our academy.
So what are the U18s and U23s? They are a part of the academy structure ... Stephens spent 3 and a half years in that structure before going out on loan. Valery 2 years before breaking into the first team.
I wouldn't classify the U23's as part of our academy structure, or anyone's for that matter. The purpose of U23's is to lessen the gap between U18's and the first team. And to give first team players who are rusty/coming back from injury game time. It effectively replaced the "Reserves" league.
Disagree personally. If you're signing players at 16+ then they're not an academy product in my view. Edit - though I did tell a United fan outside Old Trafford that Valery was after he scored that goal
A player turns pro at 18, sometimes 17. All I’m saying is that to declare an excellent academy, it needs to be about scouting players, young (under 16), coaching them for a couple of years and then deciding to offer them professional terms, which says you think they are good enough to be developed further. Does Diallo get called an academy product in a years time? Was Schneiderlin an Academy product from Southampton? Not for me, he was a Strasbourg academy player we signed. Here is another example: would you say Wayne Rooney is a product of United’s academy? In the true sense of academy.