Saints Academy Thread

And so the summer exodus begins

 

Another gone......

 

Guilty feet have got no rhythm.

 

He's one of the ones already mentioned as leaving on the last page but I'm glad to see he's found a new club. Wish him the best as he really was one of our own.

 

All the best to Will...shame it's to a club that's a joke punch line to an advert

 

https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-06-18/southampton-checkatrade-trophy-201819

Saints Academy back in the Checkatrade Trophy again...the EPL seem happy with the response to last seasons experiment and it does give our youngsters a competitive competition to get involved in.

 

Will we be able to put a youth team together in order to play in the Checkatrade Trophy?
Significant cost reduction process in full swing as we loose 23 out of contract players

 

Releasing players if they don't make it to our senior squad is ok if it is just a case of making room for those from below. That's normal...hope that's the case....and this is a routine clear out. I believe someone said that there was a good crop coming through....hope that's the case. Wait and see, I suppose.

 

I know where you are coming from and optimistically look at this as chance to bring through a better crop of youngsters but loosing such a large number in one summer surely is going to significantly impinge on the success of our academy

 

Not if these players just aren't good enough....though it is very disappointing that nothing has come of such a decent group of youngsters. This could be just normal house-keeping rather than a problem. Hope so...be interesting to see how the Academy performs in future seasons.

P.s. please don't look on this as me being happy...more I'm willing to wait and see.

 

I don’t see your logic DL. The success of the academy is not about match results it is about bringing Premier Meague players through to the first team. If 23 of those players don’t look like they will be good enough, the release them. If 3 look good enough or potentially, keep them.

I have absolutely no issue with this at all, unless someone tells me that one of those 23 is our next Gareth Bale.

 

Yeah I don't see the issue, are most of the 23 early 20s now? If so then it is time to move on if they aren't going to break through here. Who cares if the academy wins/loses/draws? Results are irrelevant at that level, all about development.

 

Confidence does help with development though.

But most of these players are only still here because we reduced the squad size when we started loaning out players, rather than them having a chance of breaking through. As I said earlier little was actually the only out of contract u23 I wanted to keep.

 

The older lads who haven't made their mark I don't have a problem with as they are better off getting proper football in the lower leagues but the academy still has its fixtures to forfeit to given the lads an opportunity to play competitive football. Last season we had very young lads pitting their wits agains much older teams and getting beaten all to often. The back end of the season our academy teams began to hold their own a bit
Talented young lads won't learn a lot if they are playing in a team that is being out muscled and soundly beaten week in week out.
Hopefully we will see a new bunch of hopefuls coming into the academy to bolster the numbers

 

Or Kevin Phillips...

 

Fair enough. We think differently. I believe it benefits them playing against stronger players.

 

Yep. That’s a good point. We released him because he wasn’t good enough to be a full back!!!