19 minutes ago, boslemportvale91 said:

Didn't vale have that goalkeeper that went to wolves ? About 6 foot 5 , thinks he's in Scotland nowadays 

I know we had a youth goalkeeper called Calum Ferrie who is currently at Queen's Park.

2 minutes ago, ValiantHan said:

I know we had a youth goalkeeper called Calum Ferrie who is currently at Queen's Park.

Exclusive: Wolves star James Storer could join new English club in January

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James storer is the other one. Gaining some interest after an impressive run at Morton. 6 clean sheets so far 

 

It seems to me the object of bringing youth players through was to play in our 1st team,  only Dipepa delight I mean Baylee Dipepa, has  played any 1st team football in the last 5 years or so, bit of a let down really, Sold some kids on, Ndala left in 2017 not as productive as was hoped.

So Baylee Dipepa doesn't count as a success because after he was sold for millions to a Premier League club and scored for England U19s, he didn't become a first-team regular at Southampton at age 18? Right...

Mo Faal has been playing regular football this season so I guess the West Brom Academy must count him as a massive success story.

11 minutes ago, Wrex said:

So Baylee Dipepa doesn't count as a success because after he was sold for millions to a Premier League club and scored for England U19s, he didn't become a first-team regular at Southampton at age 18? Right...

Mo Faal has been playing regular football this season so I guess the West Brom Academy must count him as a massive success story.

Who said Dipepa didn't count ? 

23 minutes ago, Wrex said:

So Baylee Dipepa doesn't count as a success because after he was sold for millions to a Premier League club and scored for England U19s, he didn't become a first-team regular at Southampton at age 18? Right...

Mo Faal has been playing regular football this season so I guess the West Brom Academy must count him as a massive success story.

Who said he was sold for 'millions'?

Who said what ?

Who is who?

12 hours ago, boslemportvale91 said:

Didn't vale have that goalkeeper that went to wolves ? About 6 foot 5 , thinks he's in Scotland nowadays 

Man city also signed that young lad a few years back. Herbie James 

Its been a few years but Gibbo is captain at Cambridge now. 

Charlie Raglan plays for Barrow regularly 

Obviously smudge at Tranmere and in addition there’s Callum Ferrie at Queens Park in Scotland too (which may be who you’re on about). Looking at Callum Ferries Wikipedia I’d say he came through out of the same year group as Gibbo and Dan Turner did. Quite a productive year it seems. 

But I dont go along with the comments that the academy is a failure (not yet anyway) but it needs players like McDermott, Plant, Shorrock and Walters (and whoever else is in the pipeline) to make a career for themselves in pro football  (like those names mentioned above that came before them have). Because potentially those young players are only one release away from dropping into non-league.

You can argue that the players who’ve been sold to other clubs are a success in terms of making money for the club, but they are nowhere a success in terms of becoming a player with a career yet. Pretty certain as well that before the Carol regime we got rid of players to better academies but it was never publicised as much.

Didn’t someone like flitcroft or Carol say we wanted something like the Crewe model with the club being about to field academy players in the first and sell them on to make money  or am I imagining that? 

Edited January 30Jan 30 by PV1973

34 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

Didn’t someone like flitcroft or Carol say we wanted something like the Crewe model with the club being about to field academy players in the first and sell them on to make money  or am I imagining that? 

Yeah I think so - which would add up when you consider what our last L1 squad was like and the fact that Will Ryder had direct experience of the Crewe setup. 

 

14 hours ago, mellenium said:

How many of the Academy playing the first team now ??

Zero , so he’s failed 

That’s a pretty crude way of looking at things. Academies provide raw material, which needs managing sympathetically to improve it. The transition from promising youth player to professional footballer can go wrong in many ways.

For what it’s worth, I believe the Lomax/Walters/Shorrock generation had/has a lot of promise, and if that promise is squandered, that is on club management, not the academy

45 minutes ago, Brian said:

That’s a pretty crude way of looking at things. Academies provide raw material, which needs managing sympathetically to improve it. The transition from promising youth player to professional footballer can go wrong in many ways.

For what it’s worth, I believe the Lomax/Walters/Shorrock generation had/has a lot of promise, and if that promise is squandered, that is on club management, not the academy

You’ve also got the variables of new managers coming and going. Footballs a game of opinions and one player rated by the academy and given a pro deal by one manager might not be rated by the next manager. Look at Plant, probably on his way out of here, and lucky that Crosby rates him and took him to Tranmere. The pathway into the first team from the academy is no different now than it has been for 20 years. Academy - 2 year scholarship - first team. It’s still about producing players good to enough to make the step up, them having the right mentality to grasp that chance and they also need an element of  luck too. Luck in the respect that the current first team manager needs a player in their position at that particular moment and sees something in them. 

Edited January 30Jan 30 by PV1973

6 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

You’ve also got the variables of new managers coming and going. Footballs a game of opinions and one player rated by the academy and given a pro deal by one manager might not be rated by the next manager. Look at Plant, probably on his way out of here, and lucky that Crosby rates him and took him to Tranmere. The pathway into the first team from the academy is no different now than it has been for 20 years. Academy - 2 year scholarship - first team. It’s still about producing players good to enough to make the step up, them having the right mentality to grasp that chance and they also need an element of  luck too. Luck in the respect that the current first team manager needs a player in their position at that particular moment and sees something in them. 

Or you could be saddled with a manager who prefers to sign an expensive 29 year old in your position. Managers will always priorities their own signings!

Joel Ndala, Micheal Mills, Freddie Lawrie, James Storer, Herbie James, Baylee Dipepa and McDermott (probably more that I can't remember) were all sold on, so I would think that's a success. Imo. 

2 minutes ago, barny61 said:

Joel Ndala, Micheal Mills, Freddie Lawrie, James Storer, Herbie James, Baylee Dipepa and McDermott (probably more that I can't remember) were all sold on, so I would think that's a success. Imo. 

It is in terms of generating money.